Paper Rad

Screenshot from Paper Rad's Facemaker video (2005).

Paper Rad is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania/Providence, Rhode Island art collective that makes comics, zines, video art, net art, MIDI files, paintings, installations, and music. The three primary members are Jacob Ciocci, Jessica Ciocci, and Ben Jones.

Paper Rad exhibited works at several major galleries including PaceWildenstein, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, and Deitch Projects. The collective published a book, Paper Rad, BJ and da Dogs[1] in late-2005 and a DVD on Load Records in 2006 (Trash Talking). Paper Rad's video works are distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix.[2]

Style

Paper Rad calls its style "Dogman 99", a play on the Danish filmmaking movement Dogme 95. According to one of its project websites, the rules of Dogman 99 are: "No Wacom tablet, no scanning, pure RGB colors only, only fake tweening, and as many alpha tricks as possible".[3]

Paper Rad's visual projects often employ bright fluorescent palettes juxtaposed with primary colors to create a distinctive "lo-fi" look. It adopts a variety of techniques and elements to achieve this look, including pop art, collage, punk art, as well as imagery from popular culture.

Its multimedia projects incorporate MIDI audio, poor recordings of original sound effects and voices, pixelization, and other crude audio and visual components. Paper Rad recycles or appropriates obscure sounds and images from a variety of sources, including old cartoons, commercials, and late-night television.

Collaborations & Other Works

Super Mario Bros. Movie

Paper Rad collaborated with multi-media artist Cory Arcangel to make Super Mario Bros. Movie, a 15-minute video piece about the life and times of Nintendo's Mario. The piece consisted of a hacked Nintendo Entertainment System video-game cartridge where the backgrounds and scenarios were altered and rearranged into a narrative story about the game world becoming corrupted and Mario's existential crises about being a video game character.[4] The movie debuted at Deitch Projects in New York in 2005.

Wyld File

Wyld File consisted of the duo Ben Jones and Jacob Ciocci, in collaboration with Eric Mast (better known as E*ROCK).[5] Wyld File is a commercial entity that makes lo-fi music videos for artists like Islands, The Gossip ("Standing in the Way of Control"), and Beck ("Gameboy Homeboy").

Music

Paper Rad splintered into several bands in the genres of electronic music, noise, techno, and rock. Some of these bands are Extreme Animals, Dr. Doo, Doo Man Group, ROTFLOL, Paz, Star Kings, Pajama Boys, Natural Reflex, Gay Nerds, Pracky Pranky, DJ Jazzy Jexx, and Running Free. These side projects resulted in several records and CD-Rs on a number of independent labels, including Breaking World Records, Scratch N Sniff Entertainment, FrequNC Records, Autumn Records, Vicious Pop, and RatFace DreamAngel.

Television

The main characters, Horace, Alfe, and Roba.

Ben Jones collaborated with PFFR and Williams Street on a pilot for Adult Swim titled Neon Knome. It was passed by the network and went on to become rebranded as a Cartoon Network show called The Problem Solverz.

References

  1. ↑ "Quimby's Store". www.quimbys.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Electronic Arts Intermix: Paper Rad". Eai.org. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  3. ↑ "* WYLD FiLE *". Wyldfile.org. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  4. ↑ "paperrad.org". Paperrad.org. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  5. ↑ "E*Rock". E--rock.com. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
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