Antediluvian Rocking Horse

Antediluvian Rocking Horse (formed 1994 St. Kilda, Australia) is an audio project maintained by two core artists credited as DJ2 and DJ3. DJ2 is Paul Wain, a sculptor and graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts. DJ3 is Susan King, a collage artist, writer and Anti-copyright advocate.[1] Composer Ollie Olsen is also a member.[2] The project produces music and soundscapes that are entirely recycled from other recorded works.[3]

Copyright is an unambiguous focus for the project. Its work in multi-source soundscapes and ambient mashup is informed by appropriation and wilful detournement. Like The Evolution Control Committee with whom the project has performed,[4] Antediluvian Rocking Horse does not seek permission for use of samples.

King addressed the eighth biennial Copyright Law & Practice Symposium, 7 November 1997 on the topic of fair dealing for copyrighted materials in art. In a lecture delivered to then Attorney-General of Australia Daryl Williams, she argued that the re-use of culture should be encouraged, not hindered and litigated.[5] In the 3/21/98 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald, King was interviewed and described as Australia's "lone voice of dissent" in her public call for the diminution of copyright law. At around this time, King also assisted Negativland in its campaign to sue the RIAA.[6]

The project insists that all its works are 'one hundred per cent recycled'.[5] This is apparent in pieces like September Shuffle, a track that features exceprts from Fox News, The Pixies and, possibly, the KLF.

ARH continues to actively defy copyright law and promote Fair Use within its pieces. A recent contribution is to Illegal Art mp3 exhibit Alias Frequencies.[7]

In 2003, King told The Age newspaper that the "remix" was nothing new and that appropriation inhered in the production of all artworks.[8]

Dada influence

The pair takes further inspiration from Dada and Situationist texts and practises.[9] (Dada is a term employed by French children to signify hobby horse. This translation, presumably, provided the spur for the project's name.) Matthew Rimmer interviewed the project for his doctoral thesis The Pirate Bazaar: The Social Life of Copyright Law. He noted a distinction between the clearly political anti-copyright agenda of Negativland and the dada humour of Antediluvian Rocking Horse. It was Rimmer's contention that the project chooses psychedelic mischief over lucid political action.

In September 2006, DJ3 (Susan King) performed new works at Psy-Geo-Conflux, New York City's annual situationist festival of psychogeography.[10] This preoccupation with the psychogeography of Guy Debord continues with a project called Aural Maps which is a serial artwork seeking to navigate situations through sound.

Through unpacking the familiar, we chart our scope of reference, and consider how sound delineates space and creates patterns of movement, both physically and creatively.[11]

Techno

ARH sprang out of the techno culture of the early nineties. Initially, the project was embraced by techno media.

In reviewing ARH's first international release, Dom Phillips of Mixmag wrote,

imagine techno, yet constructed with burps, old samples and rocking through a gallery of strange voices, cut-ups, '70's elevator music run backwards...the lot....crazy channel hopping mish-mash, yet it all works!

Diane Lowry, then editor of Electronic Musician, named the same disc Best Electronic Album for May 1997

Techno dance group ARH approaches the editing of samples and tape loops the same as MTV cuts videos: fast and furious. Paul Wain, Susan King, and Ollie Olsen chop up, reverse, layer, and fade in and out television and radio broadcasts, found sounds, movies, vinyl, and CDs, thereby constantly changing the aural pictures.

Later outings are less influenced by techno.

Collaborations

Antediluvian Rocking Horse has collaborated with Australian composer Ollie Olsen.[12] It has collaborated in live performance with Damo Suzuki of Can.[13]

ARH has worked with psychedelic Japanese project Boredoms[14] and has performed with the What Is Music festival.

Over 22 years they have played over 1,000 gigs.

Releases

The project's premier outing on CD, Music for the Odd Occasion, was the first non US signing to Negativland's Seeland Records label. This work appeared at 150 in issue 520 of the CMJ New Music Report. In Australia, the record was available through trance label Psy-Harmonics.

The project has released Music for Transportation[15] on Japanese label musicmine. The project has released Forward into the Furniture.

References

  1. ↑ Jaydreams (16 January 2006). "Some Assembly Required: January 16, 2006: Antediluvian Rocking Horse". Some-assembly-required.net. Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  2. ↑ "Antediluvian Rocking Horse". Discogs.com. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  3. ↑ "Cultural Workers at Detritus.net". Detritus.net. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  4. ↑ "The Evolution Control Committee & Evolution Controlled Creations". Evolution-control.com. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  5. 1 2
  6. ↑ "Do We Really Have To Sue The Riaa????". Negativland.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  7. ↑ "ILLEGAL ART MP3s". Illegalart.net. Archived from the original on 1 October 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  8. ↑ "Copycat commandos - www.theage.com.au". Melbourne: Theage.com.au. 25 September 2003. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  9. ↑ "The Shrubbery - Interview: Antediluvian Rocking Horse". Theshrubbery.com. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  10. ↑ "conflux :: artists". Confluxfestival.org. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  11. ↑ "Music to Unfurl By". Confluxfestival.org. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  12. ↑ "discography". Web.mac.com. Archived from the original on 15 December 2007. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  13. ↑ "Damo Suzuki's Network". Damosuzuki.de. Archived from the original on 20 June 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  14. ↑ "i-Radio: Boredoms - From Bore Bore". I-radio.fm. Archived from the original on 26 November 2007. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  15. ↑ "Music Mine". Musicmine.com. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
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