Wow, chatty all of a sudden aren't we? Even got me out of my quiet mode.
>From: Lloyd Dunn <elevenATblue.weeg.uiowa.edu>
>
>the name 'droplift' suggests an act of charity, saying WE are the wealthy
>ones, and it's those poor deprived people who only know and consume
>mainstream culture who are the impoverished ones who need our help. ...
As others have said, excellent take on this. Sometimes it can be
really empowering just to start telling the world that things aren't what
they seem to just to see what they do. Running around and yelling "I'M
RICH! I'M RICH!" while excitedly showing people your empty wallet will
confuse a lot of people, and many will shrug it off... but not all. Many
will go tell their officemates what just happened and they'll start
thinking about this event... maybe even thinking about how their wallets
aren't empty... and maybe that means they're not rich? hmmmm.
>this is positively (and beautifully, i might add) dadaist in its
>arrogance. ...
It was actually the word "beauty" there that reminded me of something
a while back. At one time I had never seen the phrase "Perform acts of
random kindness and senseless beauty" before -- perhaps you haven't either
-- though since then I've seen it in some hippy-ish contexts and so on. The
first time I saw it was about 8 or 9 years ago on some color-copied pages
with some artwork that somebody had left at a store. I picked up one of the
pages and was initially struck with the thought of how expensive that must
have been to do... color copies were pretty pricey then, when you could
find a place to do them at all. I kept thinking about this all day... what
was this person thinking? All those color copies must have cost a fortune!
WHY DID THEY DO THAT?
Seeing this inspired me to start a project which continued for many
years. I thought about the idea of installing objects permanently in
outdoor environments where people would see them frequently but couldn't
remove them; a little like grafitti, but make it an actual object (people
are familiar with grafitti, and no matter what it says people will just
associate it with "vandalism"). After mulling it over for days, I picked
the object: shoes. Cheap, durable, and easily bolted to the poles that
street parking signs are on. Eventually I started putting simple messages
on them; just quick, Jenny-Holzer-like phrases to think about... "Trust the
next person you see", "TV is bad", "How do you want to be pigeonholed
today?", etc. Since each pair of shoes has a right and left, I made the
messages for each the opposite of the other ("Distrust the next person you
see", "TV is good"...). I still haven't "stopped" exactly even if I haven't
done new ones for quite a while. Luckily, the shoes have surprising
longevity. Although I rarely tell anyone that I'm the one doing them, I've
been lucky enough to hear people talk about them any there have been quite
a few for which it's been very inspiring.
All because somebody left a few color photocopies around.
So you see, sometimes a strange, dada-esque act like Droplift could
potentially have significant consequences... :-)
Some shoe pics: http://evolution-control.com/pranks/Shoes/
>From: Steev Hise <steevATdetritus.net>
>
>more than what? There ain't no free lunch, man. I think if
>you have a good disc with quality work on it people will
>like it, and it'll get out there. period. ...
Well, yes... and, no. As we all now, the world's system of music
distribution is a complex tangle of favoritism, payola, and million-dollar
advertising campaigns. There are many people that presume that a CD that
isn't on a major label must not be good, right? It's extra-hard when you're
dealing with an illegal style of music like plunderphonics/plagiarhythm. I
would like to think that truly good music would always naturally bubble up
to the top of people's picks, but it often doesn't happen that way.
>I hate to say it
>but I doubt that on an anyone-that-pays-$50 comp the quality
>will be consistent enough for the project to really be
>great. ... I might be wrong, but I think there needs to be some
>curation, some quality control.
I would agree, although the declaration/expectation of what "should"
end up on it will shape the contributors who apply. I was recently asked to
be part of another pay-to-play comp which was obviously going to be a bunch
of MTV-wannabes trying to get their "foot in the door". I couldn't figure
out for the life of me why they thought ECC stuff would fit in this context
(and no, it wasn't just spam; they truly wanted ECC on it). I knew that
being on this would likely just be a waste of $125, although it would get
ECC sounds in the ears of those who wouldn't be familiar with such stuff.
More to the point, I've heard many compilations done like that, and
with no theme or maybe just a loose "uh, we want electronicky stuff" it
almost always falls flat. When you have a theme or a curator/compiler who
has the power to refuse tracks and act as that filter, it makes it coherent
and listenable. Luckily not-Droplift-II does have a reasonably specific
theme, and I think it'll probably work out okay as a result. But without a
narrow theme like that in the future, yeah, it could suck.
>From: Chris Ball <ball2000ATball2000.com>
>
>Swap UPC symbols!
>Why didn't I think of that! It's genius! It's so obvious once you look
>at it! It's so fucking elegant!
This is a classic scam, btw... make stickers of a UPC symbol for
something nice 'n' cheap, slap it on whatever expensive thing you want to
by, see if the cashier notices. Works best at high traffic stores where
you're buying a lot of items, like grocery stores or discount department
stores.
>... Shopping to
>save the planet!
Erk. That's really a phrase I didn't need to hear.
- Mark / ECC
--
eccATpobox.com The Evolution Control
Committee
>>> WWWeb: http://evolution-control.com (updated 12/13/2K) <<<
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