Their short films were in heavy rotation during MTV’s early days and they are now part of the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. They were also one of the pioneering groups in the music video revolution. They led the way in home recording, video production, animation, CD-Rom, laserdisc, podcasts and web-series. They are ultimately much more than a band that plays strange music: The Residents are multimedia pioneers. The filmmakers followed them on their most recent world tour, bearing first-hand witness to their highly diverse legion of fans – turns out they are everywhere! The Residents have always played by their own rules, managing to release more than 60 albums and garner critical acclaim for their artistic acumen. This business counterpart allowed director Don Hardy and his crew unprecedented access to the groups’ archival materials and recent world tour celebrating their 40th anniversary. Still, The Residents have a management company, The Cryptic Corporation, led by Hardy W. They always perform wearing masks and costumes, which is part of their magic. Many details surrounding the group are secret, including the identities of its members. Their history, spanning more than 40 years, continues to be shrouded in mystery. Afterwards, if someone does see it, it doesn’t compromise the initial process.THEORY OF OBSCURITY tells the story of The Residents: a renegade sound and video collective from San Francisco. Use the Theory of Obscurity in the spirit in which it is intended. It will let you bring up ideas and thoughts that you do not otherwise consider for fear of being judged.
If nothing else, forgetting an audience will let you push yourself into areas you might not be comfortable with. I was often left wondering what she actually thought because all she wrote was what she thought I wanted to read.Ĭreating for no audience with the intention of locking something away may be just what you need to spur yourself onwards. She would sit in class and cross out negative things in her poems because she was afraid people would like them less. She hoped that someone would find them andīe touched in some way. She would write poems, tear them out of her notebook and abandon them She was soĭesperate for an audience and so fearful of a negative reaction that I remember a woman in a poetry class I took years ago. Eventually, during a dispute with their label, it was released under the name Not Available. They recorded an album that there were going to lock away in a vault until they forgot about it. They decided for this theory to truly operate, they would have to create music that was not intended to be heard by anyone. I bring this to your attention because it led The Residents to try an interesting exercise.
#THEORY OF OBSCURITY FREE#
The theory adds that with no audience to consider, artists are free to create work that is true to their own vision. The theory, as stated in this Wired article, goes as follows.Īccording to this philosophy, artists do their purest work in obscurity, with minimum feedback from any kind of audience. They developed their interesting way of looking at the world through the theories of (possibly fictional) Bavarian composer N.
In fact, it is purposely composed to appeal only to them. No one knows who is actually in the band, they disguise their face with giant eyeballs or other disguises, and their music is not designed to appeal to everyone.
The Residents may be the world’s most famous unknown band.
0 kommentar(er)
