Drop Beats Not Bombs VJ Callout

[PilotX]

Just had confirmation that it's back again :)

Drop Beats Not Bombs - CND Awareness Raising event, at Custard Factory, Birmingham. Saturday 27th of November

Line up is not yet available but previous events have included A Guy Called Gerald, Cutmaster Swift, Atomic Hooligan, DJ Rubbish. Tony Work and ZX81 DJs.

there is usually a hip-hop/breaks/eclectic room, a DnB room, a techno room, world music/dub room and a speakers room.

This is a general callout for anyone who wants to VJ - reasonable travel expenses will be paid, and there is a bed at our house.

The last event saw 10 VJ crews in 2 rooms (was supposed to be 3 but extreme weather put paid to one of the rooms), with a fantastic 5-projector 6-VJs (usually 2 at a time, but up to 4) setup..

Visuals MUST be Pro-Peace/Anti-war . this event is a CND Awareness raiser, and past experience has told us the most of the DJs pay little attention to this, and it's up to the visuals and the speakers room to put the message across.. :) This is an event that needs visuals in a way most don't, and I reckon the people who have played at previous ones will confirm that.

reply here, pm or email
tom [at] syzygy-visuals [dot] co [dot] uk

:)

[kondensator]

do you have any further info, like weblink?

[Anyone]

if my visuals don't have ANY reference to war/guns/violence/blood
isn't THAT Pro-peace?

sorry, that was a retorical question,
you don't have to answer that,
just couldn't stop myself from typing...:rolleyes:

Ne1

[syzygy]

Pro-peace visuals could very easily have no war references in them whatsoever.

In fact, I think now is the time when the presentation of the alternatives to violence are most needed, rather than the same old war footage (which always seems dangerously close to glorifying the whole thing to me)

Please do bring your message of love to the event Oli - it would be good to see some more of your work.

Dan.

[PilotX]

theres nothing on the web yet for this event. Because we work so closesly with the promtors and visuals are so important we do this callout long before anyone hears about it... the only people who know the next one is happening at the moment is us on here, the promotors, the venue and a couple of the audio acts.
details of the last one can be found at

http://dropbeats.tumbledown.org.uk/event.php

and it's up to you to decide what pro-peace means ;) I'm gonna trust anyone who says they will to do so..
the question I would ask Oli, is if you watched your visuals, do you think that they make you think, wouldn't peace be great? or something along those lines.
Is there something constructive within the lack of violent imagery that will route peoples minds towards supporting CND? If you think yes, or can add a few things and fancy it, then come along.. would be great to have you :)

edit: Amukidi was going to play at the last event before family commitments meant he couldn't - his work is very abstract but fits with the pro-peace idea..

[Rovastar]

The subject for ?what is Pro-peace? footage is a strange one.

I am more in Dan's thinking of that it approaches 'glorifying' war in a way.

I am curious to what is pro-peace footage is. Is it like I imagine lots of president Bush parodies and I imagine anti American footage, etc. I am thinking the thread some time ago about the flash animation of the US flag stars and stripes morphing into a Nazi swastika thread. I imagine it would get a lot of cheers at a gig like this but would it help. Can you go too far in the pro-peace vibe?

For a CND gig would it be good to show clips of Libya?s meeting with Blair about getting them to give up their nuclear weapons, etc.

I imagine that would not go down well strong superpower like the American-UK group pressing Libya to give up its weapons.

Could a set be based on pressure from seemingly more fragile nations like North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, etc to give up their nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Or is it more/purely focused on the west nuclear capabilities.

I don?t want this to sound too flamey it is not meant to I am trying to understand more of what it is like.

Also how disappointing is this:

this event is a CND Awareness raiser, and past experience has told us the most of the DJs pay little attention to this

I presumed the most people come for the music so that would be the most important??.

[SilentEclipse]

I made what i thought was an anti-war filum here

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/silenteclipse/War.mov

(10 mb )

would be interested in hearing if others feel the same way.

Its more an anti-oppresion film to be honest , but nevermind.

[PilotX]

Originally posted by Rovastar
[B]T

For a CND gig would it be good to show clips of Libya?s meeting with Blair about getting them to give up their nuclear weapons, etc.


Could a set be based on pressure from seemingly more fragile nations like North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, etc to give up their nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Or is it more/purely focused on the west nuclear capabilities.

I would say yes.. CND is a global organisation that campaigns mostly in the west, but really only because in the cold war period this is where the nukes lay.. I doubt there is a CND branch in NK, or Iran, maybe Pakistan and India. Anything that pushes the idea of peace being a good thing in and of itself is pro-peace.

the term pro-peace is problematic, I agree. I guess what I am pushing at is the idea that anti-war stuff doesn't jsut have to be about wars.. a set that looked at the 'peace dividend' that would come about from scrapping nuclear programmes - this is something we did.. I can't remember the exact figures off the top of my head, but we did a part of it about how the UK spends ?XBillion on war and how this money could be used otherwise.. this could easily be expanded to a global scale (The world spends enough money on arms each week to pay for food for the world for a year and so on).

I spose the difference is really that a pro-peace set says 'look how great peace is', whereas an anti-war set says 'look how bad/stupid war is' .. not neccessarily a difference in the actual footage used, but a difference in the tone.

Will think further about it.. when I did the first callout for the first one a couple of years back I included this to make people think a bit more about what an anti-war set could be... but I guess I never really thought through it properly myself ;)


I don?t want this to sound too flamey it is not meant to I am trying to understand more of what it is like.
don't worry Rova ;)


Also how disappointing is this:


I presumed the most people come for the music so that would be the most important??.
yeah I agree with you.. something that is dissapointing each time - the DJs, apart from some of the local ones and a couple of others, like DJ rubbish come and play there normal set, with no political content in it.. I think it's fair enough for a live act but DJs should be able to find tunes that fit within their set and also push the message of the event.
Anyway, the cynical side says.. the djs/acts get the people in.. the visuals and speakers room push the message (along with the flyers.) (past speakers have included Mark Thomas (by video), Mark Little (Joe Mangel from Neighbours ;) ), Carol Norton (then Chairwoman CND UK), Bruce Kent (somewhere high up in CND, founding member), Ian (CND West Midlands chairman) and others from CND and anti-war..

[3YE]

In answer to the question 'what makes pro-peace footage?' I believe, amongst other things, that:

'Peace is not just an end we seek but the means by which we achieve it.'

'an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.'

'Fighting for peace is like f*cking for virginity.'

These are three ways of saying the same thing to me, and I would relish the oppurtunity to show my beliefs in an environment where it could reach people open to the message.

I understand your frustration at DJ's not being political enough, but I must say, if people walked past a CND symbol to get in the venue, then i can't really see the point of preaching to the converted. the Speakers room sounds like it's doing the job you want, why try and get the music rooms doing that aswell?

the problem with sound in a public place is that you can't ignore it, so any message in music can be seen as propaganda/brainwashing/dogma, whereas with visuals at least a viewer has the option to turn away and not look, and for your message to work, it must allow people choice, otherwise your in danger of becoming the thing you hate, no?

A genuine movement towards peace should IMHO be trying different ideas out, and throwing new ideas at people, wether they are supporters, dissenters or whatever. A lot of people i've met at protest sites seem to think that pro-peace simply means rubbishing the establishment, rather than respecting it for the stability it does provide and looking for ways to improve on that. Now I can appreciate this might be where CND is at in 2004, but the real challenge is to get through other people pre-conceptions of what anti-war/pro-peace and protesting means.

I just thought, I can illustrate my point with a current real world example, namely the 'countryside alliance' and 'fathers for justice' movements currently in the UK news

the Countryside Alliance is a good example of a bad protest: emotive language, refusal to reach an acceptable compromise (drag hunts, humane culls of the fox population, etc), use of violence, lack of respect for and willingness to circumvent the democratic process, and, most scary of all, providing government with an even better excuse to isolate itself from the people.

whereas Fathers for Justice favour high profile, amusing, non-threatening means of raising public awarenessas as a way of gaining acceptance for their cause and recruiting help for thier more legitimate activities in getting thier case heard. or...

Laughter is the best medicine :D

Pro-peace as a message is definitely preferable to Anti-war

So, er... yeah, count me in.

Mattchoo-choo

[PilotX]

Originally posted by 3YE


So, er... yeah, count me in.

Mattchoo-choo

excellent, would love to have you play .. can you dorp me an email to tom [at] syzygy-visuals.co.uk please :)

Sounds like oyu got some ideas for an interesting set :)

tbh, it would just be nice for some of the djs to find a tune or two that would fit with their set to express sentiment. I don't think it matters that much really, but it does make the visuals more intrinsic to the message of the event..

plur
tom

[3YE]

I have indeed just 'dorp'-ed you an email ;-)

but what can a DJ play? Good question. I had a think and the best I could come up with was:

'The Land of Make Believe - Bucks Fizz' (or was it ABBA? Damn my fragile mind...) - It is an honest to god protest song if you listen to the lyrics

Inaction (is a weapon of mass destruction) - Faithless

Eye For An Eye - Unkle

Camouflage - that dude whos name i can't remember. song's about an unknown ghost soldier in Vietnam

Two Tribes - Frankie goes to Hollywood

WAR (uh- huh) What is it good for (uh-huh) Absolutely nuthin - again my memory fails me as to who did this

almost anything by U2 from the period before Achtung Baby

Give Peace A Chance - The Beatles

Now i could just be being naive, but that's quite a mixed bag, and i reckon even Norman Cook would have difficulty spinning those together. but, yes a token gesture of some sort would probably help really. Anybody got a better set list than this?

Mattchoo!
Bless you
Thank you

[PilotX]

lol :)

there are lots of good protest songs.. but they are mostly in the rock/folk tradition and I cna't imagine dropping any of the tunes into a techno set.. maybe The Prohpet by CJ Bolland .. not strictly anti war but 'And I decide who gets to come in and who stays out' is the only bit I can really remember and that has an anti-war ring to it.
but, tumbledown played two tribes, war what is it good for at previous events.

other tunes that have been played:
killing in the name of (rage against the machine)
loads of unkown hip-hop tunes but including black steel (public enemy), some sutff by Dead Presidents, sound of the police (either by tumbledown or dj rubbish).. theres alot in the hip-hop vein of things...

otherwise theres Fixing To Die Rag by country joe and the fish (and its 1,2,3/ what are we fighting for/don't ask me I don't give a damn/next stop is viet nam/and its 5,6,7/open up the pearly gates ...)
blowing in the wind is a classic.. I mean there are loads of anti-war/pro-peace tunes...

[Rovastar]

Who says anything about protest songs anything with 'PEace' or 'love' in the title/lyrics could count no doubt.

[elbows]

Pop Defect radio is an excellent way to discover anti-war etc protest music. Shows available for download here:

http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=search&nav=&session=&searchtext=defect