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Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven

joshuatxuk

By joshuatxuk
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Guest murphythecat8

Guest murphythecat8

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i dunno, this album honestly does nothing for me. i listened to it twice today...it's so composed, affected. i feel like everything is thought out but there's no emotion. and honestly, the sounds get grating even in this context. it just isn't working for me at all.

chrome country is not emotional for you? or problem areas. those two are definitely emotional for me and touching.

 

the video is pure genius. Its almost humoristic for me. Funny and seriously weird.

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Amen Lare Veteran

Amen Lare

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These comments are as cute as is the video imagery. It shows how this anarchic Anonymous really strives to be just normal and moral. There is nothing to be shocked by or ashamed of, despite what manipulative montage suggests. At least more than mutiple wars going on, where there are real troubles with a human psyche. A clip about tenderness.

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Plarkreluke Banloboh Mentor

Plarkreluke Banloboh

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you can download a realplayer-thing,

can somebody say how it sounds, because i have problems with my realplayer

[youtubehd]v83yeA0WRkI[/youtubehd]

 

Not NSFW; sorry about the Betamale video.

 

thanks

 

So is this piece a remix by Cory Arcangel through extreme data compression and bit depth reduction of the file? Pretty interesting if so, that would be in keeping with what Cory says about his work in this lecture. He explains, somewhat tounge-in-cheek, how he is trying get to the point of doing as little as possible in his art.

 

 

(Sorry to double post this, I put it in the favorite YouTube's thread but now I think it's relevant here).

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Guest pixelives

Guest pixelives

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it is interesting to see an artist like OPN making one of the most psych-sexual unsettling electronic music videos perhaps since Coil's unreleased video of all those thai boys getting all hot and bothered (although that one was arguably just straight pedophilia). If there are other electronic musicians doing shit this weird I'm just not aware of it.

 

My friend noticed that this video has pretty much the same aesthetic as many tumblr accounts out there, although it's much better done and actually contains video and music.

 

There's actually a bit of a controversy going on with now with the "author" of a tumblr account who sourced all these obscure games and Mr Rafman, who kind of took from these posts verbatim.

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apriorion Mentor

apriorion

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I particularly like "Americans" and "Chrome Country", too. Such emotion in these tracks this time around, which is something that I thought was missing in "Replica".

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roasty Grand Master

roasty

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it is interesting to see an artist like OPN making one of the most psych-sexual unsettling electronic music videos perhaps since Coil's unreleased video of all those thai boys getting all hot and bothered (although that one was arguably just straight pedophilia). If there are other electronic musicians doing shit this weird I'm just not aware of it.

 

My friend noticed that this video has pretty much the same aesthetic as many tumblr accounts out there, although it's much better done and actually contains video and music.

 

There's actually a bit of a controversy going on with now with the "author" of a tumblr account who sourced all these obscure games and Mr Rafman, who kind of took from these posts verbatim.

 

 

c'mon link to tumblr

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Guest jasondonervan

Guest jasondonervan

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UEKaX90.jpg

 

https://twitter.com/fmtownsmarty

 

gsLVLnY.jpg

 

"I’m reblogging this because I want as many people as possible to be aware this happened. fmtownsmarty has been doing what he does for years — finding games that most people don’t give a second thought, playing through them despite of obscure outdated technology and language barriers, and presenting them in an original way, with intelligence, integrity and humour. He’s obviously the inspiration for what I’ve been doing — the original thought behind my first efforts in this was just trying to do something like what fmtownsmarty was doing since it’s not like I could copy what he’s doing anyway. The main challenge in keeping this blog going while getting better at it is not feeling like I’m ripping him off.


Then comes this fucker “artist” and cherrypicks his tumblr, juxtaposes it with stock internet shock imagery, presenting it on 4chan since I guess maybe he subconsciously realizes that’s about the level he’s working on. Of course 4chan thinks it’s really deep, cementing the impression of most people who don’t know where the actual effort involved comes from. Jon Rafman presents his work as gathering imagery from various fetish and videogame-sites on the internet, at first not mentioning any names. Noticably, the bits giving his video any structure, the final shot of the video which leaves the watcher thinking maybe some thought went into this video, and which in turn tumblr users have screencapped to yet again make gifs of, all come from fmtownsmarty.tumblr.com.


When fmtownsmarty gives Jon Rafman a hint that maybe what’s happened here isn’t all as it should be, he gets a nondescript link in the description
to his imgur account, neglecting to link to his tumblr where he’s been exposed for ripping off fmtownsmarty’s work, neglecting to say anything about the extent of his “work” that actually comes from fmtownsmarty. Of course Jon Rafman gets seen as a pioneering artist for his slumming in internet culture, much like artists in the past have been “pioneering” for slumming in street art culture or “primitive” culture.


I don’t think anyone that has been impressed with this video has any idea of the background of it. The only thing impressive about what this guy has done is managing to get hired by Oneohtrix Point Never.

For the past few days I’ve been grappling with how to best address/deal with this, and other than a few passive-aggressive tweets sent to Jon Rafman (i now have a twitter account as a result of this but I don’t get how i’m supposed be using it.) I really haven’t done much of anything. Ulan-Bator’s take on this is way more succinct than i’d probably ever be able to put it, and I’m grateful beyond words. He has always been a thoroughly excellent individual, and his presence (along with a small group of other people on here) is one of the main inspirational forces which motivates me to continue running this blog.

There’s a lot more that I need to say about this but right now I don’t know if I can. This whole thing unfolded in the middle of a bunch of other god-awful personal/financial/employment/living situation hells that are happening concurrently. Also, I found out a few hours ago that a family member passed away last night. Needless to say, I feel WEIRD and SAD and FUCKING TERRIBLE. I’m having a difficult time organizing my thoughts and it’s fucked that I’m spending all of this emotional energy on weird internet shit. I’d like to thank all of you for your kind words, and for opening up this discussion in spite of my mostly non-active participation. I’ve spent the last 40 minutes rewriting what was going to be the next paragraph of this message but it’s still a big incoherent mess and I have to try to catch a train so I can spend the next three or four days being miserable. I’ll come back to this later in the week I guess."

 

 

http://fmtownsmarty.tumblr.com/post/62565188396/vimeo-com-75402303

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joshuatxuk Grand Master

joshuatxuk

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I was pretty livid when I read that, though a bit less so after seeing that he was linked to in the description. I've seen far more egregious ripoffs and unauthorized appropriation before. Also, FM_Towns_Marty is itself a reference to an existing thing (and I rather vaporwave-y one at that) though that doesn't excuse the way this was handled.

 

The more reasonable thing for Jon Rafman to do (and OPN, assuming he had anything to do with the video's making) would be:

 

1. contact the artist whose work you wish to use so prominently

2. credit the artist far more fully than merely linking to "a source

 

Look, I'm one who appreciates sampling, pluderphonics, and clever/thoughtful re-appropriation, but there is a very important aspect of respect and focus that should come with it. It's often a subtle, seemingly arbitrary difference. For instance, I had no qualms when Rihanna and Azealia Banks deliberately utilized seapunk imagery for their music videos, and found that the ire of the "seapunk" community was ridiculous and childish, because save for the few talented producers (Ultrademon, LOL Jerome), it's a crowd of fucking clueless scenesters aping 90s aesthetics. But when you create something as disturbing and provocative as the "Still Life" video, especially using a majority of images not at all defined as "public domain" or "found media" (like the google map sourced 9-eyes project) but instead very distinct work of another individual, it's quite reckless and irresponsible to rip it of it's original context and redefine it as perverse and disturbing imagery without even getting a basic thumbs up from its author.

 

I feel bad for http://fmtownsmarty.tumblr.com/, I'm amazed he hasn't been far more angry in his reaction. Surely he has knots in his stomach and a feeling (no irony intended) of being violated in a way. The very least the Rafman/OPN camp could do is apologize.

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joshuatxuk Grand Master

joshuatxuk

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edit: And the other thing that sucks? A mere thumbnail in the corner of his images (I've seen many on tumblr do this, especially with .gif art) could of at least prevented such easy re-appropriation for this video.

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Guest pixelives

Guest pixelives

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FM Towns Marty can't do much else though besides highlight the time and effort he put in to what Rafman appropriated from him, since he is not the rightful owner of these obscure PC games. Appropriation rabbit hole, right there...

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joshuatxuk Grand Master

joshuatxuk

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I am all for fair use, sampling, and appropriation. But Rafman was extremely lazy here and therefore think it's pretty lame.

 

Bingo. Man, I wish I was so succinct!

 

You know what's also kind of funny. The video was flagged on youtube for terms of service and community violations from the start.

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