[artinfo] An Invitation to Join the Opsound & Opcopy Projects

Wed Mar 26 14:03:24 CET 2003

Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 10:38:29 -0500
From: Sal Randolph <sal at highlala.com>

Dear Friends,

I'd like to invite you all to be part of two new projects I'm working on,
Opsound and Opcopy; both are experiments in creating social architectures as
artworks exploring gift economies and free culture.

Opsound will be an open access sound resource and copyleft record label,
collecting all kinds of sounds for free use and also releasing actual
records and cds (which will be bought, sold, and distributed in the usual
manner, with money returning to the artists). I'm expecting that we'll be
collecting some amazing material, and over the next few months releasing
records and organizing events and parties in New York, Frankfurt, and Berlin
(at the very least). All kinds of music and sound can be entered into the
Opsound open pool -- of course we're looking for music, but I'm personally
also very interested in collecting other kinds of audio material including
spoken texts, noises, field recordings, etc. Opsound will be encouraging a
proliferation of microlabels, both online and real world, the first of
which -- the Opsound house label -- will concentrate on experimental
electronic music. Opsound is also looking, less formally, for anyone
interested in working on video material to be part of an upcoming cd/dvd
combo release.

Opound has a sibling project, Opcopy: Open Copyright Action, which is an
experimental political organization exploring new ways of responding to an
increasingly restrictive climate where more and more of our collective
cultural material is being privatized and controlled. Opcopy will begin by
collecting varying and differing opinions on copyright issues to try and
engage in a more interesting level of debate about questions of intellectual
"property," the public domain, and free culture (free in both the sense of
"free speech" and the sense of "free beer"). You are most cordially invited
to post your own position on the matter on the opcopy site.

Please feel free to write with questions or suggestions, and to pass this
invitation along to anyone you think might be interesting/interested.

All the best,
Sal

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Sal Randolph
sal at opsound.org
sal at opcopy.org

http://www.opsound.org
http://www.opcopy.org

http://www.highlala.com

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AN OPEN CALL TO MUSICIANS AND ARTISTS

Musicians and sound artists of all kinds are invited to join the Opsound
project.

Opsound is a record label using an open source, copyleft model, an
experimentin practical gift economics, a laboratory for new ways of
releasing music.

In its first phase of operation, Opsound is gathering material for an open
sound pool which will be drawn on for the creation of a series of online and
real-world microlabels. All material for the sound pool will be released
under a Creative Commons license (the "Attribution-ShareAlike license "), a
copyleft license in the spirit of open source software license which allows
for all kinds of copying, remixing, use, and reuse while retaining an
attribution to the original artist.

Anyone is encouraged to contribute sound files to the open sound pool,
including field recordings, ambiences, incomplete improvisations, monologues
& dialogues, spoken texts, unfinished experiments, detached soundtracks,
vocal solos, strange noises, bedroom laptop, microsound, generative, glitch
dub, idm, minimal techno, blip hop, hip hop, turntablist, downtempo,
uptempo, reggae, ragga, raga, roots, breakbeat, basement punk, garage band,
indy, shoegazer, psychedelia, noise, song, be-bop, free jazz, Modern
composition, avant-anything, etc. Sound files can be complete pieces of
music, or elements intended be combined into something new.

DEADLINE: There is currently no deadline, and entries will be accepted on an
ongoing basis. You are, however, encouraged to enter your material as soon
as is conveniently possible.

HOW TO ENTER: Please visit the Opsound site at http://www.opsound.org, read
the guidelines and faq, and then use the entry form.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: SAL RANDOLPH 212-219-9328 sal at opsound.org

ARTIST STARTS NEW EXPERIMENTAL RECORD LABEL AND POLITICAL ACTION GROUP TO
EXPLORE COPYRIGHT ISSUES

New York, March 11, 2003. New York artist Sal Randolph announces the launch
of two new art projects, Opsound and Opcopy, which continue her recent
explorations of social architectures as art forms.

Opsound -- (http://www.opsound.org) responds to recent upheavals in the
music industry by creating an alternative structure for musicians and
sound-based artists wishing to share and release music under a copyleft, or
open source structure. Opsound will gather a pool of sound material from
artists and encourage the development of both web-based and real-world micro
labels to release artists' work. All work will be released under a Creative
Commons license which permits free copying and modification (the Creative
Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, http://www.creativecommons.org).
Opsound also expects to function directly as a record label in its own right
focusing on experimental electronic music.

Opcopy -- Open Copyright Action (http://www.opcopy.org) takes the form of a
political organization working to promote the public's access to culture
through the restoration and broadening of the public domain and the repeal
of restrictive laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the
Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (known popularly as the Mickey Mouse
Protection Act). Opcopy will focus on raising the level of public debate on
copyright issues by supporting direct art actions and will encourage an
ongoing engagement with diverse opinions. "With the recent Supreme Court
decision endorsing the Sonny Bono act," Randolph says, "it's become clear
that we cannot rely on the courts to protect us from bad policy. The only
way to proceed is to make artists and the general public more aware of the
Destructive quality of these laws, and to get them changed."

Randolph's recent social architecture projects include Free Manifesta
(http://www.freemanifesta,org) and the Free Biennial
(http://www.freebiennial.org), both of which were open access exhibitions of
free art in public spaces involving over 300 artists. Her project Free Words
(http://www.freewords.org) involves a worldwide network of volunteer
distributors who infiltrate copies of the uncopyrighted book Free Words (no
rights reserved) onto the shelves of bookstores and libraries. Her website
is http://www.highlala.com

Opsound
648 Broadway Suite 1005
New York, NY 10012
212-777-1156
http://www.opsound.org
info at opsound.org

Opcopy
Open Copyright Action
648 Broadway, Suite 1005
New York, NY 10012
212-777-1156
http://www.opcopy.org
info at opcopy.org

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