Main Page
Open Music Archive initiated by artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White, is a collaborative project to explore the potentials of public domain archive material.
Once Heard Before - Whitechapel Gallery
|
|
Commission Whitechapel Gallery 27 August 2019 – 5 January 2020 Once Heard Before has been developed with a group of young beat-makers and MCs from east London, who mutate fragments of sounds and lyrics ripped from top ten records from the 1950s and 1960s. Their sound work features on a series of lathe-cut records, presented alongside a video of their rap performances. Filmed inside an anechoic chamber and composed of sounds gleaned from chart hit records from 1962, Auditory Learning focuses on the materiality of voice. Due to copyright laws, only auditory sound has been used and juxtaposed with improvised vocalisations. Everything I Have Is Yours brings together musicians connected to the Manchester music scene, now in their 70s and 80s, inviting them to respond to samples that have been extracted from UK chart hits of their teenage years. In these works, source material morphs into new creative outputs: artists and performers imagine a new music vocabulary, across generations and technologies, towards an archive of future sounds. |
-9.jpg)
Everything I Have Is Yours - Salford Museum and Gallery
|
|
Everything I Have Is Yours Salford Museum and Gallery July 4th - November 3rd 2019 As with previous Open Music Archive projects, Everything I Have Is Yours brings people directly into the creative nucleus of the work. Recollecting a formative moment in their lives, the film project encourages a diverse range of musicians based in Manchester and now in their 70s and 80s, to reconnect with the music of their youth and play together. Collective acts of live performance interact with digital technology to recall archive sounds from the musicians’ teenage pasts. Shot in a space that operates somewhere between a recording studio, live venue and practice room, the camera continuously tracks through the groups of musicians brought together for the project. This looping camera move mirrors looped samples worked around by the assembled players. The samples are from 1950s and 1960s shellac and vinyl chart hit records – each record, on playback, conjuring particular sonic qualities from the era. Copyright-expired elements of the original records are separated out, through an algorithmic process, to enable collective future sharing. Referencing the history of sample culture, which saw musicians and producers routinely sample from commercial hit favourites from previous generations, the film is a vivid sonic conversation, an intergenerational call and response that traverses the private, personal and public. |
Play it Again! Use it Together - Victoria Gallery & Museum, Liverpool
|
|
Play it Again! Use it Together Saturday 15th September - 24th November 2018 Opening: Friday 14th September Time 6.00 - 8.30pm, with a live remix by Elsa Hewitt at 7.00pm. Victoria Gallery and Museum Admission Free Play it Again! Use it Together takes as its starting point the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Popular Music (IPM) archive of over 80,000 records, an exceptional and rich research resource gifted over a number of years by collectors and enthusiasts. With a particular focus on copyright-expired shellac 78 rpm records from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s, the artists will temporarily re-house the IPM archive in the public gallery at Victoria Gallery & Museum for the duration of an exhibition, making it accessible and public for the first time. Alongside this uncovering of the archive, at the centre of the exhibition is a newly commissioned and bespoke booth created for archive digitization, broadcast and remix performance, designed with 51 architecture. Animated by students and graduates, the archive and exhibition space will be turned into a production site and punctuated by a series of events with collaborators invited to live remix new music sampling from the evolving public resource. curated by Rose Lejeune |
British Art Show 8 - Southampton
|
|
9 October - 15 January 2017 British Art Show 8 Admission Free Auditory Learning is part of Eileen Simpson & Ben White’s ongoing project to generate public resources, using the archive as a vehicle for collaborative activity. Using tactics of hacking and gleaning they explore legal loopholes to find and distribute out-of-copyright archive material for their Open Music Archive. |
Music For Children - FOUND at The Foundling Musuem, London
|
|
FOUND The Foundling Museum We found Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman’s 1958 vinyl record Music for Children in the personal record collection of architect Luis Barragán, whilst on an artists’ residency in Mexico City in 2012. The record works as a kind of audio source code for teaching music to children, in the mode of play. Treating the found record as an artefact, as an object to be excavated, we detect, extract and separate sounds from the original vinyl record. Although the complete rights to the music remain in copyright until 2061, we free copyright-expired sounds by dissecting copyright-controlled elements to generate a 'public sonic inventory'. This inventory contains thousands of samples from Music for Children and is freely released into the public domain for reuse. Xylophones, glockenspiels, drum hits, crashing cymbals and fragments of children’s voices echo in the copyleft licensed work, which is pressed onto a vinyl record and offered for free download to be found by its future audiences:
Thursday 30 Jun 2016 FOUND at The Foundling Museum is curated by Cornelia Parker |
British Art Show 8 - Norwich
|
|
24 June - 4 September 2016 St Georges Building, Norwich University of the Arts Auditory Learning is part of Eileen Simpson & Ben White’s ongoing project to find and distribute out-of-copyright archival material. Sourcing vinyl 45 rpm records of chart hits from 1962 – the last year that commercial recordings can be retrieved for public use, due to recent copyright revisions – the artists have extracted over 50,000 sounds to produce a public sonic inventory. In the gallery, eight modified turntables play a new sound work assembled from the inventory of individual notes, percussive elements and vocal phonemes. The surrounding graphic fragments recall vinyl 7 inch printed paper sleeves. Auditory Learning will change and develop throughout the exhibition’s tour. Reassembled as part of a live event during British Art Show 8 in Leeds, in Southampton it will form the soundtrack for a new film. All work is copyleft licensed and available to download or cut-on-demand at openmusicarchive.org/auditorylearning. |
KALEIDOSCOPE - Modern Art Oxford
|
|
We're developing a new project for the 50 year anniversary of Modern Art Oxford. KALEIDOSCOPE: A Moment of Grace Exhibition runs: Preview: Premonition 2037 In the spirit of the 1960s project of the Museum of Modern Art Oxford, to make contemporary art freely accessible to the widest audience, the artists produce an archive of recorded sounds - auditory traces of activity in the gallery, available for use by a future public, without restriction and beyond the scope of the current copyright term. Tape hiss, voices, musical fragments, audience shuffles and applause, recorded at past public events, are digitized from videotapes and audio cassettes held in the MAO archive, to generate a new sonic inventory. The artists process the archival sounds using emerging information retrieval technologies, to create a bank of source material and a new work for exhibition. A series of live events with invited collaborators, reanimate these sounds on a specially assembled platform. The events will be recorded and released with copyleft licenses. Free events: Thursday 5th May, 7pm Saturday 14th May, 3pm Thursday 19th May, 7pm
|
British Art Show 8 - Edinburgh
|
|
13 February – 8 May 2016 Talbot Rice Gallery Auditory Learning is part of Eileen Simpson & Ben White’s ongoing project to find and distribute out-of-copyright archival material. Sourcing vinyl 45 rpm records of chart hits from 1962 – the last year that commercial recordings can be retrieved for public use, due to recent copyright revisions – the artists have extracted over 50,000 sounds to produce a public sonic inventory. In the gallery, eight modified turntables play a new sound work assembled from the inventory of individual notes, percussive elements and vocal phonemes. The surrounding graphic fragments recall vinyl 7 inch printed paper sleeves. Auditory Learning will change and develop throughout the exhibition’s tour. Reassembled as part of a live event during British Art Show 8 in Leeds, in Southampton it will form the soundtrack for a new film. All work is copyleft licensed and available to download or cut-on-demand at openmusicarchive.org/auditorylearning. |
Auditory Learning EP
|
|
Open Music Archive presents Auditory Learning - K Barley The EP is released on the occasion of British Art Show 8 opening in Edinburgh on Feb 12th 2016 |
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival @ British Art Show 8
|
|
Thursday 26 November Leeds Art Gallery - Tiled Hall 8pm Featuring Kirk Barley and Graham Massey This event reanimates both public domain archive material and copyleft recordings generated by the artists and their collaborators. The event brings together the first live remix of a new work produced the British Art Show 8 alongside the presentation of two recent Open Music Archive projects. Auditory Learning (2015) ATL 2067 (2013) Local Recall (2014) Produced by hcmf// in partnership with Leeds Art Gallery and British Art Show 8 |
.jpg)
British Art Show 8 - Leeds Art Gallery
|
|
We're developing a new project for British Art Show 8 For British Art Show 8 we harvest copyright-expired chart hit records from 1962, the last retrievable from the public domain until 2034 due to legal revisions. Hacking emerging information retrieval technologies, we strip away proprietary elements to generate a public sonic inventory which provides a soundtrack for a new audio-visual work, assembled during the exhibition tour. 9 October 2015 - 10 January 2016 Leeds Art Gallery BAS8 opens at Leeds Art Gallery on 9 October 2015 and continues until 10 January 2016. It then tours to: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh, and Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 13 February - 8 May 2016; Norwich University of the Arts and Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery 24 June - 4 September 2016; and John Hansard Gallery and Southampton City Art Gallery 8 October 2016 - 14 January 2017. |
Moving Image Contours - Tabakalera, San Sebastián
|
|
Struggle in Jerash is showing as part of Moving Image Contours: Points for a Surrounding Movement, the inaugural exhibition of Tabakalera, San San Sebastián. 11th September 2015 - 3rd January 2016 Tabakalera curated by: Anna Manubens and Soledad Gutiérrez photo by Anna Manubens
|
Open House | Divided Estates - Hiroshima MoCA, Japan
|
|
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art 26 November 2014 - 25 January 2015 Open House | Divided Estates is showing at Hiroshima MOCA as part of a programme curated by Yukie Kamiya. Shot on location in Mexico City, Open House | Divided Estates takes as its starting point the intimate spaces of Casa Barragán, the former home of architect Luis Barragán, and his large collection of vinyl records. Shelves of vinyl, record turntables and speaker systems are installed in almost every room in Barragán’s house, including hidden speakers in the garden. The film reanimates the architect's extensive record collection through playback, choreographed camera moves and lip synch. Open House | Divided Estates attempts to open out the public domain territory of Barragán’s record collection while exploring the grey zone of the building's image rights. The film explores both the complex web of propriety rights locked within the vinyl collection and images of the house in relation to their legal position and public access. The soundtrack to Open House | Divided Estates is created entirely from copyright-expired recordings and fair use samples taken from the extensive and idiosyncratic record collection. For Hiroshima MoCA a new version of Open House | Divided Estates has been assembled for distribution in Japan. The film and its soundtrack are distributed under a copyleft license (cc by-sa3.0). Open House | Divided Estates was originally produced during a research and production residency with de_sitio at Casa Estudio Luis Barragán. |
Local Recall - Ancoats, Manchester
|
|
Hallé St Peter’s Thursday 20th November 7pm - 9pm FREE - book a ticket here For their new live artwork Local Recall, Open Music Archive explore the ghostly echoes that persist through repetition in the playback of music and draw line between the model industrial city of the late 19th Century and post-industrial Manchester of the early 1990s. Open Music Archive ran workshops with young people from 42nd Street with Unity Radio 92.8FM, to remix, cut-up, loop and re-assemble late 19th Century music gleaned from player piano rolls. The results will be played back and performed live for a 21st Century audience. Featuring: DJ sets, live piano performance and a new audio-visual work with specially commissioned soundtrack produced by Graham Massey (808 State) using 1990s music technology. |
Barragán Sound System - MK Gallery
|
|
MK Gallery Saturday 14 June 2014 7pm - 9pm Recordings ripped from Barragán's vinyl collection are used as source material for a live event – ranging from early Mexican folk recordings, European minimalism, Central African field recordings, and American cabaret. Guest artists and producers are invited to process and remix the material to create copyleft licensed live performances: This new event brings to life works with a legal status identified primarily through the date of the death of the author, and echoes an event which took place in October 2012 at Casa Barragán during the week of Día de los Muertos. At the present time, Mexico currently boasts the most restrictive copyright law worldwide, with copyright in recorded sound to 100 years from both the date of recording and the death of the author. Legal frameworks governing the material in the EU, enables a different subset of the collection to be freed for use at MK Gallery. |
Open House | Divided Estates - MK Gallery
|
|
MK Gallery Open House | Divided Estates (2013) 1 May - 15 June 2014 A looped screening in the first floor Video Space. Shot on location in Mexico City, Open House | Divided Estates takes as its starting point the intimate spaces of Casa Barragán, the former home of architect Luis Barragán, and his large collection of vinyl records. Shelves of vinyl, record turntables and speaker systems are installed in almost every room in Barragán’s house, including hidden speakers in the garden. The film reanimates the architect's extensive record collection through playback, choreographed camera moves and lip synch. Open House | Divided Estates attempts to open out the public domain territory of Barragán’s record collection while exploring the grey zone of the building's image rights. The film explores both the complex web of propriety rights locked within the vinyl collection and images of the house in relation to their legal position and public access. The soundtrack to Open House | Divided Estates is created entirely from copyright-expired recordings and fair use samples taken from the extensive and idiosyncratic record collection. For MK Gallery a new version of Open House | Divided Estates has been assembled for European distribution in 2014. The film and its soundtrack are distributed under a copyleft license (cc by-sa3.0).
|
Biblioteca, Tapanco, Recámara - MK Gallery
|
|
11 April - 15 June 2014 MK Gallery Margaret Powell Square Biblioteca, Tapanco, Recámara is a new sound installation that takes music ripped from Luis Barragán's vinyl collection, recorded in three different rooms in Barragán's house, and presents them as an archival audio stream outside MK Gallery. The work appropriates the tactics of Mexico City's ambulantes – travelling music vendors who ride the city's Metro system selling pirate CDs while broadcasting chopped-up preview snippets of their catalogue from hacked backpack sound systems. The audio installation features out-of-copyright snippets, loops and fragments of transfers from Barragán's vinyl collection – echoing elements of the soundtrack for the artists’ film Open House | Divided Estates (screening at MK Gallery in May) and previewing elements to be used in the forthcoming Barragán Sound System event (which will take place at MK Gallery in June). Source material is distributed for free public download |
Utopographies - Chelsea College of Art, London
|
|
Triangle Space 28 - 29th March 2014 We are contributing to Utopographies at Chelea College of Arts. |
Playhead: a Parallel Anthology
|
|
Schizophonia Centre D'Art Contemporain La Synagogue de Delme curated by Anna Colin & Sam Thorne Playhead (2013) by Eileen Simpson and Ben White builds on an ongoing project initiated by Open Music Archive for 17th Biennale of Sydney 2010 taking as a starting point the 1952 release Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. The project brings together alternative public domain versions of tracks from the anthology not closed down by copyright, from non-attributed folk versions and covers to commercial recordings whose proprietary interests have expired. New copyleft iterations are simultaneously generated from elements of the archive material. |
Schizophonia - Synagogue de Delme
|
|
We've been commissioned to make a new work for: Schizophonia Centre D'Art Contemporain La Synagogue de Delme 25 October 2013 - 16 February 2014 Centre D'Art Contemporain La Synagogue de Delme With: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Latifa Echakhch, Sharon Hayes, Hiwa K, Franck Leibovici, Eileen Simpson and Ben White (Open Music Archive), Adrian Piper, The Otolith Group Schizophonia explores the histories of music, sound and speech as reinterpreted and written by artists. Many of these artists share an interest in sonic archives; they collect, revive and generate recordings - whether unconventional, popular, politicised or dormant - and examine the ways in which these are circulated. curated by Anna Colin & Sam Thorne
|
ATL 2067: The Recordings - Camden Arts Centre
|
|
Camden Arts Centre Friday 18 October For a special event during the Kara Walker exhibition, Open Music Archive presents an audio-visual DJ set of material recorded at their ATL 2067 project in Atlanta, Georgia.
|
ATL 2067 - Flux Night, Atlanta
|
|
Saturday 5 October 2013 FREE ENTRY ATL 2067 imagines a future Atlanta. 1920s recordings from the city, fixed during the early days of the recording industry and controlled under copyright in the USA until 2067, mutate into new beats for emcees and rappers. Special guest hosts bring exclusive live performances: Boog Brown OPEN MIC Bring your rhymes / Fast-fwd over 50 years / imagine a future Atlanta no registration needed to join the freestyle cypher |
Undoing Property? launch - The Show Room, London
|
|
Undoing Property? Launch: Tuesday 25 June 2013, 6:30–8.30pm The Showroom |
En Vivo: Performance and Performativity - Mexico City
|
|
Our new film shot during a de_sitio residency at Casa Luis Barragán will be shown as part of: En Vivo: Performance and Performativity 13 June - 4 August 2013 (closed between 1 and 21 July), opening 12 June, 19:00 |
On Collaborative Elaboration of Meaning - ICA London
|
|
We are contributing to: On Collaborative Elaboration of Meaning: Photography & Film Institute of Contemporary Arts |
The River Has Two Banks, Ramallah
|
|
Struggle in Jerash is being shown as part of The River Has Two Banks curated by Curated by Shuruq Harb, Samah Hijawi and Toleen Touq. Tuesday, 20 November 2012 film material will be freely distributed following the screening |
The Brilliant and the Dark: B Sides for Remix, Cafe OTO
|
|
All My Independent Women 2012 presents: An Open Music Archive project Friday 16 November 2012 Cafe OTO Tickets : £5 adv/conc, £6 on the door B Side Samples for Remix is the latest iteration of The Brilliant and the Dark culminating in a night of experimental electronics, live remix and mutated vocals. The 1969 archive operatic work for women's voices – as re-worked via all-female choir Gaggle and released in 2011 – is remixed live by: plus GAGGLE DJs. |
Barragán Sound System, Mexico City
|
|
Open Music Archive has been invited by de_sitio to develop a research and production residency that takes as a departure point, the music archive of Casa Estudio Luis Barragán with funding from MIRIAD Tuesday 30th October 2012 Casa Luis Barragán Delving into the personal archive of Mexican architect Luis Barragán (1902-1988), UK artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White (Open Music Archive) explore the architect’s record collection, housed in his former private residence. Barragán, well known for his devotion to the practice of solitude, clearly found refuge in music. Record players and speaker systems are installed in almost every room in his house (including the garden) and the house and collection operate as a kind of storage and playback system. Through their research at Casa Barragán, the artists have explored the legal terrain of the music in Barragán’s record collection – particularly in relation to the complex web of propriety rights locked within the recordings. At the present time Mexico currently boasts the most restrictive copyright law worldwide, with legal revisions in 1994 and 2003 extending copyright in recorded sound to 100 years from both the date of recording and the death of the author. The artists gleaned material from the collection that achieved the status ‘copyright-expired’ before the legal changes, in an attempt to extract public domain music and audio fragments from vinyl and shellac 78s. Barragán Sound System is a live event using public archive recordings as source material, with guest producers invited to process and remix through short live performances. The event, which takes place during the week of Día de los Muertos, brings to life works, with a legal status identified primarily through the date of the death of the author. Barragán Sound System features: Live performances by invited guests Rogeilo Sosa, Carmina Escobar and Andres Solis who will remix the archive source; an Open Music Archive DJ set of public tracks from the collection, plus a preview of the artists forthcoming film shot at Casa Barragán. |
de_sitio, Mexico City
|
|
We have been invited by de_sitio to carry out a research and production residency that takes as a departure point the music archive of Casa Estudio Luis Barragán. de_sitio is a non-profit platform with no permanent address devoted to the conception, development and promotion of contemporary art projects. de_sitio seeks to expand the possibilities of collaboration in different contexts with different organizations and individuals in order to foster continuous and consistent exchange in the development of ideas and concrete research. These are shared through different formats such as publications, residencies, exhibitions and other public programs. Focusing on the work process, de_sitio is a flexible and critical platform that prioritizes those projects based on dialogue. This project is part of En vivo: performance and performativity |
The Brilliant and the Dark - VBKÖ, Vienna
|
|
An exhibition by Eileen Simpson and Ben White 30th August - 3rd October 2012 Austrian Association of Women Artists (VBKÖ) Many thanks to Nina Hoechtl for the invitation plus Screening of Struggle in Jerash 1st September 19:30h TOP KINO
|
Struggle in Jerash, no.w.here
|
|
Eileen Simpson and Ben White (Open Music Archive)
17th July 7-9pm no.w.here film material will be freely distributed following the screening As the first Jordanian audio-visual works begin to fall into the public domain, a constellation of interests are translating, drafting and revising copyrights laws, trade agreements and licences to control the flow of culture and build new markets. Against the backdrop of these emerging intellectual property markets, in 2008 artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White embarked on a period of research in Amman, Jordan – speaking to lawyers, copyright activists, software developers, artists, musicians, journalists, curators, film makers and critics – in an attempt to seek out the common cultural resources of Jordan’s public domain. The result is Struggle In Jerash – a project convened around a lost 1957 Jordanian feature film of the same name, which fell out-of-copyright the year of the artists’ residency, and is used as a catalyst to explore value and meaning in archival material. part of: A Lecture from behind the screen |
From Commons to Communomics: Resisting Privatization
|
|
We've been invited to contribute to: Questions of Value - From Commons to Communomics: Resisting Privatization The Admission to the Seminar is free, but the number of places is limited, please RVSP to: E.L.Nadin@lboro.ac.uk |
Song Division - Camden Arts Centre
|
|
Artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White develop a series of experimental events exploring the sonic potentials of materials gleaned from the edges of the public domain. Simpson and White have sourced a range of songs from early commercial releases that are currently subject to a conflict in copyright status through a split in ownership between lyrics and musical composition. Manuscripts and recordings have been edited, redacted, cut-up and processed to suppress copyright-secured elements and enable the release of public domain layers from the proprietary control of commercial publishers. Invited guests process the collected material through short live performances. Thursday 06 October 7.00 – 8.30pm Wednesday 02 November 7.00 – 8.00pm Wednesday 16 November 7.00 – 8.00pm Camden Arts Centre |
The Brilliant and the Dark - Elgar Rooms, Royal Albert Hall
|
|
Wednesday 28 September 2011 - 8:00 PM Elgar Rooms, Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP. Gaggle perform The Brilliant and the Dark live with "COMMENTARY TO SLIDES" archive slideshow performance by Eileen Simpson and Ben White |
Beyond Struggle in Jerash, Makan
|
|
We are screening, discussing and distributing Struggle in Jerash at Makan Wednesday 21 September 2011 Makan This event is supported by MIRIAD and the European Cultural Foundation |
Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, New York
|
|
Struggle in Jerash will be screened as part of: Film screenings and Conversations Saturday, September 10, 2011, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm Free event |
Shadowboxing, Royal College of Art, London
|
|
Open Music Archive Recorded: Thursday 17th March 2011 (18:30 – 20:30) Broadcast: scheduled for 2021 We were invited by Sean Dockray to contribute to his Public Monument. We produced a future public domain radio programme – projecting forward a selection of out-of-copyright archive music and recordings currently controlled under copyrights due to expire by the time of broadcast in the year 2021. In 2011 in the UK, the term of copyright in a musical composition is limited to the life of the author plus 70 years, while the term of copyright in a sound recording is limited to 50 years from the date of recording. Once this bundle of proprietary rights expires, a music recording enters the public domain and is held in common. The legal frameworks, which define the limits of the public domain, are by no means fixed. The future of the public domain is precarious – the field of culture is increasingly colonised for private interests as proprietors of intellectual property continually lobby for the extension of their control. Pre-release optimistically opens up a future channel for public domain material beyond individual proprietary and commercial interests – a truly free broadcast for an imminent public domain. The Pre-release radio programme was presented by Dan Scott Part of SHADOWBOXING |
Tempo Documentary Festival, Stockholm
|
|
Struggle In Jerash will be screened at: Tempo Documentary Festival Friday 11 March 18:00 – 19:20 Victoria 7 We are also contributing to the event Reality is Fiction: Read more about Struggle In Jerash at Catalogue Magazine |
Artists Film Club - ICA London
|
|
Artists Film Club - The Brilliant and The Dark Institute of Contemporary Arts 2 December 2010 Screening and Discussion 7:30 pm Eileen Simpson and Ben White present their new short video work The Brilliant and the Dark, a restaging of a 1969 cantata for women’s voices of the same name. Following a discussion with the artists and choir leader Deborah Coughlin (chaired by curator Anna Colin), the radically remixed cantata will be performed live by the extraordinary 22-piece women’s choir Gaggle. Free, Book for the Screening, Discussion and Live Performance (limited capacity) or only for the Live Performance The Brilliant and the Dark live performance supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England Live cc licensed recording coming soon |
LuckyPDF TV Autoitalia Live
|
|
Running from the 9th October 2010 and broadcasting for 5 consecutive Saturdays at 5pm, Auto-Italia was transformed into a fully functioning independent TV studio. We contributed to the last episode broadcast live Saturday 12th November: Through re-enactment and lip-synching, Open Music Archive present a series of musical vignettes structured around public domain recordings from 1920s blues and jazz to 1960s soul via 1930s dance band crooners. Al Bowlly’s 1936 newsreel appearance is scrambled (You’ve Got What Gets Me reversed and flipped as Me Gets What Got You’ve) and Vaughn De Leath’s 1927 crooning of Are You Lonesome Tonight? is melodically de-saturated and retroactively mutated by a 1960s monotone female Elvis. Auto-Italia South East, 1 Glengall Road, Peckham, London SE15 6NJ
|
Catalogue screening at SLG
|
|
The Brilliant and The Dark video screening as part of: Catalogue presents Film screening and Tatiana Trouvé in conversation 6 October 2010, 7pm, Free South London Gallery To celebrate its first anniversary, Franco-British online contemporary art magazine Catalogue presents a special evening comprising a screening of films by artists featured in the magazine during its first year of publication, as well as a rare opportunity for a limited audience to hear Tatiana Trouvé in conversation with an invited speaker. |
The Brilliant and The Dark Live
|
|
Thursday 23 September Eileen Simpson and Ben White have invited the extraordinary 22 piece women's choir Gaggle to reinterpret The Brilliant and the Dark, a 1969 cantata for women's voices and to perform it live at The Women's Library. In addition they have asked vocalist Ellen Southern to create a new copyleft remix score, which will be performed with live band and singers on the same night. All will be accompanied by an exclusive DJ set created by Eileen Simpson that celebrates music produced by women, gleaned from The Women's Library The Women's Library
£6 / £4 concessions This event is part of Out of the Archives curated by Anna Colin Out of the Archives runs until 2 October 2010 at The Women's Library. 25 Old Castle Street, London E1 7NT Opening hours: Free entry For the exhibition we negotiated with copyright owners music publishers Josef Weinberger for permission to use elements from the work and invited the all-women choir Gaggle to remix the music and lyrics of the original composition for a new music video. Filmed on location in The Women's Library exhibition hall, the video re-animates the 1969 performance through restaging situations – from the backstage preparations, to choreographed moments in the live event – which are documented in photographs held in the Library’s collection. The performers are seen in new costumes referencing the originals and amidst remade props. |
Parallel Anthology - Whitechapel Late
|
|
Friday 30 July, 8pm Whitechapel Gallery An evening of music inspired by musicologist, record collector and artist Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. Simpson and White have collected parallel public domain versions of the anthology recordings not closed down by copyright - from non-attributed folk versions, to commercial recordings whose proprietary interests have expired. For this event musicians and producers have been invited to perform covers and remixes of Parallel Anthology for a night of plugged and unplugged performances. Live Parallel Anthology sets by: Leafcutter John Plus Open Music Archive out-of-copyright/copyleft DJ set Free Parallel Anthology source CD gift will be presented on entry. |
Superdeluxe@Artspace Film Programme - 17th Biennale of Sydney
|
|
Struggle in Jerash screening: Superdeluxe@Artspace Sunday, 25 July FREE |
Outlet - Beaconsfield
|
|
Distributing direct to the public, the temporary outlet makes available the out-of-copyright and copyleft material from Open Music Archive. Listen, browse, burn and take away . . . Sunday 18 July 2-8 pm Beaconsfield Part of the SpaceShip Earth freecycling party. |
Struggle in Jerash - Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF)
|
|
Screening of Struggle in Jerash - a film by Eileen Simpson and Ben White June 30, 2010 Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF) |
Berlin Documentary Forum
|
|
We're contributing to: Berlin Documentary Forum # 1 02.06.2010 - 06.06.2010 Haus der Kulturen der Welt The BERLIN DOCUMENTARY FORUM is a new programmatic initiative at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. It is an interdisciplinary festival showcasing visual, audiovisual and performative works from all over the world. It is also the first festival to stage a forum that debates the contemporary documentary as a politically committed form of representation. Curator Eduardo Thomas presents a selection of contemporary experimental documentaries – all shown as German premieres. The program brings together films recently made in South America, the Middle East and Asia. The discussions with the filmmakers depart from previously dominant notions such as ‘authorship’, ‘authority’ and ‘authenticity’. "Struggle In Jerash" with Eduardo Thomas, Eileen Simpson, and Ben White |
PARADE: public modes of assembly and forms of address
|
|
We are contributing to PARADE: public modes of assembly and forms of address Friday 21 may Saturday 22 May Sunday 23 may Parade is at: |
LOOP Barcelona
|
|
Struggle in Jerash is showing as part of LOOP Barcelona HOTEL CATALONIA RABMLAS Saturday the 22nd of May London Seen will be launched at this year’s edition of LOOP and functions as an exploration into moving-image practices on London’s contemporary art scene; prolific in exhibition formats, interactions and challenges to conventional circuits. The project brings to Barcelona platforms and exhibition spaces which reflect innovative engagement with and display of video and film. Gathering different types of sites for display, production, distribution and/or archiving of moving-image works, London Seen project aims to generate a reflection around the specific treatment of video and film, by bringing together the participant’s practices and trajectories. |
Parallel Anthology - 17th Biennale of Sydney
|
|
Superdeluxe@Artspace Saturday, 15 May Join Eileen Simpson and Ben White for an evening of free music launching their Parallel Anthology project inspired by musicologist and artist Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. Simpson and White have collected parallel public domain versions of the anthology recordings not closed down by copyright; from non-attributed folk versions, to commercial recordings whose proprietary interests have expired. The evening will feature a free CD giveaway and a DJ set featuring Parallel Anthology tracks, recordings from their Open Music Archive and new copyleft remixes, covers and versions made with a range of collaborators. We're also contributing to the Opening Week Forum: Saturday 15 May
Session II : 1 pm Dr Gerald McMaster, Eileen Simpson and Ben White, Megan Tamati-Quennell Domain Theatre, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney |
The Brilliant and The Dark - The Women's Library
|
|
We are contributing to Out of the Archives exhibition at: The Women's Library 12 May - 2 October 2010 The Women's Library exhibitions are open Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 5.30pm, with a late evening opening on Thursday until 8.00pm. curated by Anna Colin |
Struggle In Jerash - Gasworks London
|
|
I Want to See / Struggle in Jerash Gasworks 16th April 2010 - 30th May 2010 As the first Jordanian audio-visual works begin to fall into the public domain, a constellation of interests are translating, drafting and revising copyrights laws, trade agreements and licences to control the flow of culture and build new markets. Against the backdrop of these emerging intellectual property markets, in 2008 artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White embarked on a period of research in Amman, Jordan – speaking to lawyers, copyright activists, software developers, artists, musicians, journalists, curators, film makers and critics – in an attempt to seek out the common cultural resources of Jordan’s public domain. The result is Struggle In Jerash – a project convened around a lost 1957 Jordanian feature film of the same name, which fell out-of-copyright the year of the artists’ residency, and is used as a catalyst to explore value and meaning in archival material. |
Ambulante Documentary Film Festival, Mexico
|
|
Struggle In Jerash has been selected to be screened as part of Ambulante Documentary Film Festival 2010 The festival tours to Mexico City, Metepec - Toluca, Cuernavaca, Leon, Puebla, Morelia, San Cristobal, Oaxaca, Monterrey, Tijuana, Xalapa and Guadalajara between Feb 12 - May 6 Panel discussion: "Copyright, intellectual property and public goods" Screening with Q&A session Open Music Archive DJ set Injerto programme curated by Eduardo Thomas Read more about Struggle In Jerash at Catalogue Magazine |
Free/Slow University of Warsaw
|
|
11th December 2009 Eileen and Ben will talk about Open Music Archive as part of OUR WAY, BY THE WAY NEW STRATEGIES FOR CULTURE followed by an out-of-copyright/copyleft DJ set at Wspaniały Nowy Świat (former Nowy Świat cafe), ul. Nowy Świat 63 Warsaw Conference "Our Way, by the Way. New Strategies for Culture" took place in the Warsaw University Library between the 11th and the 13th of December 2009. Lectures and discussions were dedicated to the issues of alternative strategies for independent culture and its possible transformations |
Ghost Trace Stellar
|
|
Friday 17th July 2009 Ghost Trace Stellar Organised by Polytechnic & Kate Sweeney. Part of the Polytechnic ecologies programme We're working with Polytechnic to develop an evening of free music at Star and Shadow, an open volunteer-run social space and Cinema in Newcastle. We're inviting bands, musicians, producers and DJs to perform covers, versions, remixes or interpretations of the 1920s and 30s out-of-copyright folk, blues, and jazz from the Open Music Archive. A series of live plugged and unplugged performances will be recorded and licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike, generating a new resource - free for use and reuse in the future. The event opens up a temporary channel for music, exchange and discussion that operates beyond individual proprietary and commercial interests. |
Felix's Machines
|
|
Friday 19 December 2008 Gasworks FREE ENTRY Eileen Simpson and Ben White (Open Music Archive) play a DJ set featuring out-of-copyright clips, blips and loops sampled from 19th Century music boxes, player pianos and other automated music machines. This is followed by a performance of new compositions made in collaboration with Felix Thorn for Felix's Machines, and assembled from out-of-copyright material for the player piano. FREE GIFT: a copyleft licensed CD featuring the new compositions and source files will be given away on the night. Map: download a PDF |
Open Music Archive Outlet, London
|
|
22nd November - 14th December 2008 Artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White set up the first temporary outlet for their Open Music Archive. Distributing direct to the public, the outlet makes available the out-of-copyright and copyleft material from the archive on CDs, CDRs, and vinyl. Featuring new live recordings from Serafina Steer, Hest, Magic Arm, Sisters of Transistors, Per Ahlund and Mathias Josefson (Fylkingen), MC Strategy (Broke 'n' English); studio recordings by Homelife Duo, Liz Green, Sundowner; clips, blips and loops sampled mechanical music boxes; and 1920s and 30s archive source recordings by Leroy Carr, Virginia Liston, Cleo Brown and Honey Hill and more. . . Visitors to the outlet can browse, listen and take away the music. The CDs and records are available in exchange for a suggested donation and all material is out-of-copyright or copyleft - free for use and reuse in the future. The outlet is set up in collaboration with designer Ismini Adami. |
This is not a gateway
|
|
Open Music Archive DJ set at: This is not a gateway festival launch FREE ENTRY |
Free-to-air CD
|
|
Free-to-Air CD containing 14 copyleft covers, versions and remixes of the out-of-copyright archive jazz / blues / music hall & folk from the Open Music Archive. Featuring Magic Arm, Homelife, Sisters of Transistors and more.... Send a donation of £5 and we'll post you a copy of the CD |
Nought To Sixty, ICA
|
|
Monday 29 September 2008 8 - 10 pm Institute of Contemporary Arts out-of-copyright archive jazz / blues / music hall & folk part of Nought to Sixty curated by Mark Sladen and Richard Birkett |
Loose Booty, Zurich
|
|
Loose Booty at K3 - Project Space opening 27th September with Open Music Archive DJ set 7pm till late |
Disclosures II: The Middle Ages, Laxton
|
|
Saturday 6 September 2008 For Disclosures II, Eileen Simpson and Ben White (Open Music Archive) use Declose, the vinyl battle tool created for Disclosures I, to make music for a party in the barn. Nottingham based Turntablists JS, DJ FEVER, and O.P.1 presented live sets created entirely from the battle vinyl. Thanks to James Kelly for putting us in touch. Declose is a copyleft licensed 12" vinyl scratch tool containing a range of samples, beats and extracts made from out of copyright blues, jazz and folk housed in the Open Music Archive Declose was made in collaboration with music producers from the burntprogress community. Download the Declose record or request your free copy of the vinyl from: info@nottinghamcontemporary.org
|
Freebooter, The London Festival of Architecture
|
|
FREEBOOTER: an evening of free music exploring public territory in a peninsula haunted by pirates and bootleggers. Saturday 28th June at: The Pilot Inn, 68 River Way, Greenwich Peninsula, London, SE10 presenting reclaimed lost treasures: featuring: plus and Funktion-One sound system The Declose vinyl will be available on the night in exchange for a donation. part of The London Festival of Architecture Project Manager: Heidi Pedersen |
Photosocial, The Photographers' Gallery
|
|
Photosocial [4] See new photography with music, debate and diversion. The next in an ongoing series of bar nights will include a debate on The Amateur vs the Professional as well as a projection of Screen Tests by Neil Cummings, Marysia Lewandowska, Eileen Simpson and Ben White. Free, spaces limited, so come along early! |
Electronic Music Festival, Amman
|
|
Outdoor screening of Screen Tests, and Dragline with live musical accompaniment by Ben White. The music, which has been sourced from out-of-copyright early 20th Century 78rpm records will be manipulated in real-time. 100LIVE Electronic Music Festival 2008 Saturday, 17th May 08 at 4:00pm FREE ENTRANCE |
Disclosures, London
|
|
For Disclosures Eileen Simpson & Ben White create Declose, a project to create a copyleft licensed 12" vinyl scratch tool containing a range of samples, beats and extracts made from the out-of-copyright blues, jazz and folk housed in the Open Music Archive. The artists promote collaboration and seek to explore its significance and value for creative production. For Declose they invite producers and members of the burntprogress community to create new remix tracks, short vocal snippets, percussive noises, samples, breaks and beats - made entirely from the out-of-copyright music in the Open Music Archive - to make up the battle vinyl. Declose Launch Event: Featuring scratch routines, live experiments and improvisation using the Declose vinyl by: Collection Society FREE ENTRY The Declose vinyl will be available on the night in exchange for a donation. |
Clips, Blips and Loops #2, Geneva
|
|
For Clips, Blips and Loops #2, we are inviting producers, musicians and DJs to contribute to the collection of free source tools available here. This is an extension of a project developed in Stockholm, November 2007. In February 2008 all of the tools will be gathered together to produce a CD that will be freely distributed at a public performance at an event in Geneva on 13th March. |
Loose Booty, London
|
|
Loose Booty Alexandre Bianchini, Jeff McMillan, Sylvie Rodriguez, Pascal Rousson, Guy Sherwin, Eileen Simpson and Ben White For Loose Booty, a new exhibition by Pearl Projects, Eileen Simpson & Ben White have brought together a number of different cover versions of Pinetop's Boogie Woogie, originally written by Clarence "Pinetop" Smith of Chicago (d. 1929). The various out-of-copyright versions, including those by Bing Crosby and Honey Hill, and a new track made entirely from the out-of-copyright elements, are to be burned on CDs and given away for free at the exhibition as a way of disseminating materials that are in the public domain. Vegas Gallery After Party - featuring Open Music Archive out-of-copyright/copyleft laptop and DJ set Downloads here STOP.MOVE Track 2 Track 3 Track 4 Track 5 Track 6
|
Screen Tests - The Bigger Picture, Manchester
|
|
See Screen Tests and Broadcast Times on The Big Screen Manchester from 12th Jan - 1st Feb 2008. Screen Tests - Neil Cummings, Marysia Lewandowska, Eileen Simpson, Ben White Broadcast Times - Neil Cummings, Marysia Lewandowska, Eileen Simpson, Ben White |
Who Makes And Owns Your Work, Stockholm
|
|
Time: 17 November 2007 12.00 - 01.00 In an attempt to cross the boundaries of idea and practice, Iaspis and Konstfack initiated a project on production, distribution and ownership of cultural matter and artistic knowledge starting in December 2006. On 17th November 2007 the project will open itself up by letting the gathered knowledge be combined with that of invited guests, in an event aiming at an in-depth look on the making and owning of contemporary culture. |
Free-to-air (Cornerhouse, Manchester)
|
|
From 15-25th July 2007 Open Music Archive will be resident at Cornerhouse, Manchester's international centre for contemporary arts. For two weeks Eileen Simpson & Ben White will be producing a series of live events and programmes for a temporary FM radio station broadcasting across Manchester. (106.5FM) We're inviting bands and musicians to respond to the rare out-of-copyright folk, blues, and jazz from the Open Music Archive; to work with forgotten lyrics, chords, melodies and beats, and to make new cover versions of forgotten tracks. For two weeks the gallery will host live plugged and unplugged performances and one-off broadcasts by Manchester's finest upcoming and established bands and musicians. |
Previous Projects
 |
Future Projects
 |
