April 06, 2005

A walk in Asheville with Negativland

During my two days in Asheville, I drove out and visited Mark Hosler of Negativland. It was the most beautiful weather of the tour, and we headed out for a walk up his winding road and had an interesting conversation. He had just come back from Iowa for an amazing conference on collage, and shared some about that, and I shared about my work.

It was interesting because even though he and Negativland has been doing work/play for almost 30 years, there's part of him that feels like there job is done. Back in the day, mashups were cutting edge, now they're mainstream, and it seems like part of what compels Negativland to make art is the legal and cultural edge. He even said that sometimes he doesn't really like Creative Commons because the licenses are somehow legalizing art in a way that takes some of the fun out of it.

It seems like everyone has their role to play. Lessig and Creative Commons are doing the legal, official thing, and Negativland and Downhill Battle and Illegal Art are doing their thing. We need both the cutting edge civil disobedience and the mainstream organizations in order to push forward. Walking and talking through the fresh air and sunshine of Asheville with this veteran building of free culture, I wondered about my own role, and what it would become.

In some ways, I've felt that this tour has been slightly underwhelming. For all the pre-tour hype, mostly I've been driving, showing up at places, doing my show, having a few conversations and getting some folks to sign my mailing list, and then moving on. With all the technical difficulties, like the lack of comments on this blog, I've been disappointed and questioning whether this is making a difference.

But maybe a few years from now, I'll look back on these five weeks in a different way. Maybe the relationships that I'm creating in towns like Jackson, MS and Nashville, TN will evolve to become important building blocks in the evolution of the free culture space. I have to remind myself that so many people have yet to even hear about these issues, and that I am paving new ground. Of course it's going to be hard, of course I'm going to get a little sick along the way, and feel a little down sometimes.

That's the cost of what it's going to take to create breakthrough's and make it to other side, where the software will work, the systems are in place, and the people will participate. Anyway, I may have just gotten a little cheesy, but it feels to good to write a little bit.

Posted by Colin at 09:11 PM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2005

A great day in Mississippi

Read the most full account to date of a full day of the tour. Overall, I was happily surprised to find allies in a small christian ministry college near Jackson, MS. After finally leaving the hotel at around 11:30 AM, I was feeling a little lonely on my rainy drive through Natchez. After pulling into the Natchez Trace Highway historic site, I read about the history of the trail, which had first been used by the Native Americans, and then later build to connect to Nashville when it was the last frontier. I ended up talking with this older couple from Ontario Canada, who invited me to join them in their RV for lunch. Good conversation. Good food. The rest of the drive on the beautiful highway was beautiful, first listening to Ron Sexmith, then to a podcast of On the Media. At one point, I took a left and ended up a little lost. I stopped into a country store to ask for directions, and wanted to stay and hang out with the locals. It was definitely a different culture, but of course I just said thanks and went on my way. By the time I got into Jackson, I had finally connected with Mixon and Imhotep, my two local contacts. I drove out to the christian ministry school and met Imhotep and his roommate Devon, both very cool people who are living the word in the best sense. It was refreshing to talk with them and agree about how so much of our mainstream culture is over-commercialized and void of spiritual meaning. I was also happy to find common ground with regard to how many religious leaders, out of touch with the spirit of Jesus, focus on judging homosexuals and others, when Jesus is all about love and acceptance. At 6pm, we went to Pentacostal service. Even though I had actually been to a Pentacostal service once before during college, I was a little nervous for the talking in tongues, etc. When we arrived, Imhotep said that he liked to sit in the front, and so I went with him. Within the first minute, he and Devon were both going full out dancing in the front. Instead of feeling weird and uncomfortable, I found myself clapping along and freeing the white booty a little with the crowd. I realized that if I was at a party, I would have contributed my full energy, and I might as well do the same wherever I am. I didn't understand some of what was happening, but since this trip to the South is as much about listening as it is about sharing myself and my work, I opened myself up to the experience. The preacher gave a long sermon that at times was not that cool, talking about submitting to the authority of the church / head / man (and not thinking for yourself), but overall it was a positive experience. Afterwards Devon, Imhotep, and I went to McAllister's Deli and had some great food and talk. In the two of them, I may have found one of the things I was looking for on this trip: Christian leaders who are concerned by the concentration of power in this country and want to help build a dynamic and diverse media network for the future. After that, I met up with Amanda Mixon, who has a great new truck (like most other folks here in Mississippi), and we stopped by her parents house, where I'm sleeping tonight, and went off to a chill gay bar and had a Bud. Overall, the first adventurous great day of my trip. It's great to be with such different, interesting people. Hope tomorrow is just as cool.

Posted by Colin at 09:18 PM

March 15, 2005

SXSW: The Rise of Remix Culture

After a successful performance on Sunday, I entered into the 2005 SXSW Interactive vibe. Among those in the audience were local Austin folks, SXSW participants, and Robin from the Copyright Society at Belmont college in Nashville, where I'll be on Wednesday March 30th. Check out the tour schedule for more dates.

This year has been a little colder than last year, but the panels and participants are still geeky cool, and there's a great fun crew of talented people committed to building good tools and an improved democracy. I was particularly excited to hear about Downhill Battle's not yet public software project that's gonna bring internet tv to the masses. Last night's big party was fun, although not as great as last year (flickr pics). Also, below are some notes from a panel relevant to the free culture tour. Hope all is well.

Notes from The Rise of Remix Culture

Sounds like since the Grey Album, the climate has shifted a little, and there's been some interest in
mashups. Commercial opportunities are growing cause big companies "smell money" and want to cash in on the mash up craze.

Different camps of artists. Some: if they get permission and have to deal with legal agreements, the art is lost. Others: The more people that see it / hear it the better.

Examples:
Companies commissioning their own remixes, like "Adult swim" on the cartoon network (they make fun of older products of theirs). "This Place Sucks" remix of Office Space and Superfriends (on ifilm).

Historical fiction mixes real life events with fictional events. Adaptation. Curb your Enthusiasm. White House Press Corps. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction.

Magnatune uses the noncommercial license so that people use music in their film, but then if it becomes a hit and they want to broadcast it, then they'll have to pay.

Mashup software: Logic by eMagic, Live by Ableton, free ProTools by Digidesign, Cool Edit Pro, GarageBand, any program that lets you transpose.

William Gibson's book "Pattern Recognition". Next revenue stream is helping people find the original source.

DJ Reset: djreset.com

Other questions: What would need to happen in order to make the political and television mashups popular and relevant.

Next phase: How to facilitate business models for people?

Posted by Colin at 05:42 PM | Comments (0)