RADIO ART ARCHIVE
Negativland
"The End" of Negativland's set. Photographed by Adam T. Deen. (May 31, 2024)
Negativland performs. Photographed by Lucy Bohnsack. (May 31, 2024)
Negativland's set concludes. Photographed by Lucy Bohnsack. (May 31, 2024)
The Weatherman joins Negativland's set remotely.. Photographed by Adam T. Deen. (May 31, 2024)
The Weatherman's nose hairs. Photographed by Adam T. Deen. (May 31, 2024)
View of Negativland performing in the Beer Garden. Photographed by Lucy Bohnsack. (May 31, 2024)
Since 1980, the multimedia collective known as Negativland have been creating records, CDs, video, fine art, books, radio and live performance using appropriated sounds, images, objects, and text. Mixing original materials and original music with things taken from corporately owned mass culture and the world around them, Negativland re-arrange these found bits and pieces to make them say and suggest things that they never intended to. In doing this kind of cultural archaeology and "culture jamming" (a term they coined way back in 1984), Negativland have been sued twice for copyright infringement. Their art and media interventions pose both serious and silly questions about the nature of sound, media, technology, control, ownership, propaganda, power, and perception in the United States of America. Their work is now referenced and taught in many college courses in the US, has been written about and cited in over 150 books and legal journals, and they sometimes lecture about their work in the USA and in Europe.