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jonCates: i've been inspired by yr projects as well as yr writings on / descriptions of Noise projects. i.e. in my essay:
4RTCR4X0RZ: Hacking Open Together: New Media Art, Activism and Computer Counter Cultures - jonCates && Jake Elliott (2006)
http://gl1tch.us/4RTCR4X0RZ.html
i wrote the following: "Blake Edwards, who performs and organizes experimental noise events, describes I Love Presets as "local video and sound corruption". (2) In the same document Edwards contextualizes his own collaborative experimental projects as 'punk'. A connectivity is present in Chicago between Punk, Industrial, Experimental, Electronic, House, Jazz, Improvisation and Noise musics. The messy, dirty, impure and corrupted connections include DIY strategies, digital punk approaches, hardware hacking, circuit bending and artistic misuse or recoding of software systems by artists/musicians."
so what im wondering abt, put simply, is why / how did you choose the name Crippled Intellectual Productions for yr label? specifically, how do you connect 'crippled' to Noise / experimental Musics? how do those relationships motivate you?
im wondering about the terms, the vocabulary of Noise, Sound, Musics. for me these are connected to Art, i.e. Dirty New Media Art, Glitch Art, etc... so "crippling" or "crippled" as an adjective is meant to be descriptive of the sound / noise / glitch? + or also a negative term reclaimed as a positive term? mayhaps even a bit celebrated as an adjective?
Blake Edwards:
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First, the name Crippled Intellect Productions came from the mind of a 19 year old; for the past 20 years, though, I’ve tried to simply keep things as “C.I.P.,” if only to steer away from preconceptions about what the words mean. I’m not running from the origin, but I did soon shift to preferring a label name with less “obviousness,” perhaps.
That disclaimer in place, I chose “crippled” for a few reasons, and those reasons hold today. The first (and this is why I mentioned I was 19 at the time) was the idea that there was a certain amount of focus for me on both themes and materials (as in instrument sources for the latter) that were considered nontraditional at best and grotesque / deviant at worst. I was (and still am) very interested in examining material that is considered foul / ugly / damaged and finding / creating something I find aesthetically beautiful from it.
So, in one sense, it’s adjectival and a reclamation into a positive: a celebration of the ability of artists (and here I think about the dance form Butoh) to present information (visually or aurally) that on one level is grotesque but when examined on a deeper level (by a receptive audience) actually holds a great deal of beauty. This also is why I coupled it with “Intellect;” the goal was to connect that there was a thought process behind using something grotesque or often seen as unfavorable or damaged; it wasn’t just a superficial, “ooh, that’s shocking” without something below the surface / at the root.
Tied to this idea, when I began performing and recording, people would ask something like, “how’d you get that rhythm?” and I’d show them it was an old thrift store record find that I scratched up so it skipped intentionally--reworking a conventional playback tool by doing something that was considered by most musically “wrong” (scratching a record) to create something new. To this day, I still hand scratch records, but more recently I’ve explore in-between channels on shortwave stations to make drones which many have found appealing, yet if they heard the sound in the context of scanning a shortwave, ~searching~ for a channel, as opposed to the spaces between, it would be considered unpleasant or a “noise.”
The recontextualizing is a huge point, and it definitely motivates me to this day. I really like the idea that there’s so much that people easily dismiss aurally as “unpleasant” yet, when put in a different context without the usual frame of reference,” people are more willing to view that sound, and its relationship to other sounds, differently (and potentially favorably). The same holds true for equipment.
To jump back to the 19 year old who came up with using “crippled,” I also was fascinated by people bluntly addressing the grotesque and ~not~ attaching a clear, or should I say a traditional, agenda to it: Monte Cazazza, Z’EV, Throbbing Gristle, NON, SPK—the early pioneers of “industrial” were provoking with a purpose, but also not holding anyone by the hand or “providing answers;” artists such as these (and much of the punk I was interested in as well) encouraged me to both experiment and feel comfortable with my own work; it was liberating to have folks you viewed as “on your side.”
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http://cipsite.net
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From: vertonen
Date: February 1, 2006 1:47:46 AM CST
To: endtime34
Subject: February C.I.P. Update
Hello and welcome to the February C.I.P. update.
1. Joe Colley and PCRV on the moveŠ
2. Upcoming shows
3. New Vertonen CD
4. New material in the distribution bin
1. Joe Colley's "No" 7" and PCRV's "Big Sky" CD are out of the gatesŠ
Both titles hit the ground running, so if you've been waiting on ordering either (especially the 7", which is in an edition of 233 copies) I'd say hustle to avoid disappointment.
2. A nice punctuation of shows for the shortest month of the year:
>> Wednesday, February 1: Nite Cap Lounge (5007 W. Irving Park, 9 PM, 21+) I have been asked to play at the inaugural show for this monthly event. Other live performers include Wilt and Roxanne Jean Polise, and pre-recorded material will be mixed by Mark Solotroff and DJ RK. The cover charge is $5.
>> Thursday, February 2: Enemy (1550 N. Milwaukee, 9 PM)
Vertonen is on a bill with Lo-Vid (a video and electronics duo from NYC who build / modify all their equipment), I Love Presets (local video and sound corruption) and the duo of Robb Drinkwater and Brian Labcyz. Lo-Vid are out in Chicago to give a lecture/ presentation at the Art Institute and a video presentation at Chicago Filmmakers, and this will be their only full-fledged "concert." Their last area show (Deadtech, 2002) fried a lot of brains and this is bound to up the anteŠ
>> Thursday, February 9: Empty Bottle (1045 N. Western, 9:30 PM)
Sseepage--the noisy punk-esque trio I'm involved in with Brent Gutzeit and B (the latter from Jud Jud and Scholastic Deth)--has the good fortune to grace the Empty Bottle once again. We'll be launching the opening volley--including three new songs, whoo hoo--for an evening of chaos including Hair Police, Burning Graveyards (featuring John Olson from Wolf Eyes and Spencer Yeh from Burning Star Core), Lambsbread, and Bloodyminded.
>> Thursday February 23 Wheaton Grand Ballroom (123 N. Hale, Wheaton, IL 8 PM)
This show marks the resurrection of Crippled Insectual, the broken-leg rhythm machine conjunction of Insect Deli and me. We will be performing alongside Is, Bloodyminded, and Climax Denial.
>> Saturday, February 25, University of Chicago (The University of Chicago Film Studies Center, 5811 South Ellis Ave., Cobb Hall 307)
As part of the University's "Pictures and Sounds" event (bands performing to silent films of their own choosing) I contacted Mark Solotroff and Koura (Brian Labcyz), both of whom agreed to perform. Mark will be playing to two very rhythmic and very different short films: "Interior New York Subway, 14th Street to 42nd Street" (1905) by G. W. "Billy" Blitzer and "The Dante Quartet" (1987) by Stan Brakhage. Koura will perform along to Fog Line (1970) by Larry Gottheim.
Another artist, Tangleweed, will be participating, but I admit I know nothing about what they're planning.
3. In progressŠ
Work is galloping along at a nice clip for the new Vertonen CD, comprised of live tracks culled (primarily) from 2005. It's a completely different kettle of fish from Orchid Collider, to say the leastŠ
4. Distribution update
New:
Insect Deli: No More Snacks CD
MB: A M.B. Iehn Tale CD
Wander (Beequeen): s/t CD
Z'EV: Rhythmajik CD
Running low:
Anti-Ear/Vertonen: split cassette
16 Bitch Pile Up/Sword Heaven: Come Here Sandy LP
Gone:
John Duncan / Leif Elggren / C . M. Von Hausswolf 7"
Fe-Mail: Voluptuous Vultures 10"
Eric Lunde: When You Wish Upon A Scar CD
Organum: Ein Schwarzenes Scheredze 7"
Vertonen: one telescoping spine 3" CDR
Thanks for your time and be well,
Blake/C.I.P.
If you wish to no longer receive these updates, please respond with "remove" as the subject header and I'll take care of it.
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B. Edwards/C.I.P.
PO Box 378681
Chicago, IL 60637-8681
www.cipsite.net
out now:::
Joe Colley: No (one-sided 7")
PCRV: Big Sky CD
up next:::
Z'EV & KK Null: Artificial Life CD
Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet: Happy as Pitch CD
"If you can't be a good example, you'll just have to be a horrible warning." --Catherine Aird
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