Conny Blom

Parallel to the intensified blood hunt for file sharers, the music industry is screaming for strengthened copyright laws, under the pretext that this is to protect the creators (musicians, artists, writers). In fact these laws are obviously here to protect their own interests and with this the major record labels are trying to throw a spanner into the works of both development and creativity. Under the current laws, it would be impossible for genres like jazz and rock music to emerge since what has always been an integral part of musical development, namely references, borrowings and paraphrases, is no longer possible without financial backing from the music industry’s major players. Instead of investing money into trying to keep up with the technological development, the money is spent on lobbying amongst politicians and legislators and trying to convince them that it is necessary to litigate against both file sharers and any creator who borrows something in order to create something new. Few have been protected more fiercely than The Beatles, who themselves borrowed great chunks from old blues tunes. This band is also one of the reasons why the extension of the duration of copyrights for recordings is being validated.

More info: http://www.connyblom.com/


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SLO below		Conny Blom: The Complete Beatles (4 March - 17 March)
In his work the Swedish artist Conny Blom deals with the defining issues of our modern society, our living conditions and the rights of the individual versus the society and the economical forces. Balancing between the poetic and the subversive, Blom uses material from pop culture as well as iconic pieces of contemporary art to comment, question and subvert established hierarchies. By focusing on the otherwise overlooked, the in-between, and the unseen, reediting it into new aesthetic experiences, he provides new perspectives and brings into light previously untold stories. The sound installation “The Complete Beatles” consists in its entirety of music recorded by the named band. As a matter of fact, every second of the officially released studio recordings by The Beatles is included in the piece, but none of the songs can be recognised. Each individual track is looped and played simultaneously, so that at any given moment of the continuous sound one can hear all of The Beatles’ studio recordings. This is not about sampling – The Beatles production is presented in its entirety – but is it The Beatles that we are hearing?
Parallel to the intensified blood hunt for file sharers, the music industry is screaming for strengthened copyright laws, under the pretext that this is to protect the creators (musicians, artists, writers). In fact these laws are obviously here to protect their own interests and with this the major record labels are trying to throw a spanner into the works of both development and creativity. Under the current laws, it would be impossible for genres like jazz and rock music to emerge since what has always been an integral part of musical development, namely references, borrowings and paraphrases, is no longer possible without financial backing from the music industry’s major players. Instead of investing money into trying to keep up with the technological development, the money is spent on lobbying amongst politicians and legislators and trying to convince them that it is necessary to litigate against both file sharers and any creator who borrows something in order to create something new. Few have been protected more fiercely than The Beatles, who themselves borrowed great chunks from old blues tunes. This band is also one of the reasons why the extension of the duration of copyrights for recordings is being validated. More info: http://www.connyblom.com/

SLO Conny Blom: “The Complete Beatles” (Celotni Beatli) Conny Blom je Švedski umetnik, ki trenutno prebiva v Sloveniji. V svojem delu se Blom ukvarja z opredeljujočimi vprašanji moderne družbe, z okoliščinami, v katerih živi sodobni človek ter s pravicami posameznika v odnosu do družbe in ekonomskih sil. Balansirajoč med poetičnim in subverzivnim, Blom svoje gradivo jemlje tako iz popularne kulture kot iz kanoničnih del sodobne umetnosti. S prisvojenim materialom komentira, vprašuje in spodkopava utrjene hierarhije. S tem, ko se osredotoča na tisto, kar je običajno spregledano, tisto vmes, tisto ne-videno in to preuredi v nova estetska doživetja, Blom ponuja nove perspektive ter osvetli pred tem še ne-pripovedovane zgodbe. Zvočna inštalacija »Celotni Beatli« je v celoti sestavljena iz glasbe, ki jo je posnela v naslovu omenjena skupina. Vsaka sekunda uradnih posnetkov The Beatles je vključena v delo, vendar se ne da prepoznati nobene od skladb. Vsaka posamezna skladba se ponovi takoj, ko se odvrti in vse se vrtijo istočasno, tako da se lahko ob kateremkoli trenutku nepretrganega zvoka sliši vse, kar so Beatli posneli. Tu ne gre za »sampling« (izposojanje delčkov skladb drugih avtorjev, ki se jih uporabi v lastni kompoziciji) – produkcija Beatlov je uporabljena v celoti – vendar je to, kar slišimo, The Beatles? Vzporedno z zagnanim lovom na tiste, ki si delijo glasbene datoteke preko interneta (file sharers), si glasbena industrija kriče prizadeva za ojačanje avtorskih pravic, pod krinko da gre za zaščito ustvarjalcev. V resnici so ti zakoni očitno tu zato, da zaščitijo njene lastne interese in s tem velike založniške hiše mečejo polena pod noge tako tehničnemu razvoju kot kreativnosti. Pod sedanjimi zakoni bi bilo nemogoče, da bi se razvili žanri kot sta npr. jazz in rock glasba, saj sklicevanje, izposojanje in parafraziranje, ki so bili vedno del glasbenega razvoja, danes niso več mogoči brez velikega finančnega zaledja velikih igralcev glasbene industrije. Namesto investiranja v nove tehnološke izume in tako držanja koraka z razvojem medijev, gre denar v lobiranje med politiki in zakonodajalci, katere skušajo prepričati, da je pomembno sodno preganjati tako »file sharers« kot vsakega ustvarjalca, ki si izposodi nekaj, da bi ustvaril nekaj novega. Ob tem je bil malokdo tako zelo zavarovan kot skupina The Beatles, člani katere so si sami izposojali zajetne količine materiala od starih blues melodij. Ta skupina je tudi eden izmed razlogov za ponovno pogajanje glede podaljšanja veljavnosti avtorskih pravic za posneto glasbo.
Več informacij na: http://www.connyblom.com/





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