[rumori] Prelinger and his archives


From: Steev Hise (steevATdetritus.net)
Date: Mon Jun 04 2001 - 09:34:34 PDT


Mon, 4 Jun 2001 found Vicki Bennett writing:

>I've nothing but praise for Mr Prelinger, he's saved my life. I've

you're more positive because you've had a more positive
experience with the files. simple as that.

yeah it's great he's doing it. conceptually i think he's a
beautiful wonderful person. but he just could have done a
better job executing the idea, i think.

also, the more i look at the films themselves the more i
think, ok, great, its wonderful as a historic document. but
dare i say it, as collage source material maybe they're not
that great. i mean, that's a matter of opinion but, let's be
honest, that sort of 50s educational/industrial/propaganda
film thing is sooooo cliched. EVERYONE uses these sorts of
films. From "Atomic Cafe" to the Tape-beatles to the latest
video by Downer (trendy american alt-metal band). granted
when "Atomic Cafe" and "Grand Delusion" were done, it wasn't
a cliche yet, but i think the last 10 years of mainstream
"rebellious" advertising has pounded the last nails in the
coffin. it's so EASY to make fun of this stuff now. haha,
look at the uptight american 50s family! haha, look at them
doing atomic bomb drills! ha. ha.

Maybe it's good that it's not THAT easy to use these files,
because if it was, every half-assed videoartist wannabe in
the world would be chopping up "Duck and Cover"....

(by the way, Vicki, i think part of the incredible strength
of your work is that it's very British. you're really
recycling your own specific culture, which is really great.
not to say you shouldnt be commenting on american culture,
since the imperialism of the american media machine is
making that everyone's culture whether they want it to be or
not. but it's something to think about. and i'm interested
in knowing why these films seem to be such a great resource
to you...)

>would be putting useable stuff online so soon, and his website is the
>most useful one that I've found in 4 years of web surfing.

why do you you find the site useful? the interface and
design is pretty standard, or substandard, imho. is it
useful just because the files you downloaded were useful?

there are so many ways the site could be better. what about
the simple feature of providing lowres realmedia or
quicktime clips to watch so you can decide which ones you
like before spending the time downloading these monster
files? that's just one idea off the top of my head. what
about a search engine? etc etc etc.....

smh

Steev Hise, Subversive Radical Hippy Hacker
steevATdetritus.net http://detritus.net/steev
*Recycled Culture: detritus.net
*Record Store: southtothefuture.com
*Progressive radio sketches: radioluchalibre.com
*Watching power flow: capitalletters.detritus.net
*Democratic sound collage generator: soundbakery.detritus.net
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