Negativland: Illegal Art

Media reappropriation wizard Mark Hosler of Negativland recently gave a talk at NYC's New School, relating the band's run-ins with lawyers, record labels, and Marky Mark in a multi-media extravaganza bursting with songs, videos, mass murder hoaxes, and copyfight tactics.

Mark generously allowed us to record his presentation, songs and all, which you can download below as a series of MP3s.

Part 1 - Introduction: the beginnings of Negativland, and the remixamagical song "No Business" (you can download the video torrent here).

Part 2 - Audio Collage: manipulating found audio sources, "Truth in Advertising," and "Guns."

Part 3 - Inspiration: Negativland's creative process, "Christianity is Stupid" (you can download "The Mashin' of the Christ" video here).

Part 4 - The Ultimate Media Hoax: how the band duped the news media by tying themselves into a teenage mass murderer.

Part 5 - The U2 Lawsuit: how the album cover shown above resulted in a 200-page lawsuit and transformed Negativland into copyfight coverboys, "Special Edit Radio Mix."

Part 6 - Fair Use: the band writes a book and gets a little revenge, "Gimme the Mermaid."

Part 7 - Selling Out: the public domain ethos versus cashing in, "The Greatest Taste."

Part 8 - Q&A: Mark fields questions from inquiring minds, "My Favorite Things."

Comments

[lee]

had a lot of fun in the late eighties wearing my negativeland ''christianity is stupid-give up'' t-shirt. it got people mad! good times.

[Schizohedron]

I stuck the CAR BOMB bumper sticker that came with the Escape From Noise LP on a surplus ammunition can back in college. At the time, I used the can to store correspondence and CDs. Now I'm afraid to leave the house with it!

[T]

Great post! I love the U2 single

[craig]

i had a bunch of tire jockeys refuse to replace a flat because of my car bomb sticker (reagan era; think 'marine barracks + lebanon'). and the xianity tee STILL makes em mad... wore mine just the other week.

almost as good as alexa's 'jesus hates me' shirt fer startin' fights.......

[sally]

Negativland sucks! I could reduce their mediocre to good works down to one CD. Why do we have to sift through so many releases just to get to the few golden moments.

[fardown]

sally's an I D I O T 1..2.stupid..3..4..dumb

[Sensei_Rebel]

Is that Maria Levitsky who was in the audience ? It sure sounds just like her.