Magic Arm. Photo: Caroline Edge
A cumulative lists of all artists and projects involved in Nought to Sixty.
Nought to Sixty presents sixty projects by emerging artists based in Britain and Ireland over six months from 5 May to 2 November 2008.
Most of the artists in Nought to Sixty are under thirty-five, few of them have had significant commercial exposure, and in most cases this is their first opportunity to mount a solo project in a major public space.
The season is not intended to announce any new generation or style, but to build up a multifaceted portrait of the emerging art scene in the two countries, and to provide a space for exchange.
The Nought to Sixty programme consists of:
Events happen at the ICA every Monday night:
Sign up for regular updates about the Nought to Sixty and the rest of the ICA's programme, special events and offers. It's free.
Nought to Sixty is supported by:
Other partners:
Recording out-of-copyright music with new artists.
Open Music Archive is in the Theatre on 29 September.
Appropriation and re-interpretation have been central strategies in music production across the genres, from blues and jazz to folk and hip-hop. And while the rapid development of online peer-to-peer file sharing networks has provided millions with new ways to access musical material, this technology has also had direct consequences on music making, and has often led musicians and DJs into problematic legal territory. Open Music Archive, initiated by artists Eileen Simpson (born Manchester, 1977, lives in London) and Ben White (born Manchester, 1977, lives in London), employs such strategies of appropriation, but uses music that has entered into the public domain. It functions as a platform for musical exchange, exploring the possibilities of collaborative creation.
Open Music Archive digitises out-of-copyright recordings – mainly 1920s and 30s blues, jazz, folk and music hall – and distributes the tracks via its website. It also stages live events, and produces and distributes CDs. Most recently it created a 'battle record', a vinyl compilation of samples, loops and sound effects for use by DJs (created for Discloures, Gasworks, London, 2008). For Clips, Blips & Loops (2007), meanwhile, Open Music Archive recorded out-of-copyright music from a public collection of music boxes in Stockholm, and invited members of the Swedish collective Fylkingen to rework the recordings. The result was a performance and a free 'copyleft' licensed CD (a copyright-free recording, which also requires all subsequent modifications of the original material to be free). The recorded tracks – combining anachronistic tinkles with the abrupt cuts of breakbeat – are also available for free unlimited download. For such projects musicians are encouraged to release their material under a Creative Commons license, allowing others to use the music freely – a request which has at times sparked debates among the collaborators.
The focus on the production of usable source material is perhaps what sets Open Music Archive apart from other artist-led enterprises that redistribute historical material (such as the American collective Continuous Project). Each project is potentially only the first step in a long chain of reworking, sampling and looping that could reach far beyond the limits of the archive. Applying the principles of peer-based collaboration to wider fields of creative production, Open Music Archive is situated in the debate around Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS). It promotes an alternative form of creative economy and attempts to challenge the conventional mechanisms of music authorship, ownership, production and distribution.
For Nought to Sixty, Open Music Archive presents Free-to- Air, a project started in 2007 at Cornerhouse in Manchester. Free-to-Air involved an invitation to musicians and DJs to produce cover versions of material drawn from the archive. This process, putting long-forgotten lyrics and rhythms at the centre of contemporary creation, is renewed at the ICA, where a range of musicians will perform new cover versions in short sets during a night of performances. The evening also marks the launch of a the Free-to-Air CD – gathering together a selection of the cover versions created for the project – which will be distributed in exchange for a donation.
Coline Milliard
The Open Music Archive's Free to Air CD is available to buy.
Listen to Six Cold Feet In The Ground by Magic Arm (mp3)
Listen to Six Cold Feet In The Ground: A Reply by Liz Green (mp3)
Nought to Sixty in Pictures: Open Music Archive
Why an institution of contemporary art(s) like this, and not any other?
Artist-led organisations that support networks of emerging art in England outside London.
Photos of the projects, artists and audiences taking part in Nought to Sixty.
Nought to Sixty includes a series of monthly discussions that address the networks that form and contribute to an emerging scene.