Antediluvian Rocking Horse
Encyclopedia
Antediluvian Rocking Horse (formed 1994 Melbourne, 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. Composer Ollie Olsen
is also credited as a member. The project produces music and soundscapes that are entirely recycled from other recorded works.
is informed by appropriation
and wilful detournement
. Like The Evolution Control Committee
with whom the project has performed, 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. 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.
The project insists that all its works are 'one hundred per cent recycled'. 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.
In 2003, King told The Age
newspaper that the "remix
" was nothing new and that appropriation inhered in the production of all artworks.
and Situationist texts and practises. (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 performed new works at Psy-Geo-Conflux
, New York City's annual situationist festival of psychogeography
. 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.
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,
Diane Lowry, then editor of Electronic Musician
, named the same disc Best Electronic Album for May 1997
. It has collaborated in live performance with Damo Suzuki
of Can
.
Currently, Antediluvian Rocking Horse co-hosts a sound collage program with David Thrussell of Snog
on Melbourne radio station PBS 106.7FM
.
ARH has worked with psychedelic Japanese project Boredoms and performs with the What Is Music
festival.
'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 on Japanese label musicmine. The project has released Forward into the Furniture.
Victorian College of the Arts
The Faculty of the VCA and Music is a faculty of the University of Melbourne, in Victoria . VCAM is located near the Melbourne central business district, on two campuses, one - the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - on the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne, and the other - the...
. DJ3 is Susan King, a collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
artist, writer and Anti-copyright
Anti-copyright
Anti-copyright refers to the complete or partial opposition to prevalent copyright laws. Copyright is known as the owner's right for copies to be only made by the owner or with his/her authorization in form of a license....
advocate. Composer Ollie Olsen
Ollie Olsen
Ollie Olsen 1958, Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian composer, synthesist and sound designer who has been producing and performing rock, electronic and experimental music for the past thirty years...
is also credited as a member. The project produces music and soundscapes that are entirely recycled from other recorded works.
Anti-copyright
Copyright is an unambiguous focus for the project. Its work in multi-source soundscapes and ambient mashupMashup (music)
A mashup or bootleg is a song or composition created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumental track of another...
is informed by appropriation
Appropriation (art)
Appropriation is a fundamental aspect in the history of the arts . Appropriation can be understood as "the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work."...
and wilful detournement
Detournement
A détournement is a technique developed in the 1950s by the Letterist International, and consist in "turning expressions of the capitalist system against itself." Détournement was prominently used to set up subversive political pranks, an influential tactic called situationist prank that was...
. Like The Evolution Control Committee
The Evolution Control Committee
The Evolution Control Committee is an experimental music band based in Columbus, Ohio. The ECC was founded by Mark Gunderson in Columbus, in 1987. It typically uses uncleared and illegal samples from various sources as a form of protest against copyright law...
with whom the project has performed, 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
Attorney-General of Australia
The Attorney-General of Australia is the first law officer of the Crown, chief law officer of the Commonwealth of Australia and a minister of the Crown. The Attorney-General is usually a member of the Federal Cabinet, but there is no constitutional requirement that this be the case since the...
Daryl Williams
Daryl Williams
Daryl Robert Williams AM QC , Australianpolitician, was a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1993 to October 2004, representing the Division of Tangney, Western Australia.-Biography:...
, she argued that the re-use of culture should be encouraged, not hindered and litigated. 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
Negativland
Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! song, while their record label is named after another Neu! song...
in its campaign to sue the RIAA.
The project insists that all its works are 'one hundred per cent recycled'. This is apparent in pieces like September Shuffle, a track that features exceprts from Fox News, The Pixies and, possibly, the KLF
The KLF
The KLF were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s....
.
ARH continues to actively defy copyright law and promote Fair Use
Fair use
Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders...
within its pieces. A recent contribution is to Illegal Art
Illegal Art
Illegal Art is a sampling label that was started by a person using the name Philo T. Farnsworth in 1998. The label was instantly launched to infamy with the legal threats surrounding Deconstructing Beck, a compilation made exclusively from sampling Beck's music. This was followed by two other...
mp3 exhibit Alias Frequencies.
In 2003, King told The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
newspaper that the "remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
" was nothing new and that appropriation inhered in the production of all artworks.
Dada influence
The pair takes further inspiration from DadaDada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
and Situationist texts and practises. (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
Negativland
Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! song, while their record label is named after another Neu! song...
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 performed new works at Psy-Geo-Conflux
Psy-Geo-Conflux
Psy-Geo-Conflux is the annual New York City festival dedicated to psychogeography, where visual, performance and sound artists, writers, urban adventurers, researchers and the public gather for four days to explore the physical and psychological landscape of the city.Conflux was co-founded by...
, New York City's annual situationist festival of psychogeography
Psychogeography
Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals." Another definition is "a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for...
. This preoccupation with the psychogeography
Psychogeography
Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals." Another definition is "a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for...
of Guy Debord
Guy Debord
Guy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International . He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie.-Early Life:Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931...
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.
Techno
ARH sprang out of the technoTechno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
culture of the early nineties. Initially, the project was embraced by techno media.
In reviewing ARH's first international release, Dom Phillips of Mixmag
Mixmag
Mixmag is a British dance music and clubbing magazine. It styles itself as "the world's biggest selling dance music magazine", with an Audit Bureau of Circulations audited circulation of approximately 21,250...
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
Electronic Musician
Electronic Musician is a monthly magazine published by Penton Media featuring articles on synthesizers, music production and electronic musicians....
, 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 OlsenLater outings are less influenced by techno.Ollie OlsenOllie Olsen 1958, Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian composer, synthesist and sound designer who has been producing and performing rock, electronic and experimental music for the past thirty years...
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.
Collaborations
Antediluvian Rocking Horse has collaborated with Australian composer Ollie OlsenOllie Olsen
Ollie Olsen 1958, Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian composer, synthesist and sound designer who has been producing and performing rock, electronic and experimental music for the past thirty years...
. It has collaborated in live performance with Damo Suzuki
Damo Suzuki
, universally known as Damo Suzuki , is a singer best known for his membership in the German krautrock group Can.-Biography:As a teenager, Suzuki spent the late 1960s wandering around Europe, often busking....
of Can
Can (band)
Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
.
Currently, Antediluvian Rocking Horse co-hosts a sound collage program with David Thrussell of Snog
Snog
Snog is a band formed by Australian musician David Thrussell, along with fellow art school friends, Tim McGrath and Julia Bourke, in 1989. The band's music is a fusion of many different styles, including industrial, techno, ambient, experimental, funk and even some of the social commentary of...
on Melbourne radio station PBS 106.7FM
PBS 106.7FM
PBS 106.7FM , also known as the Progressive Broadcasting Service, is a co-operatively owned community radio station in Melbourne, Australia, that broadcasts on 106.7FM, Digital radio and online...
.
ARH has worked with psychedelic Japanese project Boredoms and performs with the What Is Music
What Is Music
What Is Music is an experimental music festival held in Australia. It originally emerged in Sydney in 1994 as a platform to expose unusual contemporary musical forms that were otherwise unknown to the general public at that point in time...
festival.
Releases
The project's premier outing on CD, Music for the Odd Occasion, was the first non US signing to NegativlandNegativland
Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! song, while their record label is named after another Neu! song...
's Seeland Records
Seeland Records
Seeland Records is an independent record label created by Negativland in 1979 to release their own recordings. It is a reference to the song "Seeland" by the band Neu!, who also gave Negativland the basis for their name, Sea-Land Corporation, a freight company, and the micro-nation of Sealand,...
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
Psy-Harmonics
Psy-Harmonics is an Australian independent record label specialising in electronic music.When Psy-Harmonics began in 1993 it was the first local label to explore the sonic possibilities of the techno / trance sound...
.
The project has released Music for Transportation on Japanese label musicmine. The project has released Forward into the Furniture.