copyright

[littlecatalyst]

Originally posted by jaffa808
Its a fair cop, but society's to blame.....
What I meant was that they are musicians.....ie they have a relative understanding of how it all works, which I still believe, gives them an edge over someone who is tone deaf!
I just find it so hard to understand why someone who is so obviously very interested in the moving image doesn't feel compelled to pick up a camera and take control of their output.

ok first about the djs, my 2 favorites are tsuyoshi suzuki (who does make a lot of his own music, in fact last summer 90% f his set i saw was Joujouka, one of his 'bands') and then this guy Neerav who just moved to Germany now Neerav publishes Trance5000 and probably gets more records sent to him than the good folks at idj... his taste is impeccable and i would be very surprised if anyone in the crowd has heard even 1/4 of the stuff on any given night..... if there isn't a talent there somewhere i dunno, it's kept me on my toes for almost 8 years.... but honestly, T has a set and plays it, it blows my mind but i didn't see him the night before in nyc or the night before that in chicago.... and most likely his set is almost identical... now my man N he never plays teh same set, is accutely tuned into the vibe of teh event, and even when he does play something that he has played before, it's layered with different songs, it has different tweaking and for all intents and purposes its a new song already..... what makes a better dj has to do with so much more than just if they make their own tunes.....

on top of that, teh argument that jaffa just used

I just find it so hard to understand why someone who is so obviously very interested in the moving image doesn't feel compelled to pick up a camera and take control of their output

really seems silly to me. many people interested in the moving image baffle you that they dont feel compelled to shoot their own stuff..... aside from the obvious sillyness i did yesterday in the space images and yes i am totally getting high on those sattelite shots and jaffa if you can shoot that i'm impressed) there's a deeper thing here, Jaff-- you gott a understand that people are interested in moving images for MANY different reasons. me, i started with 35mm then Bolex and Ariflex, then got into the founf footage thing stealing trash from the film processors at work, slipping in to the film houses and bugging film students for their outs. not that i didn't like shooting, but the authenticity i could achieve and the change in discourse style really got me off..... a little while later i discovered that i could do just as much with video and get lots more footage easily....) this was still a little pre avid so the digital revolution had yet to transpire (in fact i got kicked out of film school for doing "scratch videos") sure i am into the moving image, also into the politics of appropriation and also into the diversity.... kenny scharf can make a cutes-y cgi animation, but i can take pieces of it and add context add rhythm, add textures, give it a new or deeper meaning, whatever i like....
i feel behooved to question your value system where authenticity is on a higher plane than any other aspect of creativity.
now i just came in here before and said that what i find sad is the kids who play things straight (more like a bar dj does as opposed to a club dj) there's not a whole lot of creativity in there, some dont even mix the images... But to dump people like ME, Craig Baldwin, EBN, Arthur Lipsett (the dude Lucas named THX118 after) (have you ever seen Raphael Montanez Ortiz's work???? its mindmelting!) Peter Forgeacs, and hundreds of others who do amazing work without touching a camera, is kinda trivializing a major element of this 'artform'........ ive said it before and i'll say it again, if you suck you suck and it doesn't matter if you use tsunami, artmatic and a digicam or two vcrs and an mx5..... if you're creative and good, one thing i can tell for sure, you wouldn't be spending half your time telling people that doing something you don't do is not cool..... i understand telling people especially newbies to shoot their own stuff as a good idea I'm glad i spent 6 years shooting my own work (and shooting or ascam other peoples films/videos) its a good education, but more importantly i woudl suggest they get some understanding of teh basics, design, movement, and creative expression (seriously getting 1000 kids out their woith their opwn cameras shooting every hubcap, swewer, flower and tree wont make the images all unique)
thats it my rant-fuel guage is empty
-peace