heterogenous theory for the invisible insurrection of a million minds
UPDATE 2015:
Due to the sale of the c8 domain name, all c8.com URLs are now obsolete.
THE NEW DATACIDE WEB ADDRESS IS: https://datacide-magazine.com
A new website is almost better than a new life. Datacide moved back to it´s old domain datacide.c8.com [now obsolete!] with an integration of blog and article archive. So update your bookmarks, leave some comments and read your way through 12 years of texts.
Check out Neil’s review of the conference and party HERE
John Eden has written a review of our recent event, check it HERE
OUT NOW: with 56 pages the biggest datacide so far, it’s full of features and reviews.
Secessionist Outernational: Self-Exile and Poetry, Howard Slater: Convergent Suggestion – on Surrealism and Organisation, JR: Denial Networks – On Crisis and Continuity in the 9/11 Truth Movement, Neil Transpontine: A Loop Da Loop Era – towards an (anti-)history of Rave, CF: Radical Intersections, Controlled Weirdness: You’re Too Young to Remember the Eighties – Dancing in a different time, The Reverend: More than just a Night out – Rave as confrontation, Dan Hekate: All things fall and will be built again, Rafael Castellanos: Visible and invisible fragments of experiences (About Bogotrax festival), Hans-Christian Psaar: Commodities for the Jilted Generation, Alexis Wolton: Teknival and the emancipatory potential of technology, Riccardo Balli: Audio-Philosophical Dwellings.
Stewart Home on Peter Whitehead and the Sixties, Nemeton on Boris Mikhailov’s Unfinished Dissertation, JR on “The Description of Bankruptcy”, CF on François Genoud, Nemeton on “Everybody talks about the Weather… We don’t: The Writings of Ulriike Meinhof”, Balli on “Situationism on Wheels”, CF on “Battlenoise!” and the ideology of Martial Industrial, Plus record reviews, charts, Bloor Schleppy, End of Vinyl?, Pencilbreak and more.
available for EUR 3.00 from praxis.c8.com/catalog now
or from good stores and mail orders soon!
“Zwischen Resignation und Resignifikation: Die Auf-gabe der Kunst.”
Widerständigkeit oder Affirmation – ist Kunst als oppositionell zur bestehenden Gesellschaftsordnung oder als deren Komplizin zu verstehen? Der Vortrag von Andrea Wald wird nach den Machtprozesse in der Kunst fragen. Die Referentin umschreibt das Handeln durch Nicht-Handeln und die Perspektiven einer radikal-emanzipatorischen Politik. Unter Bezugnahme auf Jaques Rancière, Gilles Deleuze und Slavoj Žižek wird die Referentin ihre Ausführungen belegen.
Andrea Wald studiert in Wien und schreibt derzeit ihre Diplomarbeit in Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaften. Sie ist Redakteurin der Zeitschrift “fiber – werkstoff für feminismus und popkultur”.
Die Zeitschrift Datacide veranstaltet seit 2007 Vorträge um die Begriffe Subversion und Kulturindustrie und interessiert sich dabei nicht primär für Fragen der Ästhetik, sondern für die emanzipatorische Kritik der spätkapitalistischen Gesellschaft und die Praxen von unversöhnlich negatorischen Gegenkulturen.
Donnerstag 13.11.08
Beginn 21 Uhr
b_books // Lübbener Str. 14 // 10997 Berlin
https://datacide.wordpress.com/
http://unkultur.olifani.de
http://bbooks.de/
http://www.fibrig.net/
Please note the the end of this review was accidentally deleted in the print edition. For the full article read below.
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Pencilbreak: A Graphicore Compilation. Published by Belio Magazine. €25
Released in late July, 2008 Pencilbreak is the first art/design book specifically dedicated to the visual elements of breakcore. (The only other book on “breakcore” we are aware of is: Andrew Whelan, Breakcore: Identity and Interaction on Peer-to-Peer (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008)). Pencilbreak’s 216 glossy pages are filled with high quality images of flyers, cd and vinyl record cover designs, and other artworks that the editors of Belio magazine associate in one way or another with the musical “style” of breakcore. Belio writes, “This book compiles fresh work from more than twenty international artists. All of them share a similar feeling and passion for distorted sounds and graphics. This book is meant to be a homage to Breakcore and other styles of hardcore music and corresponding attitudes.” This review does not dispute the self-evident fact that many individuals throughout the world are pleased to have to opportunity to purchase one of the first books dealing with breakcore as a visual and musical “genre,” and that the graphic artists featured and Belio magazine itself will certainly garner some amount of exposure and respect through this publication. The purpose of this review is instead to critically interrogate the ideological precepts of art articulated in Pencilbreak. Art/design books almost uniformly avoid questions concerning the social production of art, and rather present the false impression that “art” inhabits a separate autonomous sphere outside capitalist relations. Therefore, this review will attempt to broadly draw out in a more explicit way that as active readers we should be critically aware of how the featured artists and editors in the pages of Pencilbreak conceptualize notions of “art,” the “artist,” “creativity;” the methods of production, and what is at stake in the cultural politics of those who voice opinions that breakcore is a “subcultural” phenomenon.
Inclusion in Pencilbreak was possible through two avenues (as far as we know). First, the Belio editors established the book myspace site http://www.myspace.com/pencilbreak_book, where interested individuals who had obviously heard about the project could submit their work for consideration in publication. Second, the Belio editors contacted specific artists and record labels asking for them to submit graphic material and in some cases complete interviews based upon questions from the editors. This is how Praxis was included in Pencilbreak. The process by which the Belio editors accepted and rejected (if in fact they did so) visual and written submissions is unknown. The book publication is supported by Carhartt and distributed worldwide through Ad Noiseam.
In the opening text “Graphicore” Belio states that musical “style” of breakcore is the reason for the book, and that they wanted to document the visual analog of the musical sound. After citing the wiki entry on breakcore in order to define the style term, it is evident that breakcore is understood to be the product of a collage of available musical styles, just as the visual culture of breakcore is a mashup of graphics associated with various style subcultures “skate style, post digital aesthetics, re-invented black metal, trash culture, terror movies, 80s, rock attitudes, videogames, tattoos,” etc. Therefore it is not surprising that the first even number pages up to page 17 are collages of “flyers, poster, design, logos, picture, visuals that friendly people submitted through our website.” However, the critical potential of the technique of collage (photomontage) is completely absent here, and instead the viewer is submerged in a colorful array of inter-layered elements arranged for visual appeal.
The second text “The Sound of Disco[ntent]” attempts to go “further into the musical subculture” for those readers who want to be more informed about what breakcore “is”, as the assumption stated in the earlier text is that most people buying this book don’t know (much) about the music, but regardless of their knowledge, readers are instead primarily drawn to the book for the aesthetic qualities of the graphic designs. This premise defines the entire way in which this book functions as a collection of visual aesthetics made by relatively “unknown artists,” and thus eschews a critical engagement with the social production of the art and music here associated with breakcore. Information on the “sound” of breakcore is based on questionnaires from the “main music labels” including Ad Noiseam – Nicolas Chevreux, Praxis – Christoph Fringeli (mis-spelled throughout the text as Cristoph / Fingrelli”), Fathme Records – Jon Roche, and Cock Rock Disco – Jason Forrest, in which extremely divergent and often oppositional understandings of the music industry, “breakcore,” and the critical potential of a counter-culture (although not stated in those terms) are made to function in artificial agreement through the particular arrangement by the editors of different textual fragments. Praxis has explicitly critiqued and rejected breakcore as a subcultural style, instead attempting through various tactics with like-minded allies to collectively create and radicalize contemporary dance music and its associated (counter-) “culture.” Nevertheless, Pencilbreak reinforces and concretizes which labels and artists are part of the “breakcore scene” through the (literal) appearance of unity and agreement, and at the same time diminishing a more critical perspective and practice in technoculture.
Another issue not addressed anywhere in Pencilbreak but nevertheless vital to any book which posits an importance to the existence of record labels can be posed here as a question: what is the efficacy of the record label as a constitutive force in the present state of musical production and consumption? In Pencilbreak the record label is described clearly in terms of its marketing potential and that it facilitates “discovery” by consumers of the newest style: ”Labels make it possible for us to discover a new genre, a new trend a new artist and of course they give the proper image to their editions by involving graphic artists as well.” Alternative ways of conceptualizing, politicizing and operating a record label are not mentioned. Pencilbreak then features 12 record labels and small thumb-nail pictures of each label’s latest cd and vinyl cover designs, which one might imagine would garner more page space and larger images as a key component of the visual aspect of the music. However, Pencilbreak expresses an artistic ideology that privileges the work of individual graphic “artists” rather than label designs produced anonymously, collectively, or by individuals who specifically refute the specialized role of the “artist”.
The next section of Pencilbreak dedicates 15 pages to the Wasted Festival, whose flyer designs are created by one of the featured artists Jan Rohlf. There is no explanation of why so many pages are dedicated to the self-described “summit of the breakcore community”. Pages are filled with photo collages of members of the audience and performers alike all focusing on clearly discernable individuals heightening on one hand the effect of the star system of main performers and on the other hand a documentation of the style(s) of the audience in terms of dress, behavior and emotional viscerality at the parties. The combination of flyers and photos are deployed to reiterate repeatedly that the Wasted Festival is “all about getting wild and crazy, it is all about fun. It is absolutely non-commercial and therefore without compromise.”
The primary fixture of Pencilbreak is about 175 pages showing the graphic designs of the featured artists: satanic mike go home, devoner, droon , dzgnbio, elzo, fighting, ian liddle, inkcore, jan rohlf, jinpow, marco microbi, neon skullz, niark1, nikibi, pastee, fff, pix-hell, plump oyster, raoul sinier, sekitani, sish tick, vida loco. Reading carefully through the commentary of the 22 featured graphic artists, it becomes clear that they fairly uniformly address a number of repeated issues or themes. In order to more critically engage with the responses of the graphic artists, here we will pose the issues as a series of questions that seem to be relavent: What is your inspiration? What are the best parties you’ve been to? How does your design relate to music? What’s your relation to the record label you work with? Where did you learn art? What words do you use to describe you style? What’s the best memory of your career? Do you make music? What do you like about breakcore? What is breakcore?
Unlike the previous sections of the book, collage is not used as a visual technique to present images, rather each piece of art of the featured artists is clearly defined through the use of boarders and segmented layout. Each “autonomous” artwork demonstrates the visual style of the graphic artist, and it is interesting to note that the selection of images for each artist are quite similar in terms of style (see for example Raoul Sinier, Jan Rohlf or Sekitani) even though particular artists produce works that are strikingly different (see for example Ian Liddle and his not-included photomontage cover art for Christoph de Babylon). The establishment of an identifiable style helps establish the name recognition of the artist.
It would be of particular interest to read in some detail how featured artists explain the specific connection between their artwork and the particular musical product. However, few do so, and Sish-Tick comes closest to articulating an interplay between graphic design and music when he states that his art for DJ Rainbow Ejaculation (Cock Rock Disco 9) attempts to “re-transcribe what his music makes me think. A mixture of pop cultural with a large amount of purulency. In fact, pop culture without its mask of good manners.” The reader of Pencilbreak is left grappling with exactly how to understand the communicative potential of each graphic design of a flyer or music cover as a system of decipherable signs, and has to instead settle for general claims about “style” made by the artists like Nikibi: “My style is a kind of vintage-american-underground-comic-and-gig-poster-style with a little bit of modern stuff.”
Almost all individuals featured describe themselves as “artists” but do not communicate an awareness of the historical development of the concept. The present historical condition of “art” (including music and design) both as a concept and as a material good appears to operate as a separate designation outside of other forms of human labor. At the same time art holds claims to be the sole expression of “freedom” and “creativity.” In Pencilbreak the artists repeatedly locate their creativity in the reuse and editing of pre-existing images they associate with various subcultures or styles. Jinpow is somewhat of an exception in his use of trash to make rubbish props that inhabit warehouses used as party locations.
The conception of the artist-as-creator is maintained throughout the book as few artists actually speak on the nature of artistic production. Droon, amongst a few others, mention their use of design programs like Illustrator, Photoshop, Corel Painter, while other artists like Ian Liddle produce through more traditional means such as drawing but give no details as to how each design is produced. Discussing in detail the actual mechanics of production would diminish the myth of the artistic genius transmitting creativity easily to a final product through minimal labor. However, art is always “manufacture” as Mayakovsky describes in “How are Verses Made?” Furthermore, the reader gets almost no impression of the process of collaborative creation except for the final product (see flyers made by Elzo with Dav Guedin and Craoman). Some tantalizing clues are shown in the work of Fighting: continuous picture stills (on page 109) of their collaborative painting on what appears to be a gallery wall.
In the last page of the book Belio magazine states their aim “to support the new and innovative expressions from young artists. We are waiting to hear form new artists in any field, to join us! And keep creating our ‘kulture’” Belio Magazine will no doubt continue to put out more art/design books on different topics in the future enjoyed by a wide ranging reading audience. Here the re-production of sub-cultural phenomenon aptly articulates the ideology of art in capitalist society. While clearly operating within the “totality” of the present economic and social conditions, the deployment of cultural critique and further development of counter-cultural tactics are increasingly necessary in association with experimental music and politics.
Anonymous
Please note these reviews were accidentally left out of the print edition of Datacide 10.
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Record Reviews
Selector Catalogue/Heartworm Split 7” – Massive Support 1
This new label out of the U.S. is a collaborative effort between Slowleak records San Francisco and the from the gut crew Detroit. Each 7” will feature artists from the Bay Area and Michigan respectively. ‘My Microwave’ by Selector Catalogue from Ann Arbor, MI opens the 7” series off right with a pounding breakcore track. Heartworm of 5lowershop Soundsystem, SF contributes ‘camate (audio cannibal mix)’ – a track without limits veering from noise intro to hyper-edited beats to hip-hop inspired interludes to violin samples and back again in a frenetic style. Massive Support 2 will feature Split Horizon and DJ Crackhouse.
GVK: Power to the People – Power vs Power 4
Excellent record mixing 4/4 breakcore with hardcore, punk, metal and other elements. GVK (Martel en tete label) creates a hard-hitting 4 tracker with diy attitude that no doubt has been heard to great effect on soundsystems traveling across Europe.
.Of God/Mystification – Hell’s Bassment 04
Australian label run by members of .Of God put out a slamming record of hard drum n’ bass with dominant dark overtones. .Of God is remixed by Bad Matter on Side A – a solid track that delivers what you expect. Wickedness really comes through in “Daemons Stay in Hell” by Mystification, a tortured mix of pounding beats and black metal guitar lines by Szabolcs Szakacs (also featured on another Mystification track on Hardline Twenty) that obliterates the conventional structure of hard dnb tracks and creates devious rhythms for the dance floor. Check!
Radio Free Robots: Silicone Carne – Art Kill Art 01
Art Kill Art label out of France asks the question “What does it mean to produce vinyl records in the digital era?” The sound artist collective Radio Free Robots explores the possibilities and limitations of vinyl records as a medium for manipulation. The white 12” is packaged with a lengthy perforated paper printout that lists a lot of technical information such as what computers and other equipment was used to produce the robot voices, when these various sound collages were performed and a statement of purpose written in several languages. The external sleeve robot graphic is one visualization of robots of the future, while the inside graphic charts frequencies and sound levels over time (cycles per second). Non-music, experimental collage, spoken word, rhythmic dissonance, or something entirely different? A radio show transmission recording or electronic sound performance? Robotic philosophical ramblings interwoven with noises, beats, glitchy metallic sounds produce a strange, provocative cacophony.
nemeton
Datacide Conference 2008 TIMETABLE
Doors open: 15.00
15.30 – Christoph Fringeli: Introduction to the conference and some thoughts on Hedonism and Revolution
16.15 – Hans-Christian Psaar: Kindertotenlieder for Rave Culture
17.00 – Lauren Graber: Countervailing Forces: Electronic Music Countercultures and Subcultures
17.30 – Alexis Wolton: Tortugan towerblocks: Pirate signals in the 90s
18.00 – John Eden: Shaking The Foundations: Reggae soundsystems meet ‘Big Ben British values’ downtown
19.00 – BREAK
20.00 – Neil Transpontine: A Loop Da Loop Era: towards an (anti)history of ‘rave’
21.00 – Stewart Home: Hallucination Generation
DISCUSSION
Downstairs:
23.00 – Mario D’Andreta (Alien City Soundscapes)
24.00 – Line Destruction (Spine)
24.45 – Circuit Parallele (Spine, Hekate)
1.30 – The Wirebug (Hekate, Coven H, London)
2.30 – DJ Controlled Weirdness (Unearthly, London)
3.30 – Blackmass Plastics (Dirty Needles, U.K.)
4.30 – Kovert (Criticalnoise.net, Datacide, London)
5.30 – El Gusano Rojo (Hijos de Puta)
After the MIKZ has been closed down the event is now taking place at the
K9, Kinzig Str. 9, 10247 Berlin-Friedrichshain
nearest public transport: U5 Samariterstrasse
start from 15.00
Datacide Conference 2008 and Party
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS
31.10.08
K9
Kinzigstr.9
10247 Berlin-Friedrichshain
Doors open 15.00
Conference start at 15.30
Christoph Fringeli: Introduction
A brief introduction to Datacide, where it’s coming from and a brief introduction to the new issue and the conference.
Christoph Fringeli: Hedonism and Revolution
Will true pleasure only exist after the revolution, or will it be indispensable to even lead to the revolution?
Proclaiming the revolutionary as a “doomed man” without “personal interests”, the anarchist Sergey Nechayev set the pace for an ascetic image of the revolutionary that would be picked up by the direct heirs of Bakuninism: the Leninists. An “ideal” of a person without desires and only one passion – the revolution – was supposed to bring about a society of human fullfillment, something that had to go wrong, and end in the misery of the Maoist and Trotzkyist sects. But there has always been a hedonist counter-tendency to this, from Fourier to Sexpol to the Commune movement and the counter cultures of the 60’s to the 90’s. CF will examine some of the tensions and discussions that took place in the 70’s and ask if they have any relevance now.
Neil Transpontine: A Loop Da Loop Era: towards an (anti)history of ‘rave’
(History is Made at Night)
‘In 2008 the UK media have been full of stories about the ’20th annversary of acid house’. Neil Transpontine critiques this conventional history, and celebrates instead the multiple trajectories that converge and pass through the various sonic, social and chemical phenomena grouped under that unstable term ‘rave’. It is a story that takes in not just 303s and 808s but gay riots, carnival uprisings and underground jazz clubs in 1940s Europe’.
Stewart Home: Hallucination Generation
Looking at some of the more occulted aspects of the counterculture in 1960s London. How some of the key figures in the development of the scene rarely make it into the histories. Terry Taylor the first person to mention LSD in a British novel, and the inspiration
for both Absolute Beginners and Mister Love and Justice by a better known writer Colin MacInnes. Detta Whybrow and the first major LSD distribution network in London after the drug was made illegal. Alex Trocchi, drug dealing and black powers. Plus the Notting Hill’s problematic writers of the 1950s who later occupied positions on the outer fringes of the counterculture.
John Eden: Shaking The Foundations: Reggae soundsystems meet ‘Big Ben British values’ downtown
John Eden will examine the contribution reggae soundsystems have contributed to British culture and identity, and what they can teach the global mp3 generation.
John has contributed writing to a vast number of independent publications over the years and currently co-edits Woofah magazine – “a completely DIY rag covering reggae, dubstep and grime”. He has run his own uncarved.org website since 1997.
He began unleashing his musical taste on the world in the mid 80s by wrestling all-comers off the stereo at house parties and standing guard whilst his carefully compiled cassettes played. More recently he has contributed sets to the respected Blogariddims podcast series and played records at a bewildering array of obscure London venues.
Hans-Christian Psaar: Kindertotenlieder for Rave culture.
It´s a common myth in music subcultures to think of themselves as independent. But what happens? Commodities get produced and sold on the market to consumers. No matter if those consumers wear dreadlocks or suits. Rebellion and subversion are labels to sell capitalist goods in the cultural industry. Be creative! Have fun! Those are the new imperatives of post-fordist capitalism and its cultural economies. The talk will show on the examples of The Prodigy and Kid606 how rave music is branded and sold.
Lauren Graber: Countervailing Forces: Electronic Music Countercultures and Subcultures
This paper will open with a discussion of how counterculture and subculture have been defined, and then ask what is at stake when we seek to assess divergent avenues within electronic music in these terms. Central to the operational imperative of subculture is the solidification of style and genre – visible and audible signs connoting sameness and belonging. The tactics of visibility and disappearance enacted as subcultural and countercultural everyday practices will be drawn out through a commentary on the book “Psychedelic White: Goa Trance and the Viscosity of Race” and other oppositional tendencies in experimental electronics.
Alexis Wolton: Tortugan towerblocks: Pirate signals in the 90s
After a clampdown on pirate activity at the end of the 80s, the housing estates of London saw a renewed explosion of pirate stations in the early 90s. During the 90s commentators enthusiastically linked the pirate stations with Hakim Bey’s ideas on pirate utopias, information networks and self-organisation. A decade later the pirates still exist, their relationship to the world radically changed by the internet, but the positivist optimism of 90s technoculture has waned, many of its hopes recuperated by Capital.
A discussion of the history and legacy of pirate radio, the theories of self-organisation that accompanied it and current ideas on participatory media.
OPEN ENDED PANEL DISCUSSION
PARTY:
noise:_____from 23h
Mario D’Andreta (Alien City Soundscapes)
Line Destruction (Spine)
Circuit Parallele (Spine, Hekate)
The Wirebug (Hekate, Coven H, London)
DJ Controlled Weirdness (Unearthly, London)
Blackmass Plastics (Dirty Needles, U.K.)
Kovert (Criticalnoise.net, Datacide, London)
El Gusano Rojo (Hijos de Puta)
In association with Seven Samurai Records we’re doing another fund-raiser for the printing/mailing cost of the upcoming new paper edition of datacide!
It’s taking place at the Subversiv in Berlin at Brunnenstrasse 7, on October 4th 2008, starting at 23h.
On the decks:
Fobia (Seven Samurai)
Amboss (Sub/Version, Seven Samurai)
Kippu (hardact.org)
Parataxia (Bogotrax, Nucleoroto)
Christoph Fringeli (Praxis, Datacide)
Visuals by Duodrome and Sansculotte
COME AND:
In issue number 8 of datacide we published an article on “Psychiatry – Social Hygiene and Mind Control”.
One topic was the widespread prescription of neuroleptic drugs, and a central claim was that the rampant use of “a-typical” neuroleptics (such as Zyprexa, Risperdal and Seroquel) was barely a progress compared to the old “typical” neuroleptics such as Haldol or Clopixol, except for the fact that these have less obvious adverse effects in the region of motoric disturbances.
A major new study is now confirming this.
Although this is hardly news, it seems to be only slowly seeping into the mainstream, all the while the pharmaceutical companies marketing such drugs are making massive profits.
Ely Lilly, the manufacturer of Zyprexa was selling this medication to the tune of $4 billion in one year alone.
While it is to be welcomed that knowledge about the dangers of these drugs is becoming more wide-spread, unfortunately it isn’t going hand in hand with a more critical approach to the ideology that leads to the rampant over-use of mind-dimming medication. As evident from the N.Y. TImes piece, some doctors merely go back to old school “typical” neuroleptics to avoid the adverse effect of a-typicals, knowingly exposing patients to the risks of Tardive Dyskenesia and other debilitating adverse effects.
Not only are these medications prescribed for all kinds of ailments they were never supposed to treat, they are also being increasingly prescribed to children.
What ultimately needs to be challenged is the diagnosis of schizophrenia itself on the one hand, schizophrenia being – rather than a recognizable illness – more like a collection of symptoms.
On the other hand, and going with it, it has to be recognized that the widespread use of neuroleptics and other psychiatric drugs is putting the brains of millions in chemical straitjackets, in what amounts to social control on a huge scale.
some further infos:
http://breggin.com (site of the consistent critic of biologist psychiatry, Peter Breggin)
http://www.zyprexaclassaction.com/ (now defunct, but still contains interesting information)
http://www.monheit.com/risperdal/news.asp (another legal case site, with up to date links)
Datacide - Noise & Politics 