[Atompunk] Music... and Forward

[Adam Rothstein]

I had been thinking about what atom-punk music would be like and was a
little stuck--music from the time period is really not as evocative as other
imagery of the "right" sort of feelings, in my opinion.  Also, music seems
very related to its time period to me.  In other words, 80s music is just so
characteristic of the 80s to me, etc.
But I like these: maybe the music video aspect helps, taking the focus on
the actual music and getting more towards a feeling or an aesthetic that the
artist (or at least the video artist) is trying to represent.  Now metal can
be atom-punk, or trip-hop, or crazy circuit-bent computer parts, or anything
maybe.

To add the the mix, I was re-watching some Portishead videos the other day,
in particular:
"Glory Box" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF-GvT8Clnk
and "Sour Times" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niIcxMuORco

I guess put to lo-fi film that introduces atom-punk themes, any music in
that sort of "contemplating-apocalyptica" vein can be atom-punk too.

----

I wanted to respond a bit to Mike's post, who was interested pushing things
forward a bit, at least to planning stages in addition to discussion.
Obviously, discussion should continue forever, but I would like to start
thinking about some actual projects too. I also know only a little (from the
website) about GOGBOT, and I probably won't be making it, as I am a bit
anchored to my locale right now, unfortunately (Portland, OR USA). But I
like writing things and making things.

On maybe my first post a couple weeks ago, I wrote down a long list of
various ideas that were bubbling out of my brain in my excitement over the
possibilities of atom-punk.  I won't re-hash the whole list, but will just
say that at least for me, there seems to be almost limitless potential, at
least from the start, for art, writing, information, electronics, and other
media projects.  Since outside the confines of this pretty creative
discussion, there really isn't any "canonical" atom-punk, it seems like it
can be pretty much anything that anyone wants, without it having to justify
itself to anything other than itself.

I definitely veer towards the more "confrontational" concepts like Mike's
tour group idea, if you could call that confrontational.  I mean that in
that it is reaching out to others, rather than just showing off to the
club.  Things to perform, to hand out, to distribute, to deliver without
request, etc.  Propaganda culture, but very much on the up and up, always
official, always legitimate.  Would you like a free sample?  Why not take
some of these pamphlets too, pass them on to friends.  Kind of an
art-scientology, maybe.  Free film screenings, and aesthetic
indoctrination.  What is the atom-punk "free stress test"?

Personally, my bent is towards writing, building concepts, and design.  I
have some basic electronic and carpentry skills, though I don't really feel
creative enough in that area to really push things the way that I would want
to.

One thing I've been researching is logos of the post-war era.  As a kid I
was always captivated by the NASA logo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_logo and other mission patches
http://www.thespacestore.com/patches1.html.  I'd love to design an atom-punk
logo, or logos for other officially non-existent organizations and branches.

And as one might notice that I tend to be long-winded in emails, I would
also like to be involved in a manifesto, if there is one.  Not that it is
necessary, clearly anything goes.  But not enough manifestos are written
anymore... maybe we should write several, conflicting manifestos, that are
all followed to the letter and hotly debated.  Press releases sound like fun
too, or other authoritative documentation.  Users manuals?  Diagrams and
diagnostic flow charts?  Count me in for any of these.

What about everyone else?  What are you interested in, or already working
on?

Adam
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