Storytelling & Film Presentation: Mark Hosler's "Adventures in Illegal Art — Creative Media Resistance and Negativland"

“Adventures in Illegal Art” is a 90-minute storytelling and film presentation by Mark Hosler, founding member of Negativland.  Q and A will follow the presentation.

Pranks, media hoaxes, media literacy, the art of audio and visual collage, creative activism in a media saturated multi-national world, file sharing, intellectual property issues, evolving notions of art and ownership and law in a digital age, artistic and funny critiques of mass media and culture, so-called “culture jamming” (a term coined by Negativland in 1984)… Even if you have never heard of Negativland, if you are interested in any of these issues, you are sure to find this funny and thought-provoking presentation worth your time and attention.

Is Negativland a band? Media hoaxers? Activists? Musicians? Filmmakers? Culture jammers? An inspiration for the unwashed many? A nuisance for the corporate few? Decide for yourself in this presentation that uses films and stories to illustrate some of the creative projects, hoaxes, pranks, and “culture jamming” that Negativland has been doing since 1980.

Most famous for getting sued for their “U2” single, Negativland has had many years of fun being a thorn in the side of the corporate media and entertainment business. Since 1980, they have been creating records, CDs, video, fine art, books, radio, and live performance using appropriated sound, image, and text. Mixing original materials with elements taken from corporately-owned mass culture and the world around them, Negativland re-arranges these found bits and pieces to re-motivate their meaning. In doing this kind of cultural archaeology, Negativland has been sued twice for copyright infringement and became the subject of Craig Baldwin’s 1995 feature film Sonic Outlaws. In 2004, Negativland worked with Creative Commons to write the Creative Commons Sampling License, an alternative to existing copyrights that is now in widespread use by many artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and websites. In 2008, they were invited to join the advisory board of a progressive Washington DC-based intellectual property advocacy group. They continue to occasionally visit Washington DC as citizen lobbyists about art, creativity, and copyright law.

This event is free and open to the public.

Contact: Beto González (562-985-7007)

This is part of the B-Word Project.

For more information, including a complete event calendar, please visit: http://bwordproject.org/index.php