Jennifer Walshe - A Late Anthology of Early Music vol. 1
Jennifer Walshe is releasing a new album!
I was fortunate to be in Sligo, Ireland in September 2018, when jennifer Walshe presented her exhibition, Aisteach, at the Model in Sligo. A unique project, it collects an imaginary history of the avant-garde in Ireland. Basically, Walshe has created alter egos with complete backstories (date of birth, region in Ireland, type of art, relation to larger artistic movements in other countries, etc.) with which she explores different mediums and imagined historical moments in Irish history - all completely fabricated as a means for creative exploration. It is an incredibly creative endeavour with a wonderful outcome - an exhibit of a singular artist through the lens of many imagined artists.
If post-modern art challenges our relationship to time and progress, Walshe´s work is a wonderful example of time standing still, of the future, present and past meeting in an exchange of mediums which challenge mediums themselves, but also our ways of presenting them. Precisely, the release of a CD captures this geist so well. Is an album of the past, or is it of now? And isn´t it perfect for anthologies? What of an anthology of a fictious history?
Not to mention the subject of this new album - artifical intelligence meeting of early vocal music. CJ Carr and Zack Zukowkski, trained a neural network called Sample-RNN to learn Walshe´s singing style. Walshe then uses the results to interpret early vocal music. The meeting of recent times, ancient times, and the present will make for an exciting result. " A Late Anthology of Early Music." I find the whole idea fantastic.
Richard Prince
Richard Prince makes an important feature in Hal Foster´s Return of the Real on the section on Appropriation Art. Here is a wonderful documentary feature of his Marlboro cowboy images. Prince took photographs of the advertisements and created a debate on who owns the images. As the original photographers were hired by Marlboro, the advertisements and images themselves were owned by the company and not the photgraphers. Since Prince actually "took" his pictures, or pictures of pictures, who owns his work? The process is complicated by the fact that Prince´s appropriated photographs became some of (if not "the most" at the time?) highest selling photographs at an auction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxySP5R-IWs
Sample Precis?
A pretty interesting example on how to summarize something you are reading.
Shithole Countries Reading List
When President Trump made a comment about "shithole countries" referring to Haiti, I was made aware on my Facebook feed to a cleverly titled list - Shithole Countries Reading List. I think its a great idea to expose oneself to literature and systems of knowledge from countries and societies too long brushed over, or which do not have the same academic infastructure availble.
Books:
Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
Randall Robinson’s An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President
Aime Cesaire Discourse on Colonialism
Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History
Kwame Nkrumah, Neo-colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism Full PDF version here Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Audiobook here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6&7) Thomas Sankara, Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-1987 Ernest Harsch, Thomas Sankara: An African Revolutionary Amilcar Cabral, Unity and Struggle: Speeches and Writings Karen Bouwer, Gender and Decolonization in the Congo: The Legacy of Patrice Lumumba Emmanuel Gerard, Death in the Congo: Murdering Patrice Lumumba C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution John Relly Beard, The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture: The Negro Patriot of Hayti Francis A. Boyle, Destroying Libya and World Order: The Three Decade U.S. Campaign to Terminate the Qaddafi Revolution Geoff Simons, Libya: The Struggle for Survival Maurice Bishop, In Nobody’s Backyard: Speeches, 1979-1983 Documentaries, Movies, etc:
Stephanie Black’s Life and Debt
Mandela: Son of Africa, Father of a Nation Nelson Mandela’s Fight for Freedom 1990 Town Hall Meeting with Nelson Mandela Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man Lumumba The Battle of Algiers Life and Death of Samora Machel Faces of Africa series Cabralista Part 1 How Cuba Helped Force European Imperialists Out of Africa and Part II
Namibia - No Easy Road to Freedom Africa’s Black Star: The Rise and Fall of Kwame Nkrumah Caribbean Insight TV series Grenada’s Transformative Figures, Part II & III PBS Egalite for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SOFWAf8p9eHLPlDeWqzEoLUPbqA4CmuYy9GhMYAB8z0/edit