Current adventures in pop music: Rehash and carefully edit your adolescence in fifteen minutes.

Some people I know filled in an online questionnaire asking them to name fifteen albums they like in fifteen minutes. The rules work as follows:

Don't take too long to think about it. Only one album per artist. Fifteen albums you've heard that will always stick with you. List the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes!

As a means of distracting myself I attempted this task, but after relying on my memory for the first ten I could think of, I started to cheat, flicking through various mp3 playlists to try and jog my memory of various things I should include. Quickly, the whole integrity of the process was thrown out the door as I realised I was being selective about what to include, lest I be accused of not having the correct contextually relevant nostalia-based picks. So I tried to do it again, believing I'd be truer to the process with a clean slate. I still cheated, but felt slightly better about the whole thing. For the sake of showcasing how I spent way too much time thinking about this, I'll share the list with you now (in alphabetical order, not of preference, of course):

Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
Blur - 13
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
Michael Jackson – Dangerous
Muse – Origin of Symmetry
Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile
Pulp – This Is Hardcore
Radiohead – OK Computer
Regurgitator – Unit
Roxette – Tourism: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places
Super Furry Animals – Guerilla
Supergrass – Supergrass
U2 – Achtung Baby
Various Artists – Teen Idols*
Weezer – Weezer (The Blue Album)

*Note: This probably doesn't count, as its not by one artist, but if it's something that theoretically "will always stick with [me]", then this definitely counts, if only because of the amount of times I listened to it as a child. This was a cassette my grandfather owned, and played in his car on almost constant repeat. As a result, I can easily recall the lyrics to "Workin' For The Man" by Roy Oribison. 

As these things go, there are always things you want to include, or wish you did due to time constraints, or a sudden change in taste. In this particular instance, these were:

The B52s – Time Capsule: Songs For A Future Generation
Faith No More – Album of The Year
Garbage – Version 2.0
Negativland - Dispepsi
(The) Smashing Pumpkins – Adore

...

Feel free to judge.  This won't change much, but you can nonetheless.

Beaten to various punches.

There's nothing like being reminded of the fact that at the end of the day you're not only not particularly unique, but over a long enough period of time you're destined for cliche. Doing this on the internet is a bonus, purely because of the volume of other mundane actions that sits alongside yours.

Case in point; writing a blog post that is apologetic about not writing blog posts. Enter artist Cory Archangel. His most recent project is a blog entirely devoted to reposting blog entries written by other people apologising for not posting on their blogs. You can find it here. It's very clever, and makes me feel just a little bit silly.

This was brought to my attenion by Samuel Bruce, who is currently curating Electro_Online, a selection of net-based art works and curios. It's all tied up in this festival I've been working on for the last few years. Perhaps you've heard of it?

Potentially unsubstantiated claims.

So a while ago I started a blog. 

It was great too; I would write things on here, and the ten or so people who read it would, well, read it. We all had a real nice thing going on there. Then I became one of those people who didn't blog all that much, and when I did, I would apologise to those ten or so people about how I write in the blog, and how, this time, things would be really different.

And so it went.

Recently, I've thought somewhat about how exactly this situation arose, and have put it down to two main contributing factors:

1. A tendency to make notes about things I wanted to blog about, but would never get around to it, thus creating a strange feeedback loop in my brain where I couldn't continue with new things until I had posted something about the other fifty things I had yet to post about.
   
2. A combination of laziness, and how facebook is a really good enabler for laziness*. Think about it, why write about things when you can just post a link to something, and then people can click on some java code that says they find the thing you like just as mildly amusing as you do. Genius.

The conclusion I have come to is that I in order to break this strange self-imposed cycle I would simply start writing again and see what happens. Seems like a logical enough idea to me anyway. So we'll see how it goes. I'm not making any promises, and I'm morbidly aware that I don't need anything else to distract me right now, but at the very least it could be entertaining for us all to watch. And that sure is something.

* This may technically count as three factors, but we can all just let this slide for now, yes?

Thoughts on James.

I was very sad about the passing of JG Ballard last month. Being someone who likes to observe contemporary entertainment culture a little too closely for their own good, Ballard's work was always on my radar; if for no other reason than the spread of its influence is so omnious throughout literary and popular culture. This said, of all his work I've only ever read Crash, and even then I only read it whilst researching my installation Medium Level Animated Violence from 2006. The work presented recorded footage from the videogame Burnout 3: Takedown, which has the objective of driving cars really fast and then crashing into things as best as possible. I took footage from the game, and edited all the driving bits out. As such, it seemed that reading a novel about a chap who enjoyed such things with real cars would be a good point of reference. So to the point is Ballard's writing that the key quote that I would center the catalogue essay [and by proxy the work] appeared within the first fifty pages:

"Sitting in the darkness on the floor cushions we watched the silent impacts flicker on the wall above our heads. The repeated sequences of crashing cars first calmed and then aroused me. Crusing alone on the motorway under the yellow glare of the sodium lights, I thought of myself at the controls of these imapcting vehicles."
- JG Ballard, Crash.

Despite the fact that he was talking about a couple of guys sitting on the floor watching Super 8 films, the allegory between this simuacral experience and playing videogames is not difficult to make. Sure, one can make an argument about the user holding a controller that allows them take make active decisions about the paths they take within a virtual landscape, but the fact remains that throughout this experience you are stationary, and your choices are illusionary - entirely dependent on the size of the playing field bequested to you by programmers.

"The future would be boring," says Jim Rossingol, quoting Ballard, in his column on Offworld, "Our modern age sits at the point at which the march of rationalism and reason has peaked, divorcing us from our early extremism and our innate primitivism, and giving us a bland culture of calm consumer choices and deadened emotions."

So we strap on Wii Remotes and play tennis, because we're never actually going to take up the real thing. We stand in arcades and stare at small monitors that emulate sniper rifles, dreaming of pink pixels like the guy Jake Gyllenhall plays in the film based on the book by the guy who never actually got to shoot anyone either (at least in the film anyway). And it's all harmless fun, because its entertainment.

It's quite the paradoxical situation. Whilst its perceivable that this sort of similacral living would only be conducive to more boredom, Rossingol via Ballard posits that if we're going to engage in this sort of thing it should be more realistic, more visceral:

That is not to say that videogames need to be more sensationalist, more vulgar, or more crass, but that they need not fear being more transgressive, or more expressive... They need not to shy away from their darker depictions of our fantasies, or become embarrassed when people point out how they dwell on violence and excitement. This, the safe excursion to the gladiatorial arena, is what games do best.
- Jim Rossingol, Ragdoll Metaphysics: JG Ballard, Boredom, And The Violent Promise Of Videogames.

The conclusion reached is an obvious one for armchair psychiatrists; that we should follow our obsessions, the things that fascinate and bewilder us. In his writing, Ballard made no short work of putting his obsessions to paper, taking a good long stare at the world and what his quirks said about it. If you draw a line from this, it can almost be used as an excuse to commit any act of creativity. Which, in a currently phase of feeling trapped within linear strands of thinking, is a very timely thing to be reminded of.

With the passing of James Graham Ballard, we lose another cultural antagonist. For a few seconds, the world is a little more boring because of it.

Quality control.

No, I can't believe I wrote a post about a puzzle either.

Let's never speak of it again.

Getting off the gear.

Chain Factor is my current excuse for taking too long to get anything done. I've dallied in things like this before, but I'm pretty sure this one is special. I'm told you can get it on your iPhone for free if you so desire.

You don't have anything better to do, right?

Camera Obscura, Easter Monday, and you (and me I guess).

In 2008 myself and Michael Prior of Tape Projects curated Electroprojections, an annual showcase of local and international video art that screens as part of Electrofringe, an annual electronic festival of electronic arts that is part of This Is Not Art...

And so it goes.

This Monday, a selection of works from the 2008 Electroprojections program will be shown at Serial Space in Chippendale heralding the return of Camera Obscura after a two year absence. Camera Obscura was the premiere monthly source of strange moments in screen culture, which met its end with the demise of Lanfranchi's Memorial Discotheque. And now it's back at a new home; huzzah!

After the Electroprojections program and a small break, Victor Sjöström’s classic (at least I keep hearing it's a classic, I've never actually seen it) silent horror film from 1921 “The Phantom Carriage”, will be screened. Filling in the silence will be a new soundtrack recorded by dark wave noise wunderkinds KTL, which features Stephen O’Malley of SUNN O))) and Peter ‘Pita’ Rehberg [for those playing at home].

If this sounds like a good idea to you, you should head to Serial Space, which is located at 33 Wellington Street, Chippendale (which is here) by 7pm. If you would like more information on Camera Obscura, you can go to their facebook thing or email cameraobscura.syd@gmail.com.

Current adventures in pop music: "Silence like the wind overtakes me..."

Dan Deacon is coming back to Australia, in support of his new album Bromst and that's pretty exciting. It's actually kind of amazing now that I think about it. Ever since being introduced to the video for his song The Crystal Cat (directed by Jimmy Joe Roche) by a friend of mine last year, I've been a tremendous fan of Deacon's warped electronics and squirrel vocal stylings. Should you be able to find a retailer in Sydney that stocks it, his album Spiderman of The Rings comes highly recommended as it is the ideal soundtrack for most things.

Whilst his recent live shows have incorporated many numbers of musicians, this run of Australian shows will apparently see Dan Deacon playing solo. As the above image by Mick Ø and this video show, this will not necessarily be a bad thing.

If you would like to hear Get Older from Dan Deacon's new album Bromst, you can do so here.
If you would like to download almost all of Dan Deacon's back catalogue, you can do that here.
If you would like to hear or download an interview with Dan Deacon on The Sound of Yound America, where he discusses things like his history in composition and the evolution of his performance style, well, you might want to do that here.

Australia Day resolution, 2009.

Try to keep in touch more. Just a little.

If you ever needed proof the next four years might be better than the last eight...

" "I think we're going to be able to hang on to one of these [a Blackberry]. My working assumption, and this is not new, is that anything I write on an email could end up being on CNN... So I make sure to think before I press 'send'." "

- Future president of the United States, and friend of Spiderman, Barrack Obama, showing that he's a thinker.

This year, do it for the economy.

"I'm in Australia. I think it's important to help out, you know, the economy out here, everywhere in the world... And what's wrong with a doing a little shopping?... It's New Year's. I need a New Year's dress."

Thanks Paris.
No really, that's just swell of you.

Research - 10th of November, 2008.

"... actually get a band, [a] band's much better than ipods. But then you gotta pay em, and they never want to tour, and you always get one guy in the band that you just wish was never in the band."

- Dan Deacon, on technology.

Michel Gondry (possibly) posts image, excitement ensues.

The business of being an Artist.

This Tuesday at Serial Space in Chippendale I have a new performance / installation opening as part of The business of being an Artist, curated by Katherine Byrne. The exhibition is an investigation by several artists of the effects of one's day-job on their artistic practice. Surprisingly this isn't as doom and gloom as it sounds, but obviously the enjoyment factor of an artist's particular line of paid employment has a lot of bearing on such matters. Having spent much of my time since beginning university as member of the retail sector my work, Productive Time Off (don't tell me it's a means to an end) reflects the inherent joys that go with it. With cardboard.

The opening kicks off around 6 (as these things) go. The performance will start at some point soon after, and conclude after I run out of cardboard. This may take a while, so being punctual may not be neccessary in this instance.

***

The Business of being an Artist

Featuring Artists: Ben Byrne, Rene Christen, Cameron Foster, Daniel Green,
Emily Morandini, William Noble, Beth Norling, Alex White

Curated by: Katherine Byrne

Opening: Tuesday 11th November, 2008 6-8pm
Exhibition: 12th-22nd November, 2008
Open: Wednesday - Saturday 12-6pm

Serial Space
33 Wellington St Chippendale

The portrait of the Artist, starving, frozen in his garret, suffering for his art is one of the more well known clichés but for all the dramatisations of the artist's plight, the reality is that the vast majority of practicing artists must balance their artistic life with a paid one. This often means electing to either live in relative comfort with full time paid work and struggle to find the time and energy to keep up their artistic practice. Or, to juggle various part time jobs to create the flexibility and time their art life demands leaving instead a struggle at times to make ends meet. The Business of being an Artist explores this dilemma and the different solutions artists adopt to manage these conflicting areas of their lives.

For this exhibition eight artists have been asked to create works which form the beginning of an exploration of the effects, both bad and good, that this daily balancing act has on their artistic practices. Each work is a self-reflexive exploration of the compromises these artists make each day to allow them to make the art they feel driven to create.

Spongebob is dying.

Over the last month a new installation of mine has been residing in the Vitrine space at Platform in Melbourne. The work, Spongebob is dying, explores a hypothetical reality where Spongebob Squarepants lies forgotten, ailing and on life-support in a run-down hospital ward. He is occasionally visitor a lone fan, who spends his time talking with Spongebob about adventures that have long passed in the recesses of time.

If for some reason you happen to be in Melbourne this afternoon between 3pm and 7pm, you can come and observe me visiting Spongebob in the final day of the installation. At a further point I'll go into more about the work, but for the immediate you can read the following description for more information:

***

Daniel Green
Spongebob is dying.
2008
Performance-based installation

Platform - Vitrine
October 1st - October 30th, 2008

After a long and illustrious career, Spongebob Squarepants lies forgotten and ailing in palliative care. Th e only person willing to hear the tales of his adventures long gone is a fan who keeps vigil by his bedside. Through a television, the pairrevisit various heroics and escapades from Spongebob’s days on Bikini Bottom. His life-support system depends precariously on battery power and as the batteries fade the video begins to glitch. Despite all eff orts to sustain him by his
off sider, once the batteries lose power Spongebob is lost.

Spongebob is dying is a performance-based installation exploring the dialogue between ourselves, the things we use to entertain us, and the unintended plot developments that can result. Spongebob is dying will be performed on the 1st, 10th, 28th, 29th and 30th of October from 3pm.

Daniel Green is a Sydney based artist, performer, curator and terrible musician. He has Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from the University of Western Sydney.

Wild animals.

It's comforting to know that you can be sitting in an airport departure lounge with hundreds of annoyed strangers, your flight having been delayed for an hour, and somehow - somewhere - there will be a live feed of a handler stroking a domesticated formerly wild feline broadcast across the nation on morning television.

Maybe Neil Postman has a point after all, if for no other reason than for being able to quote Henry David Thoreau: ' "We are eager to tunnel under the Atlanatic and bring the old world some weeks nearer to the new; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad flapping American ear will be that Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough." '*

[*Corrections on punctuation will be accepted.]

Research - 1st of October, 2008.

[From the instruction manual of an Ikea 'Minnen' bed]

Important!
Children can become trapped between the bed and the wall. To avoid risk of serious injury the distance between the bed and the wall must always be less than 65 mm or more than 230 mm.

Today's new discovery.

It's about money.*

Who would've thought it?

[* yes yes it's about other things too.]

Notes from a small island (that's being used for a large contemporary arts festival) - 17/08/08

"... pineapple ice cream! There's pineapple ice cream! There's pineapple ice cream! There's pineapple ice cream! There's pineapple ice cream! There's pineapple ice cream! There's pineapple ice cream! There's pineapple ice cream! There's pineapple ice cream! And vanilla ice cream! And vanilla ice cream! And vanilla ice cream! And vanilla ice cream!..."

- Unknown small boy.

It's all been done before.

Currently exhibiting at Firstdraft in Surry Hills is It's all been done before, an exhibition curated by myself. I asked a group of people - comprised of artists, writers, curators and musicians - to create a cover version of their favourite artwork, the only restriction being that the work that results retains the title of the original piece.

The exhibition reveals insightful and in some cases surprising turns as the artists showcase those who have inspired them in their work. Conversely, in my role as curator, I reveal the work of those who interest me and the people who inspire and shape my own practice. It's all one great big love in, but hopefully a self-aware and self-reflexive love in at that.

The exhibition runs until Saturday the 16th of August, with Firstdraft being open from 12 - 6pm, Wednesday to Saturday. Should you feel that way inclined, there are talks with some of the artists and myself happening on Saturday the 16th at 4:30pm. Come along, it'll be swell.

Alternatively, if you like your artistic discourse to be of the louder variety you should come by the gallery this Friday [the 15th] from 6:30pm. There you will find The day the music died, an evening of reinterpretations of pop songs from some of Sydney's [and one of Melbourne's] greatest sonic misfits. As always quality is not guaranteed, but at least it will be entertaining. Full spiel follows shortly.

***

It's all been done before.

Ben Byrne
Anastasia Freeman
June Green
Michelle Jamieson
Peter Newman
Sean Rafferty
Soda_Jerk

Curated by Daniel Green.

Opening 6th August, 6 – 8pm

Exhibition runs 6th – 16th August, 2008

Performance: The day the music died.
Friday 15th August, 6:30pm:

Peter Blamey
Samuel Bruce
Ben Byrne
Daniel Green and
The End of Everything
Thomas Knox Arnold
Peter Newman
Kusum Normoyle
Alex White and
Monika Brooks

Artist and Curator Talks: 16th August, 4.30pm

Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 12 - 6pm

>>

Curation is an everyday activity that when put on display can be considered one of the greater forms of vanity available to us as both artists and people. Through the act of curation, Daniel Green is displaying a collection of works by people who have influenced and inspired him. These works are in turn, covers of earlier works which have inspired the people who have inspired Green.

In a way, It’s all been done before is a grand scale exercise in honouring our source material. It is about doing more than just playing favourites; rather, asking why they are favourites in the first place and finding ways of re-presenting them to encourage others to consider what inspires them, what their ‘favourites’ are and explore the impact it has had in their lives.

It’s all been done before explores this challenging subject through a wide variety of mediums and artists, both those taking part in creating the covers and those being covered in the hope that you can consider what your sources are.