[rumori] Ultra! anti-consumerism show in Seattle


From: Steev Hise (steevATdetritus.net)
Date: Tue Nov 26 2002 - 09:49:45 PST


This is exciting. An event in Seattle presented by the Northwest
Film Forum, which will include art, films, lecture presentation
by Mark Hosler, and live performances by myself, Office Products
and Mutant Data Orchestra (featuring Otis Fodder of the Bran
Flakes). details below:

The Little Theatre

Winter 2003

IN THE GALLERY: ULTRA ART!
Opening Reception, Buy Nothing Day, Friday, November 29, 6 pm

Featuring cover art reproductions from ADBUSTERS Magazine and

Buy Nothing Day propaganda in all of its forms. An interactive
installation by artist John Bain, featuring sampled music by Otis
F. Odder. Subvertising ad pranks, poster art, sticker bombs
(bring your own, add to the fray!). Special showing of
Christopher James� GRIPS 99 and U.G.A. K.�s piece
BeautifulNewYou. Show runs through January 11, 2003.

NORTHWEST FILM FORUM & THE INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTER PRESENT�

Series Sponsors: Flexcar: Shift Your Thinking, and Broadway Video
ULTRA:

The High Noon of Consumer Culture November 29 -December 15

Dear Consumer,

Stay in fashion this shopping season�. by NOT shopping!

Instead, enjoy the edgy alternative offered at the Northwest Film
Forum's Little Theatre, ULTRA: THE HIGH NOON OF CONSUMER CULTURE.
Yes, we regret to inform you that the happy-go-lucky days, the
incorruptible days when one could, with good conscience, mall rat
and gorge on fast food are in the future of their decline. As the
economy turns downward, the friendly advertising methods of
yesteryear and the fun loving consumer life style as we now know
will become things of the past. Say a fond farewell to the former
innocuous barrage of advertising brainwash, and the somnambulist
mall grazing of the past. Prepare for the struggle to come as
advertising no longer benevolently counsels but aggressively
demands that we shop. Before consumerism runs its course, let us
remember the good times, and commemorate the zenith on which it
all now teeters. But let us also be progressive, and embrace the
future to come. So for those who want edge, come to a place where
the edge exists, and don�t go shopping�that shit�s so passe.

ULTRA week 1 Ode to the Shopping Mall: The Nostalgic Tragedy of Sprawl!

*In the spirit of Buy Nothing Day, opening night is FREE!* The
first week of ULTRA explores the bastions of consumer culture�the
major shopping center, or The Mall, and its
offspring�S-P-R-A-W-L. Sprawl is to the corporate developer as
manifest destiny was to the pioneers of our brave new world.
Wiping out the barbarism of indigenous culture, sprawl�s
insatiable appetite for expansion has as its guarantee:
homogeneity for every block!

ULTRA week 2 Artism: Art is Activism

If there is one thing Mark Hosler of Negitvland fame knows it is
that the artist can no longer take commercial art lightly while
painting his soup cans, but must be ready to save unbranded
_expression by taking culture and art back from the corporations.
Negitvland's ad pranks and media hoaxes taught us to read between
the lines, and spearheaded media literacy. Learn that in these
times, art is always activism.

ULTRA week 3 Mind Pollution: Testing the Senses

Learn to think for yourself again. Painful as it may be, remember
we are preparing for the future. Test your senses with
noise/collage bands, Smell-o-Vision, and more sensory fun.

**If you attend all 3 weeks, we at the NWFF promise that when
consumer culture�s sun sets you�ll be prepared, and while
everyone else is boohooing you�ll be able to throw around phrases
like �over it,� and �last week�s news,� with so much cache. And,
believe me if the NWFF can impart anything, it�s CACHE. **

Sincerely,

NWFF Staff

ULTRA week 1

ODE TO THE SHOPPING MALL: The Nostalgic Tragedy of Sprawl!

Friday, Buy Nothing Day, November 29
Ultra Opening Night FREE!!
Plays at 8 pm
Seattle Premiere!
MALLED: SCENES FROM NORTHGATE

(NWFF, 2002, DV/Video, 45 min.)

Watch as we struggle for the discounted, the reduced, the
slashed, the cut, the debased and the utterly humiliated while we
do the shopping for you, hitting every mall in the Seattle area
at 6 am this morning! We record and edit it all today to bring
you the kind of cutting edge programming you deserve on The
Largest Shopping Day of The Year!

*Plays with ArtSpots Buy Nothing Day Broadcast. Local artists are
buying commercial spots to broadcast happy messages in place of
the panic inducing insanity of holiday advertisements. Come see
�Zen Scroll� and find out what�s doing with ArtSpots.

Saturday, November 30
$3 suggested donation.

3 pm THE RENDEZVOUS READING SERIES presents�

MYTHS OF GLUTTONY
Mark Svenvold, Willie Smith, Brian Goedde, Megan Purn and Jamie Keeling read original and appropriated work about The Shopping Mall and the hunger that drives American life.

Plays at 7 & 9 pm
Seattle Premiere!
Hosted by Sean Nelson reading from Joan Didion�s essay ON THE MALL!
REVEREND BILLY & THE CHURCH OF STOP SHOPPING

(Dietmar Post, 2002, DVD, 60 min.)

Prophetically inclined performance artist activist Reverend
Billy, a.k.a. Bill Talen, seeing the imminent decline of consumer
culture, attempts to save New York City�s indigenous heritage
from cultural dead zones such as Starbucks, Disney, and, in
particular, NYU�s construction site at the Edgar Allen Poe House
through �shopping interventions/actions.� (www.playloud.org)

�The most hilarious and pointed political theatre in New York.�
�New York Times

Sunday, December 1
Plays at 7 & 9 pm

Seattle Premiere!
STORE WARS: WHEN WAL-MART� COMES TO TOWN
(Micha X Peled, 2001, BetaSP, 60 min.)

Winner of the Golden Gate Award for Best Documentary, San
Francisco International Film Festival, Winner of Golden Plaque,
Chicago International Film Festival

In the US, Wal-Mart� opens a new megastore every two business
days. This is the story of one town�s struggle to stop Wal-mart�
from moving in (when there was already a Wal-mart� 10 minutes
drive away!), and of the impact discount chain stores have had on
American towns and cities, and on our society.

�A David vs. Goliath scenario�small town citizens vs. corporate
behemoth, a fascinating study in community action..� �New York
Times

ULTRA week 2

ARTISM: ART IS ACTIVISM

Thursday-Saturday, December 5-7
Plays daily at 7 & 9 pm

Seattle Theatrical Premiere!
THE AD AND THE EGO
(Harold Boihem, Sound Design by Negativland, 1997, BetaSP, 57 min.)

Plays with shorts by Negativland, WHY IS THIS COMMERCIAL? with R Room, & TASTE IN MIND

HOSTED EACH NIGHT BY MARK HOSLER w/ short Q & A after each screening!

One of the first comprehensive documentaries about the cultural impact of advertising on American Society, AD AND THE EGO intercuts thousands of television commericals to Negativland's sound design, and has insights by Stuart Ewen, Jean Kilbourne, Sut Jhally, and others.

�A democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection�not an invitation for hypnosis� �Umberto Eco

Sunday, December 8 at 8 pm ONLY!

MEDIA PRANKS AND HOAXES OF NEGATIVLAND

(Mark Hosler, Video/Lecture Presentation, 90 min.)

Negativland brings its love of found sounds and recycled mass culture to experimental moviemaking, presented by Mark Hosler, a founding member of Negativland! Mark will discuss the "culture jamming" projects that his band has been doing since 1980. The presentation covers issues of media-literacy, creative and humorous anti-corporate art/activism, the role of advertising and corporate power in our lives, intellectual property issues, and the evolution of art, law, and resistance in a media-saturated multinational world.

ULTRA week 3

MIND POLLUTION: Testing the Senses

Wednesday, December 11 ONLY!
Plays at 7 & 9 pm

Seattle Premiere!
SMELL-O-VISION: CONSUMING SMELLS
(David Yonge, 2002, BetaSP, 76 min.)

plus very special guests....

Plays with YELLOW DIABLO SHOCKUMENTARY
See the effects of consumerism while smelling its sensational emptiness. Tonight's olfactory tour through television, icons, and pop music delights consumers with yet another sensory overload�with a grand finale you'll have to smell to believe! David will use fans, a hotplate, and aerosol cans to create the smells that would be present if you were in the scenes with your favorite actors. YELLOW DIABLO SHOCKUMENTARY tells the true story of a masked wrestler's grudge with inanimate objects. A hilarious and yet disturbing look at one man's battle to free himself from consumer products.

"The appeal of Smell-O-Vision goes far beyond the olfactory nerves, the whole evening is a trip in so many ways; it's a night to celebrate Hollywood gimmickry play in the muck of retro pop culture..." -Vancouver Westender

Thursday, December 12
Plays at 7 & 9 pm

CULTURE JAM: HIJACKING COMMERICAL CULTURE
(Jill Sharpe, 2001, BetaSP, 57 min.)
FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE!

Culture jammers artfully reclaim our mental environment. This
documentary follows three jammers; media tigress Carly Stasko,
Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping, and Jack Napier
with the Billboard Liberation Front. Enter the intriguing worlds
of midnight billboard raids and the mid-afternoon hijacking of
public space!

�There is no free speech anymore. It�s all bought and paid for.�
�Billboard Liberation Front

Friday, December 13
Plays at 7 & 9 pm
NO CONSUMER WHORE: Local Shorts with special guest sceening of Don Hertfeld�s Academy Award nominated animation short REJECTED!

(Various Artists, 2000-2, 35mm, VHS, 55 min.)

A program of local ad prank work, and satirical shorts, including
a special screening of animator Don Hertzfeld�s film short
REJECTED! WHO�S GONNA PAY FOR IT? by Gregg D�Elia is about GAP�
Vice President Bob Fisher�s clear cutting of old growth in
Mendocino County, CA. Douglas Horn�s hilarious short TRAILER: THE
MOVIE! Michael Seely and Sarah Eberhardt Clancy�s documentary
SUBVERTISERS, and Art Spot�s culture jammer, Kathlyn Albright
will be screening MY WAY IS RIGHT, plus a sneak preview of her
new spot. She will also show you how you can get involved with
local culture jammers! Plus exciting anti-consumer stupid art
pranks by Brandon Nakamura & TJ Cowgill!

Saturday, December 14
Show at 7 pm

ULTRA MUSIC: An Evening of Improvised Collage & Noise Music

$8/$6 NWFF Members

Featuring STEEV HISE, OFFICE PRODUCTS, & MUTANT DATA ORCHESTRA.
Co-presented by the Polestar Music Gallery

www.polestarmusic.org

STEEV HISE creates live sound collage with original video
accompaniment. His work centers around the appropriation and
recontextualization of pre-existing cultural artifacts; making
new art from the old. For more info: www.detritus.net/steev

OFFICE PRODUCTS is Doug Theriault and David Chandler. They
combine free-improv and musique concrete techniques into very
fast, difficult, yet humorous music.

THE MUTANT DATA ORCHESTRA is: John Bain � modified electronics,
Ffej - analog synthesizer, Mishka Morris- cello + efx and Otis F.
Odder - samples. They perform through live circuit modification
of consumer electronics, exposing the hidden agents within our
digital society.

Sunday, December 15

Show at 7 pm

CLOSING NIGHT GALA!
GORGED: �PERFORMANCE ART� BY ZACK CARLSON
The Grand Illusion programmer Zack Carlson explores greed as he challenges A REAL PIG to a Whopper �-eating contest (ten burgers in ten minutes) in a dramatic final salute to the era of the consumer culture!

Steev Hise, Technical Thug
steevATdetritus.net http://detritus.net/steev
*Recycled Culture: detritus.net *Recordings: phonophilia.com
*Want Peace? Stop Paying for War: warresisters.org/wtr_menu.htm
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"There's a place where money grows on trees - the only way to reach it
 is on your knees."
                -David Byrne
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