Subject: radical statements and other bullshit
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 12:07:30 +0100
From: "Jonathan P. Dixon" (jpd@shitjob.com)
Organization: shitjob, inc.
To: costanzo@thing.net


statement:

"The Whole World is Watching" was pretty much conceived (and currently being executed) in a purely reactionary way, in direct response to a deep scorn/contempt/disgust for the dominant culture, especially the work and leisure aspects thereof. I've always been fascinated by the more radical fringe of the 60's-- the Weatherman Underground, the Black Mask, SDS, the Diggers and (especially) the Black Panthers-- and their imagery and sloganeering, which is every bit as powerful as any of their manifestoes and texts. Reading Black Panther articles has been an influence on my thinking, but so has the image of a gun-toting, cigarette-smoking Eldridge Cleaver in shades.

Being the product of the "underground" (punk and its offshoots, the usual array of weird/bent writers and filmakers and artists) I'm utterly repulsed by the total co-option of this stuff by the likes of MTV and Details and SPIN (the cult of celebrity, its staggering to me that sports figures and models are not only deified but paid millions), considering the degrading conditions of just about every job I've ever had. The WWW is basically an attempt to tackle what's going on right now with some of the same impulses, techniques and images (updated and recontextualized, of course) of the recent past. Although the focus is mainly musical, I figure that since my life and the lives of my friends are pretty much refracted through music and the culture around it, there's no more appropriate focal point.