Sound Propositions

Negativland has always been about media literacy; their pranks are not only humorous but reveal something about how media function. But in recent years, as the world has changed around them, their  relationship to this aspect of their practice has had to evolve. What was subversive in the 80s is mostly met with a shrug today. While sampling has become less essential to their work, the group continues to reappropriate and recontextualize human speech, and in an age of AI voice clones, the importance of using actual voices becomes even more significant. Last fall, I sat down with Negativland’s Mark Hosler and Jon Leidecker (Wobbly) at Krakow, Poland’s Unsound festival to discuss the history of their long running group, the importance of radio, and how the changing mediascape has transformed the meaning of their work as collage has gone mainstream. TRACKLIST ARTIST – “TITLE” (ALBUM, LABEL, YEAR) Negativland - “Is It Or Isn’t It” (Speech Free: Recorded Music For Film, Radio, Internet and Television, Seeland, 202