Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine
Encyclopedia
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
, Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music
Downtown music
Downtown music is a subdivision of American music, closely related to experimental music. The scene the term describes began in 1960, when Yoko Ono—one of the Fluxus artists, at that time still seven years away from meeting John Lennon—opened her loft at 112 Chambers Street to be used...
, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time – the first 2 issues being devoted to NY artists from the downtown no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
scene. The series was financially supported along the years by funding from the New York State Council of the Arts, Colab
Colab
Colab is the commonly used abbreviation of the New York City artists' group Collaborative Projects, which was formed after a series of open meetings between artists of various disciplines. Colab came together as a collective in 1977, and initially received an NEA Workshop Grant through Center for...
and the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
.
Tellus was created in 1983 at the Rum Runner Bar on Canal Street in New York City. Joseph Nechvatal, a visual artist, Claudia Gould, a curator and Carol Parkinson, a composer and staff member of Harvestworks/Studio PASS met to discuss the idea of a magazine on cassette which would feature interesting and challenging sound works. With the advent of the Walkman and the Boom Box, the editors perceived a need for an alternative to radio programming and the commercially available recordings on the market at that time.
(from Harvestworks website http://www.harvestworks.org/cms/)
The Tellus Project
Tellus publishers (digital artist and art musicArt music
Art music is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal is a post-conceptual art digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses.-Life and work:Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago...
, curator and now director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
The Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA is a contemporary art museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The museum is associated with the University of Pennsylvania, and is located on its campus. The Institute is one of the country's leading museums dedicated to exhibiting the innovative...
Claudia Gould and composer Carol Parkinson, director of Harvestworks from 1987 on) never considered running an underground culture audio publication, rather envisaging the compact cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
medium as a no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
art form in itself. This was quite a unique point of view at a time (the early 1980s), when many self-released cassettes blossomed through mail order
Mail order
Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer...
and trade between audio artists, mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
folks and hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
bands who were promoting a mostly minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
punk
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
inspired DIY technique of more-or-less anti-art
Anti-art
Anti-art is a loosely-used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art...
nihilism
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
. But Nechvatal and Parkinson had met in the mid-1970s dancing as a performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
/ minimal art dance trio (with Cid Collins) influenced by the post Merce Cunningham
Merce Cunningham
Mercier "Merce" Philip Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 50 years. Throughout much of his life, Cunningham was considered one of the greatest creative forces in American dance...
postmodern dance/choreography of Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs is an American postmodern dancer/choreographer. Her compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions. Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest movements into an intricate choreographic masterpiece...
, Deborah Hay
Deborah Hay
-Life and work:Deborah Hay was born in 1941 in Brooklyn. Her mother was her first dance teacher and directed her training until she was a teenager. Hay moved at age 19 to Downtown, Manhattan in the 1960s, where she continued her training with Merce Cunningham and Mia Slavenska...
, Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer is an American dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is frequently challenging and experimental. Her work is classified as minimalist art.- Early life :...
and Carolee Schneemann
Carolee Schneemann
Carolee Schneemann is an American visual artist, known for her discourses on the body, sexuality and gender. She received a B.A. from Bard College and an M.F.A. from the University of Illinois. Her work is primarily characterized by research into visual traditions, taboos, and the body of the...
(with whom they toured Europe in 1978). And they continued to see each other in the art music
Art music
Art music is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition...
milieu of the rigorous downtown
Downtown
Downtown is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's core or central business district ....
minimal music scene as they worked for the Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation is a non-profit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 as the Lone Star Foundation by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumberger oil exploration...
as assistants to La Monte Young
La Monte Young
La Monte Thornton Young is an American avant-garde composer, musician, and artist.Young is generally recognized as the first minimalist composer. His works have been included among the most important and radical post-World War II avant-garde, experimental, and contemporary music. Young is...
, Marian Zazeela
Marian Zazeela
Marian Zazeela is a light-artist, designer, painter and musician based in New York City.-Life and work:Born to Russian-Jewish parents and raised in the Bronx, Marian Zazeela was educated at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and at Bennington College where she...
and Pandit Pran Nath
Pandit Pran Nath
Pandit Pran Nath was a Hindustani classical singer and teacher of the Kirana gharana , with a successful American career.-Early life:...
. So by contrast to a lax attitude, the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine never indulged in rank amateurism. Their audio releases were always tightly focused, well researched and aptly curated.
Curatorial Policy
Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine was in activity for the ten years of 1983-1993, thus witnessing and participating in the digital revolutionDigital Revolution
The Digital Revolution is the change from analog mechanical and electronic technology to digital technology that has taken place since c. 1980 and continues to the present day. Implicitly, the term also refers to the sweeping changes brought about by digital computing and communication technology...
taking place in new media arts. Some points of comparison can be established with the Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
based MusicWorks Journal cassette series - launched 1978. And with the ROIR
ROIR
ROIR , or Reach Out International Records, is a New York City-based record label founded in 1979 by Neil Cooper.ROIR was founded the same year that the Sony Walkman launched, and initially, the label exclusively distributed its releases in cassette format...
cassette-only releases of various musical styles (from Flipper
Flipper (band)
Flipper is a punk band formed in San Francisco, California in 1979, continuing in often erratic fashion until the mid-1990s, then reuniting in 2005. The band influenced a number of grunge,, punk rock and noise rock bands...
to Lee Perry to Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...
) that was launched 1981.
Tellus published audio art, new music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
, poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, exploring musical spheres as diverse as avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
composition, post-industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
, NY no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
, Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
sounds, noise music
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
, heirs to Harry Partch
Harry Partch
Harry Partch was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.-Early...
, avant rock, sound poetry
Sound poetry
Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging between literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words"...
, radio plays, tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
, electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...
, sound collage
Sound collage
In music, montage or sound collage is a technique where sound objects or compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as montage, the use of portions of previous recordings or scores...
etc.
The series included some landmark sound works now regarded as historical: Louise Lawler
Louise Lawler
Louise Lawler is a U.S. artist and photographer. From the late 1970s onwards, Lawler's work has focused on the presentation and marketing of artwork. Much of this work consists of photographs of other peoples' artwork and the context in which it is viewed...
’s ‘Birdcalls’ (Tellus #5-6), Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...
's ‘Groove’ (Tellus #8), Lee Ranaldo
Lee Ranaldo
Lee M. Ranaldo is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth...
's ‘The Bridge’ (Tellus #10) and Alison Knowles
Alison Knowles
Alison Knowles in New York City is an American visual artist known for her soundworks, installations, performances, and publications. Knowles was very active in the Fluxus movement, and continues to create work inspired by her Fluxus experience....
's ‘Nivea Cream Piece’ (Tellus #24); among others.
Tellus championed the audio work of women and gay artists, something that was very much needed at the time in the machismo
Machismo
Machismo, or machoism, is a word of Spanish and Portuguese origin that describes prominently exhibited or excessive masculinity. As an attitude, machismo ranges from a personal sense of virility to a more extreme male chauvinism...
-tinged experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
scene. Their curatorial policy
Policy
A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...
was efficient, as well, as the editorial trio sometimes asked outside specialists to compile a program in their own field. This policy insured state-of-the-art programming.
Distribution and Production
From the start, the founding members deliberately aimed at raising the profile of cassette cultureCassette culture
Cassette culture, or the cassette underground , refers to the practices surrounding amateur production and distribution of recorded music that emerged in the late 1970s via home-made audio cassettes...
releases, sending Tellus issues by mail to US public libraries, university galleries and various art museums. In addition the Tellus team helped launch the Harvestworks Artist-In-Residence Program which was set up to help promote independent artists’ projects and provide them with a professional sound recording facility: namely Studio PASS.
Legacy and Appreciation
- Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine has been mentioned as an inspiration to the opening of the Sound Art Museum in RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
(2007). - An exhibition was held at Printed Matter in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
devoted to current American cassette cultureCassette cultureCassette culture, or the cassette underground , refers to the practices surrounding amateur production and distribution of recorded music that emerged in the late 1970s via home-made audio cassettes...
entitled "Leaderless: Underground Cassette Culture Now" (May 12–26, 2007) that referred to the influence of Tellus.
The Tellus Archives
In November-December 2007 the blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger of reassessed aural delicacies Continuo, digital artist Stephen McLaughlin, and avantgarde resource Ubuweb
UbuWeb
UbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:...
decided to create an exhaustive online archive for the Tellus audio recordings -- now as free mp3 files -- thus launching a renewed interest in the Tellus series.
Tellus Cassettography
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"|-
!
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
, Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music
Downtown music
Downtown music is a subdivision of American music, closely related to experimental music. The scene the term describes began in 1960, when Yoko Ono—one of the Fluxus artists, at that time still seven years away from meeting John Lennon—opened her loft at 112 Chambers Street to be used...
, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time – the first 2 issues being devoted to NY artists from the downtown no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
scene. The series was financially supported along the years by funding from the New York State Council of the Arts, Colab
Colab
Colab is the commonly used abbreviation of the New York City artists' group Collaborative Projects, which was formed after a series of open meetings between artists of various disciplines. Colab came together as a collective in 1977, and initially received an NEA Workshop Grant through Center for...
and the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
.
Tellus was created in 1983 at the Rum Runner Bar on Canal Street in New York City. Joseph Nechvatal, a visual artist, Claudia Gould, a curator and Carol Parkinson, a composer and staff member of Harvestworks/Studio PASS met to discuss the idea of a magazine on cassette which would feature interesting and challenging sound works. With the advent of the Walkman and the Boom Box, the editors perceived a need for an alternative to radio programming and the commercially available recordings on the market at that time.
(from Harvestworks website http://www.harvestworks.org/cms/)
The Tellus Project
Tellus publishers (digital artist and art musicArt music
Art music is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal is a post-conceptual art digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses.-Life and work:Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago...
, curator and now director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
The Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA is a contemporary art museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The museum is associated with the University of Pennsylvania, and is located on its campus. The Institute is one of the country's leading museums dedicated to exhibiting the innovative...
Claudia Gould and composer Carol Parkinson, director of Harvestworks from 1987 on) never considered running an underground culture audio publication, rather envisaging the compact cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
medium as a no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
art form in itself. This was quite a unique point of view at a time (the early 1980s), when many self-released cassettes blossomed through mail order
Mail order
Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer...
and trade between audio artists, mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
folks and hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
bands who were promoting a mostly minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
punk
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
inspired DIY technique of more-or-less anti-art
Anti-art
Anti-art is a loosely-used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art...
nihilism
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
. But Nechvatal and Parkinson had met in the mid-1970s dancing as a performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
/ minimal art dance trio (with Cid Collins) influenced by the post Merce Cunningham
Merce Cunningham
Mercier "Merce" Philip Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 50 years. Throughout much of his life, Cunningham was considered one of the greatest creative forces in American dance...
postmodern dance/choreography of Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs is an American postmodern dancer/choreographer. Her compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions. Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest movements into an intricate choreographic masterpiece...
, Deborah Hay
Deborah Hay
-Life and work:Deborah Hay was born in 1941 in Brooklyn. Her mother was her first dance teacher and directed her training until she was a teenager. Hay moved at age 19 to Downtown, Manhattan in the 1960s, where she continued her training with Merce Cunningham and Mia Slavenska...
, Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer is an American dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is frequently challenging and experimental. Her work is classified as minimalist art.- Early life :...
and Carolee Schneemann
Carolee Schneemann
Carolee Schneemann is an American visual artist, known for her discourses on the body, sexuality and gender. She received a B.A. from Bard College and an M.F.A. from the University of Illinois. Her work is primarily characterized by research into visual traditions, taboos, and the body of the...
(with whom they toured Europe in 1978). And they continued to see each other in the art music
Art music
Art music is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition...
milieu of the rigorous downtown
Downtown
Downtown is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's core or central business district ....
minimal music scene as they worked for the Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation is a non-profit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 as the Lone Star Foundation by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumberger oil exploration...
as assistants to La Monte Young
La Monte Young
La Monte Thornton Young is an American avant-garde composer, musician, and artist.Young is generally recognized as the first minimalist composer. His works have been included among the most important and radical post-World War II avant-garde, experimental, and contemporary music. Young is...
, Marian Zazeela
Marian Zazeela
Marian Zazeela is a light-artist, designer, painter and musician based in New York City.-Life and work:Born to Russian-Jewish parents and raised in the Bronx, Marian Zazeela was educated at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and at Bennington College where she...
and Pandit Pran Nath
Pandit Pran Nath
Pandit Pran Nath was a Hindustani classical singer and teacher of the Kirana gharana , with a successful American career.-Early life:...
. So by contrast to a lax attitude, the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine never indulged in rank amateurism. Their audio releases were always tightly focused, well researched and aptly curated.
Curatorial Policy
Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine was in activity for the ten years of 1983-1993, thus witnessing and participating in the digital revolutionDigital Revolution
The Digital Revolution is the change from analog mechanical and electronic technology to digital technology that has taken place since c. 1980 and continues to the present day. Implicitly, the term also refers to the sweeping changes brought about by digital computing and communication technology...
taking place in new media arts. Some points of comparison can be established with the Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
based MusicWorks Journal cassette series - launched 1978. And with the ROIR
ROIR
ROIR , or Reach Out International Records, is a New York City-based record label founded in 1979 by Neil Cooper.ROIR was founded the same year that the Sony Walkman launched, and initially, the label exclusively distributed its releases in cassette format...
cassette-only releases of various musical styles (from Flipper
Flipper (band)
Flipper is a punk band formed in San Francisco, California in 1979, continuing in often erratic fashion until the mid-1990s, then reuniting in 2005. The band influenced a number of grunge,, punk rock and noise rock bands...
to Lee Perry to Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...
) that was launched 1981.
Tellus published audio art, new music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
, poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, exploring musical spheres as diverse as avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
composition, post-industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
, NY no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
, Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
sounds, noise music
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
, heirs to Harry Partch
Harry Partch
Harry Partch was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.-Early...
, avant rock, sound poetry
Sound poetry
Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging between literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words"...
, radio plays, tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
, electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...
, sound collage
Sound collage
In music, montage or sound collage is a technique where sound objects or compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as montage, the use of portions of previous recordings or scores...
etc.
The series included some landmark sound works now regarded as historical: Louise Lawler
Louise Lawler
Louise Lawler is a U.S. artist and photographer. From the late 1970s onwards, Lawler's work has focused on the presentation and marketing of artwork. Much of this work consists of photographs of other peoples' artwork and the context in which it is viewed...
’s ‘Birdcalls’ (Tellus #5-6), Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...
's ‘Groove’ (Tellus #8), Lee Ranaldo
Lee Ranaldo
Lee M. Ranaldo is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth...
's ‘The Bridge’ (Tellus #10) and Alison Knowles
Alison Knowles
Alison Knowles in New York City is an American visual artist known for her soundworks, installations, performances, and publications. Knowles was very active in the Fluxus movement, and continues to create work inspired by her Fluxus experience....
's ‘Nivea Cream Piece’ (Tellus #24); among others.
Tellus championed the audio work of women and gay artists, something that was very much needed at the time in the machismo
Machismo
Machismo, or machoism, is a word of Spanish and Portuguese origin that describes prominently exhibited or excessive masculinity. As an attitude, machismo ranges from a personal sense of virility to a more extreme male chauvinism...
-tinged experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
scene. Their curatorial policy
Policy
A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...
was efficient, as well, as the editorial trio sometimes asked outside specialists to compile a program in their own field. This policy insured state-of-the-art programming.
Distribution and Production
From the start, the founding members deliberately aimed at raising the profile of cassette cultureCassette culture
Cassette culture, or the cassette underground , refers to the practices surrounding amateur production and distribution of recorded music that emerged in the late 1970s via home-made audio cassettes...
releases, sending Tellus issues by mail to US public libraries, university galleries and various art museums. In addition the Tellus team helped launch the Harvestworks Artist-In-Residence Program which was set up to help promote independent artists’ projects and provide them with a professional sound recording facility: namely Studio PASS.
Legacy and Appreciation
- Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine has been mentioned as an inspiration to the opening of the Sound Art Museum in RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
(2007). - An exhibition was held at Printed Matter in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
devoted to current American cassette cultureCassette cultureCassette culture, or the cassette underground , refers to the practices surrounding amateur production and distribution of recorded music that emerged in the late 1970s via home-made audio cassettes...
entitled "Leaderless: Underground Cassette Culture Now" (May 12–26, 2007) that referred to the influence of Tellus.
The Tellus Archives
In November-December 2007 the blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger of reassessed aural delicacies Continuo, digital artist Stephen McLaughlin, and avantgarde resource Ubuweb
UbuWeb
UbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:...
decided to create an exhaustive online archive for the Tellus audio recordings -- now as free mp3 files -- thus launching a renewed interest in the Tellus series.
Tellus Cassettography
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"|-
!
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
, Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music
Downtown music
Downtown music is a subdivision of American music, closely related to experimental music. The scene the term describes began in 1960, when Yoko Ono—one of the Fluxus artists, at that time still seven years away from meeting John Lennon—opened her loft at 112 Chambers Street to be used...
, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time – the first 2 issues being devoted to NY artists from the downtown no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
scene. The series was financially supported along the years by funding from the New York State Council of the Arts, Colab
Colab
Colab is the commonly used abbreviation of the New York City artists' group Collaborative Projects, which was formed after a series of open meetings between artists of various disciplines. Colab came together as a collective in 1977, and initially received an NEA Workshop Grant through Center for...
and the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
.
Tellus was created in 1983 at the Rum Runner Bar on Canal Street in New York City. Joseph Nechvatal, a visual artist, Claudia Gould, a curator and Carol Parkinson, a composer and staff member of Harvestworks/Studio PASS met to discuss the idea of a magazine on cassette which would feature interesting and challenging sound works. With the advent of the Walkman and the Boom Box, the editors perceived a need for an alternative to radio programming and the commercially available recordings on the market at that time.
(from Harvestworks website http://www.harvestworks.org/cms/)
The Tellus Project
Tellus publishers (digital artist and art musicArt music
Art music is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal is a post-conceptual art digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses.-Life and work:Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago...
, curator and now director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
The Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA is a contemporary art museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The museum is associated with the University of Pennsylvania, and is located on its campus. The Institute is one of the country's leading museums dedicated to exhibiting the innovative...
Claudia Gould and composer Carol Parkinson, director of Harvestworks from 1987 on) never considered running an underground culture audio publication, rather envisaging the compact cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
medium as a no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
art form in itself. This was quite a unique point of view at a time (the early 1980s), when many self-released cassettes blossomed through mail order
Mail order
Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer...
and trade between audio artists, mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
folks and hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
bands who were promoting a mostly minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
punk
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
inspired DIY technique of more-or-less anti-art
Anti-art
Anti-art is a loosely-used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art...
nihilism
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
. But Nechvatal and Parkinson had met in the mid-1970s dancing as a performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
/ minimal art dance trio (with Cid Collins) influenced by the post Merce Cunningham
Merce Cunningham
Mercier "Merce" Philip Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 50 years. Throughout much of his life, Cunningham was considered one of the greatest creative forces in American dance...
postmodern dance/choreography of Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs is an American postmodern dancer/choreographer. Her compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions. Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest movements into an intricate choreographic masterpiece...
, Deborah Hay
Deborah Hay
-Life and work:Deborah Hay was born in 1941 in Brooklyn. Her mother was her first dance teacher and directed her training until she was a teenager. Hay moved at age 19 to Downtown, Manhattan in the 1960s, where she continued her training with Merce Cunningham and Mia Slavenska...
, Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer is an American dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is frequently challenging and experimental. Her work is classified as minimalist art.- Early life :...
and Carolee Schneemann
Carolee Schneemann
Carolee Schneemann is an American visual artist, known for her discourses on the body, sexuality and gender. She received a B.A. from Bard College and an M.F.A. from the University of Illinois. Her work is primarily characterized by research into visual traditions, taboos, and the body of the...
(with whom they toured Europe in 1978). And they continued to see each other in the art music
Art music
Art music is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition...
milieu of the rigorous downtown
Downtown
Downtown is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's core or central business district ....
minimal music scene as they worked for the Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation is a non-profit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 as the Lone Star Foundation by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumberger oil exploration...
as assistants to La Monte Young
La Monte Young
La Monte Thornton Young is an American avant-garde composer, musician, and artist.Young is generally recognized as the first minimalist composer. His works have been included among the most important and radical post-World War II avant-garde, experimental, and contemporary music. Young is...
, Marian Zazeela
Marian Zazeela
Marian Zazeela is a light-artist, designer, painter and musician based in New York City.-Life and work:Born to Russian-Jewish parents and raised in the Bronx, Marian Zazeela was educated at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and at Bennington College where she...
and Pandit Pran Nath
Pandit Pran Nath
Pandit Pran Nath was a Hindustani classical singer and teacher of the Kirana gharana , with a successful American career.-Early life:...
. So by contrast to a lax attitude, the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine never indulged in rank amateurism. Their audio releases were always tightly focused, well researched and aptly curated.
Curatorial Policy
Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine was in activity for the ten years of 1983-1993, thus witnessing and participating in the digital revolutionDigital Revolution
The Digital Revolution is the change from analog mechanical and electronic technology to digital technology that has taken place since c. 1980 and continues to the present day. Implicitly, the term also refers to the sweeping changes brought about by digital computing and communication technology...
taking place in new media arts. Some points of comparison can be established with the Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
based MusicWorks Journal cassette series - launched 1978. And with the ROIR
ROIR
ROIR , or Reach Out International Records, is a New York City-based record label founded in 1979 by Neil Cooper.ROIR was founded the same year that the Sony Walkman launched, and initially, the label exclusively distributed its releases in cassette format...
cassette-only releases of various musical styles (from Flipper
Flipper (band)
Flipper is a punk band formed in San Francisco, California in 1979, continuing in often erratic fashion until the mid-1990s, then reuniting in 2005. The band influenced a number of grunge,, punk rock and noise rock bands...
to Lee Perry to Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...
) that was launched 1981.
Tellus published audio art, new music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
, poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, exploring musical spheres as diverse as avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
composition, post-industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
, NY no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
, Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
sounds, noise music
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
, heirs to Harry Partch
Harry Partch
Harry Partch was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.-Early...
, avant rock, sound poetry
Sound poetry
Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging between literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words"...
, radio plays, tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
, electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...
, sound collage
Sound collage
In music, montage or sound collage is a technique where sound objects or compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as montage, the use of portions of previous recordings or scores...
etc.
The series included some landmark sound works now regarded as historical: Louise Lawler
Louise Lawler
Louise Lawler is a U.S. artist and photographer. From the late 1970s onwards, Lawler's work has focused on the presentation and marketing of artwork. Much of this work consists of photographs of other peoples' artwork and the context in which it is viewed...
’s ‘Birdcalls’ (Tellus #5-6), Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...
's ‘Groove’ (Tellus #8), Lee Ranaldo
Lee Ranaldo
Lee M. Ranaldo is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth...
's ‘The Bridge’ (Tellus #10) and Alison Knowles
Alison Knowles
Alison Knowles in New York City is an American visual artist known for her soundworks, installations, performances, and publications. Knowles was very active in the Fluxus movement, and continues to create work inspired by her Fluxus experience....
's ‘Nivea Cream Piece’ (Tellus #24); among others.
Tellus championed the audio work of women and gay artists, something that was very much needed at the time in the machismo
Machismo
Machismo, or machoism, is a word of Spanish and Portuguese origin that describes prominently exhibited or excessive masculinity. As an attitude, machismo ranges from a personal sense of virility to a more extreme male chauvinism...
-tinged experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
scene. Their curatorial policy
Policy
A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...
was efficient, as well, as the editorial trio sometimes asked outside specialists to compile a program in their own field. This policy insured state-of-the-art programming.
Distribution and Production
From the start, the founding members deliberately aimed at raising the profile of cassette cultureCassette culture
Cassette culture, or the cassette underground , refers to the practices surrounding amateur production and distribution of recorded music that emerged in the late 1970s via home-made audio cassettes...
releases, sending Tellus issues by mail to US public libraries, university galleries and various art museums. In addition the Tellus team helped launch the Harvestworks Artist-In-Residence Program which was set up to help promote independent artists’ projects and provide them with a professional sound recording facility: namely Studio PASS.
Legacy and Appreciation
- Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine has been mentioned as an inspiration to the opening of the Sound Art Museum in RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
(2007). - An exhibition was held at Printed Matter in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
devoted to current American cassette cultureCassette cultureCassette culture, or the cassette underground , refers to the practices surrounding amateur production and distribution of recorded music that emerged in the late 1970s via home-made audio cassettes...
entitled "Leaderless: Underground Cassette Culture Now" (May 12–26, 2007) that referred to the influence of Tellus.
The Tellus Archives
In November-December 2007 the blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger of reassessed aural delicacies Continuo, digital artist Stephen McLaughlin, and avantgarde resource Ubuweb
UbuWeb
UbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:...
decided to create an exhaustive online archive for the Tellus audio recordings -- now as free mp3 files -- thus launching a renewed interest in the Tellus series.
Tellus Cassettography
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"|-
!
Tellus #1
|-
| Cassette, 1983.
|-
| Curated by Claudia Gould, Joseph Nechvatal, Carol Parkinson. Cover art by Walter Robinson.
|-
| With Jody Harris
, Jerry Lindahl, Sonic Youth
, Brenda Hutchinson
, Live Skull
, Tom Lopez/ZBS Productions, Rat At Rat R
, Bradley Eros, Bruce Tovsky, Gretchen Langheld, Mitch Corber, Barbara Ess (with Barbara Barg
), Joseph Nechvatal
, Verge Piersoi, Tron Von Hollywood with Raina Jane Sherry, David Linton, Rhys Chatham
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1983.
|-
| Curated by Claudia Gould, Joseph Nechvatal, Carol Parkinson. Cover art by Walter Robinson.
|-
| With Jody Harris
Jody Harris
Jody Harris is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer who was born in Kansas and became a central figure in the seminal No Wave scene in New York City in the 1970s.-Career history:...
, Jerry Lindahl, Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, Brenda Hutchinson
Brenda Hutchinson
Brenda Hutchinson is a composer and sound artist who has created a body of work she calls "collaborating with strangers." Hutchinson encourages her participants to experiment with sound, share stories, and make music...
, Live Skull
Live Skull
-Overview:Live Skull created abrasive no wave music not unlike their 1980s contemporaries Sonic Youth, Swans, Rat at Rat R, The Chameleons, Mars, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Band of Susans. Their music featured angular guitar parts interspersed with bleak, quieter passages, for a haunting...
, Tom Lopez/ZBS Productions, Rat At Rat R
Rat at rat r
-Overview:Noise-rock quartet Rat at Rat R was formed in 1981 by guitarist Victor Poison-tete. Originally hailing from Philadelphia, the band soon relocated to New York City's Lower East Side and became one of the highlights of the NYC noise-rock scene...
, Bradley Eros, Bruce Tovsky, Gretchen Langheld, Mitch Corber, Barbara Ess (with Barbara Barg
Barbara Barg
Barbara Barg is a poet, writer, and musician.Barg was born in Memphis and raised in Forrest City, Arkansas. After studying with poet Ted Berrigan at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, she moved to New York City and became involved in a number of individual and collaborative projects...
), Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal is a post-conceptual art digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses.-Life and work:Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago...
, Verge Piersoi, Tron Von Hollywood with Raina Jane Sherry, David Linton, Rhys Chatham
Rhys Chatham
Rhys Chatham is an American composer, guitarist, and trumpet player, primarily active in avant-garde and minimalist music. He is best known for his "guitar orchestra" compositions...
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #2
|-
| Cassette, 1984.
|-
| Curated by Claudia Gould, Joseph Nechvatal, Carol Parkinson. Cover art by Jane Dickson.
|-
| With Kiki Smith
, John Fekner
, Vernita Nemec, The Scene Is Now, Tony Papa, Cardboard Air Band, Peter Nechvatal, Charlie Morrow, Alex Noyes, Ikkoh Mine, David Rosenbloom, Carol Parkinson, David Garland, John Fekner
, Mitch Corber, Jamie Daglish and George Elliot, Dr. Telecom, Charlie Noyes, Holly Huges+Sally A. White+Maureen Angelos+Jill Kirschen+Janee Pipik, Ron Kuivila
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1984.
|-
| Curated by Claudia Gould, Joseph Nechvatal, Carol Parkinson. Cover art by Jane Dickson.
|-
| With Kiki Smith
Kiki Smith
Kiki Smith is an American artist classified as a feminist artist, a movement with beginnings in the twentieth century...
, John Fekner
John Fekner
John Fekner is an innovative artist who created hundreds of environmental and conceptual outdoor works consisting of stenciled words, symbols, dates and icons spray painted in New York, Sweden, Canada, England and Germany in the 70s and 80s...
, Vernita Nemec, The Scene Is Now, Tony Papa, Cardboard Air Band, Peter Nechvatal, Charlie Morrow, Alex Noyes, Ikkoh Mine, David Rosenbloom, Carol Parkinson, David Garland, John Fekner
John Fekner
John Fekner is an innovative artist who created hundreds of environmental and conceptual outdoor works consisting of stenciled words, symbols, dates and icons spray painted in New York, Sweden, Canada, England and Germany in the 70s and 80s...
, Mitch Corber, Jamie Daglish and George Elliot, Dr. Telecom, Charlie Noyes, Holly Huges+Sally A. White+Maureen Angelos+Jill Kirschen+Janee Pipik, Ron Kuivila
Ron Kuivila
Ron Kuivila is an American sound artist from Boston, MA. He is primarily known for his sound installations, which often utilize computers.-Biography:...
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #3
|-
| Cassette, 1984.
|-
| Curated by Claudia Gould, Joseph Nechvatal, Carol Parkinson. Cover art by Erik Kualszik.
|-
| With Kirby Malone, Jim Farmer, Christopher Knowles
, Disband, Chain Gang, Gregory Whltehead, Daniel Shklalr, Bruce Tovaky, Wolfgang Staehle
and Steve Pollack, Isaac Jackson, Cardboard Air Band, John Shirley
and Sync 66, Tim Schellenbeum, The Tlnklers, Boom, Brian Reinbolt, Wharton Tiers
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1984.
|-
| Curated by Claudia Gould, Joseph Nechvatal, Carol Parkinson. Cover art by Erik Kualszik.
|-
| With Kirby Malone, Jim Farmer, Christopher Knowles
Christopher Knowles
Christopher Knowles is an American poet. In 1976, his poetry was used by Robert Wilson for the avant-garde minimalist Philip Glass opera, Einstein on the Beach In 2004 Knowles stayed in Long Island for the summer working with Robert Wilson. For one week the Harty family stayed in the house he was...
, Disband, Chain Gang, Gregory Whltehead, Daniel Shklalr, Bruce Tovaky, Wolfgang Staehle
Wolfgang Staehle
Wolfgang Staehle is an early pioneer of net.art in the United States, known for his video streaming of the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001.-Education:...
and Steve Pollack, Isaac Jackson, Cardboard Air Band, John Shirley
John Shirley
John Shirley is an American fantasist, author of noir fiction, and science-fiction writer. Shirley is a prolific writer of novels and short stories, TV scripts and screenplays who has published over 30 books and 10 collections...
and Sync 66, Tim Schellenbeum, The Tlnklers, Boom, Brian Reinbolt, Wharton Tiers
Wharton Tiers
Wharton Tiers is an American audio engineer, record producer, drummer and percussionist.- Biography :Diplomed from Villanova University , he moved to New York City in 1976 and was part of the No Wave scene.As an audio engineer and record producer, he has worked on projects such as Sonic Youth,...
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #4 Piano
|-
| Cassette, 1984.
|-
| Curated by Claudia Gould, Joseph Nechvatal, Carol Parkinson. Cover art by Joseph Nechvatal
.
|-
| With Julius Eastman
, David Weinstein, Michael Byron, Paul Dresher
, Carol Parkinson, Ellen Fullman
, John Morton.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1984.
|-
| Curated by Claudia Gould, Joseph Nechvatal, Carol Parkinson. Cover art by Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal is a post-conceptual art digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses.-Life and work:Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago...
.
|-
| With Julius Eastman
Julius Eastman
Julius Eastman was an African-American composer, pianist, vocalist, and dancer of minimalist tendencies. He was among the first musicians to combine minimalist processes with elements of pop music...
, David Weinstein, Michael Byron, Paul Dresher
Paul Dresher
Paul Joseph Dresher is an American composer. Dresher received his B.A. in music from the University of California, Berkeley and his M.A. in composition from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied with Robert Erickson, Roger Reynolds, Pauline Oliveros, and Bernard Rands.He also...
, Carol Parkinson, Ellen Fullman
Ellen Fullman
Ellen Fullman is a composer, instrument builder, and performer. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area...
, John Morton.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #5 & 6 Double Audio Visual Issue
|-
| Cassette, 1984.
|-
| Curated by Claudia Gould, Joseph Nechvatal, Carol Parkinson. Special boxed double issue.
|-
| With Louise Lawler
, Paul McMahon and Nancy Chun, Julie Harrison, Richard Prince
, Julie Wachtel, Perry Hoberman
, Ericka Beckman, David Wojnarowicz
and Doug Bressler, Paul McMahon and Nancy Chun, Raimund Kummer, Barbara Barg
and Barbara Ess, Kathryn High, Bite Like A Kitty, Anne Turyn, Michael Smith, Rhys Chatham
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1984.
|-
| Curated by Claudia Gould, Joseph Nechvatal, Carol Parkinson. Special boxed double issue.
|-
| With Louise Lawler
Louise Lawler
Louise Lawler is a U.S. artist and photographer. From the late 1970s onwards, Lawler's work has focused on the presentation and marketing of artwork. Much of this work consists of photographs of other peoples' artwork and the context in which it is viewed...
, Paul McMahon and Nancy Chun, Julie Harrison, Richard Prince
Richard Prince
Richard Prince is an American painter and photographer. Prince began appropriating photographs in 1975...
, Julie Wachtel, Perry Hoberman
Perry Hoberman
Perry Hoberman , is an installation artist who has worked extensively with machines and media. His career has included stints with Laurie Anderson and the USC Interactive Media Division....
, Ericka Beckman, David Wojnarowicz
David Wojnarowicz
David Wojnarowicz was a painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and activist who was prominent in the New York City art world of the 1980s.-Biography:...
and Doug Bressler, Paul McMahon and Nancy Chun, Raimund Kummer, Barbara Barg
Barbara Barg
Barbara Barg is a poet, writer, and musician.Barg was born in Memphis and raised in Forrest City, Arkansas. After studying with poet Ted Berrigan at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, she moved to New York City and became involved in a number of individual and collaborative projects...
and Barbara Ess, Kathryn High, Bite Like A Kitty, Anne Turyn, Michael Smith, Rhys Chatham
Rhys Chatham
Rhys Chatham is an American composer, guitarist, and trumpet player, primarily active in avant-garde and minimalist music. He is best known for his "guitar orchestra" compositions...
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #7 The Word I
|-
| Cassette, 1984.
|-
| Curated by Gregory Whitehead. Cover art by Peter Nagy.
|-
| With Linda Fisher, Michael Peppe, Wiska Radiewicz, John Miller, Terry Wilson, Lynne Tillman
, Victor Poison-Tete, Jean-Paul Curtay, Claire Picher, Patrick McGrath, Molly Elder, Michael Gira
, Gregory Whitehead, Nicolas Nowack, Cid Collins Walker, Richard Kostelanetz
, Paul Bob Town, Nameless Stone Productions.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1984.
|-
| Curated by Gregory Whitehead. Cover art by Peter Nagy.
|-
| With Linda Fisher, Michael Peppe, Wiska Radiewicz, John Miller, Terry Wilson, Lynne Tillman
Lynne Tillman
Lynne Tillman is a novelist, short story writer, and cultural critic. She is currently Professor/Writer-in-Residence in the Department of English at the University at Albany and is the author of five novels, three collections of short stories, one collection of essays, and two other nonfiction...
, Victor Poison-Tete, Jean-Paul Curtay, Claire Picher, Patrick McGrath, Molly Elder, Michael Gira
Michael Gira
Michael Rolfe Gira is an American musician, author, and artist. He is the main force behind the recently reformed New York City musical group Swans and fronts the Angels of Light...
, Gregory Whitehead, Nicolas Nowack, Cid Collins Walker, Richard Kostelanetz
Richard Kostelanetz
Richard Kostelanetz is an American artist, author and critic.He was born to Boris Kostelanetz and Ethel Cory and is the nephew of the composer Andre Kostelanetz....
, Paul Bob Town, Nameless Stone Productions.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #8 USA/Germany
|-
| Cassette, 1985.
|-
| Curated by Carlo McCormick
. Cover art by Debbie Davis.
|-
| With Konk
, Joshua Fried, Details At Eleven, Cargo Cult, Destructo, His Masters Voice, Rat at rat r
, Yellow Grave, Live Skull
, Elliott Sharp
, Fast Forward, Christian Marclay
, Club of Rome (aka Asmus Tietchens
), Saurekeller, Galerie Global, Nicolas Nowack.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1985.
|-
| Curated by Carlo McCormick
Carlo McCormick
Carlo McCormick is a culture critic and curator living in New York City. He is the author of numerous books, monographs and catalogues on contemporary art and artists.-Pedagogic Activity:...
. Cover art by Debbie Davis.
|-
| With Konk
Konk (Band)
Formed in 1980 in New York City, KONK was a band that emerged during a period marked by the Post-Punk/New-Wave and Disco scenes which were prevalent at the time. KONK won the attention of both scenes by playing a hybrid of the two musical styles which involved the blending of a New Wave attitude...
, Joshua Fried, Details At Eleven, Cargo Cult, Destructo, His Masters Voice, Rat at rat r
Rat at rat r
-Overview:Noise-rock quartet Rat at Rat R was formed in 1981 by guitarist Victor Poison-tete. Originally hailing from Philadelphia, the band soon relocated to New York City's Lower East Side and became one of the highlights of the NYC noise-rock scene...
, Yellow Grave, Live Skull
Live Skull
-Overview:Live Skull created abrasive no wave music not unlike their 1980s contemporaries Sonic Youth, Swans, Rat at Rat R, The Chameleons, Mars, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Band of Susans. Their music featured angular guitar parts interspersed with bleak, quieter passages, for a haunting...
, Elliott Sharp
Elliott Sharp
Elliott Sharp is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer.A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City since the late 1970s, Sharp has released over eighty-five recordings ranging from blues, jazz, and orchestral music to noise, no wave rock,...
, Fast Forward, Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...
, Club of Rome (aka Asmus Tietchens
Asmus Tietchens
Asmus Tietchens , who also records under the monikers Hematic Sunsets and Club of Rome, is a German composer of avant-garde music....
), Saurekeller, Galerie Global, Nicolas Nowack.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #9 Music with Memory
|-
| Cassette, 1985.
|-
| Curated by John Driscoll. Cover art by Carol Parkinson.
|-
| With Nicolas Collins
, John Driscoll, Brenda Hutchinson
, Ron Kuivila
, Paul De Marinis.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1985.
|-
| Curated by John Driscoll. Cover art by Carol Parkinson.
|-
| With Nicolas Collins
Nicolas Collins
Nicolas Collins is a composer of mostly electronic music and former student of Alvin Lucier. He received a B.A. and M.A...
, John Driscoll, Brenda Hutchinson
Brenda Hutchinson
Brenda Hutchinson is a composer and sound artist who has created a body of work she calls "collaborating with strangers." Hutchinson encourages her participants to experiment with sound, share stories, and make music...
, Ron Kuivila
Ron Kuivila
Ron Kuivila is an American sound artist from Boston, MA. He is primarily known for his sound installations, which often utilize computers.-Biography:...
, Paul De Marinis.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #10 All Guitars!
|-
| Cassette, 1985.
|-
| Curated by Live Skull
founding member Tom Paine. Cover art by Jane Bauman.
|-
| With Lee Ranaldo
, Arto Lindsay
and Toni Nogueira, Janice Sloane, Butthole Surfers
, New Detroit Inc., Bob Mould
, Bond Bergland, Joseph Nechvatal
, Elliot Sharp, David Llnton, Jules Baptiste, Tim Schellenbaum, Bump, Rudolph Gray, Hahn Rowe
, John Myres, Lydia Lunch
and Lucy Hamilton, Sue Hanel, Blixa BargeId, Andrew Nahem, Sandra Seymour, Run Nigger Run
, Thurston Moore
, Mark C. and Marnie Greenholz, Glenn Branca
, James Vidos, Angela Babin and Joe Dizney, Frankenjerry.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1985.
|-
| Curated by Live Skull
Live Skull
-Overview:Live Skull created abrasive no wave music not unlike their 1980s contemporaries Sonic Youth, Swans, Rat at Rat R, The Chameleons, Mars, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Band of Susans. Their music featured angular guitar parts interspersed with bleak, quieter passages, for a haunting...
founding member Tom Paine. Cover art by Jane Bauman.
|-
| With Lee Ranaldo
Lee Ranaldo
Lee M. Ranaldo is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth...
, Arto Lindsay
Arto Lindsay
Arthur Morgan Lindsay is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He is a 1974 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida....
and Toni Nogueira, Janice Sloane, Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers is an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second...
, New Detroit Inc., Bob Mould
Bob Mould
Robert Arthur "Bob" Mould is an American musician, principally known for his work as guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for alternative rock bands Hüsker Dü in the 1980s and Sugar in the 1990s.-Early life:...
, Bond Bergland, Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal is a post-conceptual art digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses.-Life and work:Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago...
, Elliot Sharp, David Llnton, Jules Baptiste, Tim Schellenbaum, Bump, Rudolph Gray, Hahn Rowe
Hahn Rowe
Hahn Rowe is an internationally renowned violinist, guitarist, composer, and record producer involved in a wide-range of projects. Originally a violinist and guitarist with New York City dream-poppers Hugo Largo, Rowe became a session player in the New York scene.As a musician, he has played on...
, John Myres, Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
and Lucy Hamilton, Sue Hanel, Blixa BargeId, Andrew Nahem, Sandra Seymour, Run Nigger Run
Steve Albini
Steven Frank Albini is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman, and Flour, and is currently a member of Shellac...
, Thurston Moore
Thurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...
, Mark C. and Marnie Greenholz, Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca is an American avant-garde composer and guitarist known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. In 2008 he was awarded an unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.-Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s:Branca...
, James Vidos, Angela Babin and Joe Dizney, Frankenjerry.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #11 The Sound of Radio
|-
| Cassette, 1985.
|-
| Curated by Karen Frillmann & Karen Pearlman. Cover art by Steven Frailey.
|-
| With Jay Allison
, Adam Cornford & Daniel Crafts, Susan Stone
, The New York IPS, M’lou Zahner Ollswang, Ginna Allison, Marjorie van Halteren, Lou Giansante, Karen McPherson, Barrett Golding, Rick Harris, Janice Bell & Portia Franklin, Melanie Berzon, Edward Haber, Steve Jones, Helen Thorington, Ginger Miles, Karen Frillmann.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1985.
|-
| Curated by Karen Frillmann & Karen Pearlman. Cover art by Steven Frailey.
|-
| With Jay Allison
Jay Allison
Jay Allison is an American independent public radio producer and broadcast journalist. His work has been featured on radio programs such as This American Life, as well as National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and Morning Edition...
, Adam Cornford & Daniel Crafts, Susan Stone
Susan Stone
Susan Stone is an American radio documentarian and former Director of Drama and Literature at Pacifica Radio station KPFA in Berkeley, California.-External links:*Golden, Barbara. “Conversation with Susan Stone.” . Montréal: CEC.*...
, The New York IPS, M’lou Zahner Ollswang, Ginna Allison, Marjorie van Halteren, Lou Giansante, Karen McPherson, Barrett Golding, Rick Harris, Janice Bell & Portia Franklin, Melanie Berzon, Edward Haber, Steve Jones, Helen Thorington, Ginger Miles, Karen Frillmann.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #12 Dance
|-
| Cassette, 1986.
|-
| Curated by Gretchen Langheld & Bruce Tovsky. Cover art by Barbara Ess.
|-
| With Bill Obrecht, A. Leroy, R. McQuire, Carol Parkinson, Linda Fisher, Lenny Pickett, Anita Feldman+Michael Kowalski, J.A. Deane, Gretchen Langheld, Bruce Tovsky, Brooks Williams
, Jim Farmer, Hearn Gadbois, Liquid Liquid
, Al Diaz, David Linton.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1986.
|-
| Curated by Gretchen Langheld & Bruce Tovsky. Cover art by Barbara Ess.
|-
| With Bill Obrecht, A. Leroy, R. McQuire, Carol Parkinson, Linda Fisher, Lenny Pickett, Anita Feldman+Michael Kowalski, J.A. Deane, Gretchen Langheld, Bruce Tovsky, Brooks Williams
Brooks Williams
Brooks Williams is an American acoustic guitarist and singer/songwriter. His style combines roots, jazz, blues, classical, and folk...
, Jim Farmer, Hearn Gadbois, Liquid Liquid
Liquid Liquid
Liquid Liquid is a New York City post-punk, post-disco band, originally active from 1980 to 1983. They are perhaps best known for their track, "Cavern", which was covered by the Sugar Hill Records house band as the backing track for Grandmaster + Melle Mel's old school rap classic, "White Lines "...
, Al Diaz, David Linton.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #13 Power Electronics
|-
| Cassette, 1986.
|-
| Curated by Joseph Nechvatal. Cover art by Joseph Nechvatal
.
|-
| With Maybe Mental, Merzbow
, Amor Fati, If, Bwana
, Rhys Chatham
, Psyclones, Blackhouse
, Joseph Nechvatal
, Master/slave Relationship, Maybe Mental, Architects Office, Controlled Bleeding
, Mojo, Coup de Grâce
, Le Syndicat, Mitch Corber, F/i.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1986.
|-
| Curated by Joseph Nechvatal. Cover art by Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal is a post-conceptual art digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses.-Life and work:Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago...
.
|-
| With Maybe Mental, Merzbow
Merzbow
is the main recording name of the Japanese noise musician , born in 1956. Since 1979 he has released in excess of 350 recordings.The name "Merzbow" comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters' artwork, "Merzbau”. This was chosen to reflect Akita's dada influence and junk art aesthetic...
, Amor Fati, If, Bwana
If, Bwana
-History:Al Margolis has been working under the musical pseudonym If, Bwana since New Year's Day 1984. He has since earned an international reputation for his experimental noise music.-Recording history:...
, Rhys Chatham
Rhys Chatham
Rhys Chatham is an American composer, guitarist, and trumpet player, primarily active in avant-garde and minimalist music. He is best known for his "guitar orchestra" compositions...
, Psyclones, Blackhouse
Blackhouse
Blackhouse is a Christian industrial band. Blackhouse plays what has been cited as "primo industrial rock", contrasting with post-industrial styles promulgated by artists such as NIN, Klank, or Circle of Dust...
, Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal is a post-conceptual art digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses.-Life and work:Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago...
, Master/slave Relationship, Maybe Mental, Architects Office, Controlled Bleeding
Controlled Bleeding
Controlled Bleeding is a prolific experimental music group based in Massapequa, New York. The group was founded by Paul Lemos, the group's only consistent member...
, Mojo, Coup de Grâce
Michael Moynihan (journalist)
Michael Moynihan is an American journalist, publisher and musician. He is best known for co-writing the book Lords of Chaos, about black metal....
, Le Syndicat, Mitch Corber, F/i.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #14 Just Intonation
|-
| Cassette, 1986.
|-
| Curated by the Just Intonation Network. Cover art by James Nares.
|-
| With Harry Partch
, Ralph David Hill, Carola B. Anderson, David Hykes, Lou Harrison
, Jon Catler, David Canright, David B. Doty, John Bischoff,+Jim Horton+Tim Perkis
, Ben Johnston, Erling Wold
, Susan Norris, James Tenney
, Larry Polansky
, Alexis Alrich, Jody Diamond.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1986.
|-
| Curated by the Just Intonation Network. Cover art by James Nares.
|-
| With Harry Partch
Harry Partch
Harry Partch was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.-Early...
, Ralph David Hill, Carola B. Anderson, David Hykes, Lou Harrison
Lou Harrison
Lou Silver Harrison was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and K. P. H. Notoprojo Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and K. P. H. Notoprojo Lou Silver Harrison...
, Jon Catler, David Canright, David B. Doty, John Bischoff,+Jim Horton+Tim Perkis
Tim Perkis
Tim Perkis is an experimental musician who works with live electronic and computer sound.He has founded or played in live computer network bands such as the...
, Ben Johnston, Erling Wold
Erling Wold
Erling Wold is a San Francisco based composer of opera and contemporary classical music. He is best known for his later chamber operas, especially A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil and his early experiments as a microtonalist...
, Susan Norris, James Tenney
James Tenney
James Tenney was an American composer and influential music theorist.-Biography:Tenney was born in Silver City, New Mexico, and grew up in Arizona and Colorado. He attended the University of Denver, the Juilliard School of Music, Bennington College and the University of Illinois...
, Larry Polansky
Larry Polansky
Larry Polansky is a composer, guitarist, mandolinist, and a professor at Dartmouth College. He is a founding member and co-director of . He co-wrote HMSL with Phil Burk and David Rosenboom....
, Alexis Alrich, Jody Diamond.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #15 The Improvisors
|-
| Cassette, 1986.
|-
| Cover art by Scott Richter.
|-
| With live ‘improvisions’ by Chris Cochrane, Anthony Coleman, Carol Emanuel, Tom Cora, Bill Frisell, Bobby Previte, Lindsay Cooper, Fred Frith
, Irene Schweizer, Christian Marclay
, Bill Horvitz, David Weinstein, Denman Maroney, Samm Bennett, Jim Staley, Ikue Mori, John Zorn
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1986.
|-
| Cover art by Scott Richter.
|-
| With live ‘improvisions’ by Chris Cochrane, Anthony Coleman, Carol Emanuel, Tom Cora, Bill Frisell, Bobby Previte, Lindsay Cooper, Fred Frith
Fred Frith
Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
, Irene Schweizer, Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...
, Bill Horvitz, David Weinstein, Denman Maroney, Samm Bennett, Jim Staley, Ikue Mori, John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #16 Tango
|-
| Cassette, 1986.
|-
| Contributing editor Gerald Lindhal. Cover art by Russell Buckingham.
|-
| With Carlos Gardel, David Garland, Chris DeBlasio, Keeler, Brenda Hutchinson
& Gerald Lindhal, Alan Tomlinson, Elodie Lauten, Jo Basile & Orchestra, Robert Scheff, Molly Elder, Matthew Nash, Jo Basile & Orchestra, Christopher Berg, Fast Forward, Mader.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1986.
|-
| Contributing editor Gerald Lindhal. Cover art by Russell Buckingham.
|-
| With Carlos Gardel, David Garland, Chris DeBlasio, Keeler, Brenda Hutchinson
Brenda Hutchinson
Brenda Hutchinson is a composer and sound artist who has created a body of work she calls "collaborating with strangers." Hutchinson encourages her participants to experiment with sound, share stories, and make music...
& Gerald Lindhal, Alan Tomlinson, Elodie Lauten, Jo Basile & Orchestra, Robert Scheff, Molly Elder, Matthew Nash, Jo Basile & Orchestra, Christopher Berg, Fast Forward, Mader.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #17 Video Art Music
|-
| Cassette, 1987.
|-
| Curated by Peer Bode. Cover art by Peer Bode.
|-
| With Woody Vasulka, Peter Chamberlain, Richard Kostelanetz
, Shelley Hirsch
, Joe D’Agostino, Julie Harrison, Kjell Bjorgeengen, Sorrel Hays, Eric Ross, Megan Roberts, Jean-Paul Curtay.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1987.
|-
| Curated by Peer Bode. Cover art by Peer Bode.
|-
| With Woody Vasulka, Peter Chamberlain, Richard Kostelanetz
Richard Kostelanetz
Richard Kostelanetz is an American artist, author and critic.He was born to Boris Kostelanetz and Ethel Cory and is the nephew of the composer Andre Kostelanetz....
, Shelley Hirsch
Shelley Hirsch
Shelley Hirsch is a singer, performer, and composer. Central to Hirsch's work are her versatile vocal abilities, which are often enmeshed in a kaleidoscope of electronic music and sound effects....
, Joe D’Agostino, Julie Harrison, Kjell Bjorgeengen, Sorrel Hays, Eric Ross, Megan Roberts, Jean-Paul Curtay.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #18 Experimental Theater
|-
| Cassette, 1988.
|-
| Curated by Claudia Gould and Carol Parkinson. Cover art by Mike Kelly.
|-
| With Spalding Gray
, Ann Magnuson
with Vulcan Death Grip, Mike Kelly with Sonic Youth
, Jerri Allyn, Ann Magnuson & Lydia Lunch
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1988.
|-
| Curated by Claudia Gould and Carol Parkinson. Cover art by Mike Kelly.
|-
| With Spalding Gray
Spalding Gray
Spalding Rockwell Gray was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, performance artist and monologuist...
, Ann Magnuson
Ann Magnuson
Ann Magnuson is an American actress, performance artist, and nightclub performer who first gained prominence in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan...
with Vulcan Death Grip, Mike Kelly with Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, Jerri Allyn, Ann Magnuson & Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #19 New Music China
|-
| Cassette, 1988.
|-
| Curated R.I.P. Hayman. Cover art by Zhang Wei
, calligraphy by Huang Pao Lian.
|-
| With Ji Gong, Wang Li, Zhang Xing, Tiao Ba Tiao Ba, Zui Jiu, Hao Yuchi, Electronic Dirge, Xian Percussion Ensemble, Miao Love Chant, Liu Dehal, Gong Yi, Fred Houn, Chen Yi
, Ge Gan Ru, Zhou Long
, Wu Wen Guang, Tan Dun, R.I.P. Hayman, Jing Jing Luo.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1988.
|-
| Curated R.I.P. Hayman. Cover art by Zhang Wei
Zhang Wei
Zhang Wei was a younger brother of the warlord Zhang Lu during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. Following Cao Cao's attack on Hanzhong, Zhang Wei strongly suggested for defense of the city. After Cao Cao ended up taking Hanzhong, Zhang Wei escaped to Bazhong where he fought against...
, calligraphy by Huang Pao Lian.
|-
| With Ji Gong, Wang Li, Zhang Xing, Tiao Ba Tiao Ba, Zui Jiu, Hao Yuchi, Electronic Dirge, Xian Percussion Ensemble, Miao Love Chant, Liu Dehal, Gong Yi, Fred Houn, Chen Yi
Chen Yi (composer)
Chen Yi is a Chinese composer of contemporary classical music. She was the first Chinese woman to receive a Master of Arts in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She is also a violinist....
, Ge Gan Ru, Zhou Long
Zhou Long
Zhou Long is a Pulitzer-prize-winning Chinese American composer.-Biography:Born into an artistic family, Zhou Long began studying piano from an early age. Due to the artistic restrictions implemented during the Cultural Revolution, he was forced to delay his piano studies and live on a state-run...
, Wu Wen Guang, Tan Dun, R.I.P. Hayman, Jing Jing Luo.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #20 Media Myth
|-
| Cassette, 1988.
|-
| Curated by Joseph Nechvatal
. Cover art by Steven Parrino.
|-
| With Randy Greif, Pierre Perret
, The Psychic Workshop, Social Interiors, If, Bwana
, Crawling With Tarts, Violence and The Sacred, Art Interface, Minoy, Nicolas Collins
, Silent But Deadly, JPM Studios, Joseph Nechvatal
, A Place To Pray, Maurice Methot, Michael Chocholak, Dance.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1988.
|-
| Curated by Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal is a post-conceptual art digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses.-Life and work:Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago...
. Cover art by Steven Parrino.
|-
| With Randy Greif, Pierre Perret
Pierre Perret
Pierre Perret , is a French singer and composer. Pierre Perret resides in the city of Nangis.- Biography :...
, The Psychic Workshop, Social Interiors, If, Bwana
If, Bwana
-History:Al Margolis has been working under the musical pseudonym If, Bwana since New Year's Day 1984. He has since earned an international reputation for his experimental noise music.-Recording history:...
, Crawling With Tarts, Violence and The Sacred, Art Interface, Minoy, Nicolas Collins
Nicolas Collins
Nicolas Collins is a composer of mostly electronic music and former student of Alvin Lucier. He received a B.A. and M.A...
, Silent But Deadly, JPM Studios, Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal is a post-conceptual art digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses.-Life and work:Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago...
, A Place To Pray, Maurice Methot, Michael Chocholak, Dance.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #21 Audio By Visual Artists
|-
| Cassette, 1988.
|-
|Curated by Claudia Gould, Joseph Nechvatal, Carol Parkinson. Cover art by Cindy Sherman
.
|-
| With Joseph Beuys
, Maurice Lemaître
, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
, Raoul Hausmann
, Antonio Russolo
, Marcel Duchamp
, Kurt Schwitters
, Lawrence Weiner
, George Brecht
, Patrick Ireland
, Richard Huelsenbeck
, Arrigo Lora-Totino & Fogliati, Jean Dubuffet
, Mimmo Rotella
, Joan Jonas
, Christian Boltanski
, Ian Murray, Terry Fox, Jonathan Borofsky
, Magdalena Abakanowicz
, Richard Prince
with Robert Gober
, Martin Kippenberger
, Jack Goldstein
, John Armleder
, Terry Allen, Gretchen Bender, Y Pants
, Ed Tomney, Susan Hiller
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1988.
|-
|Curated by Claudia Gould, Joseph Nechvatal, Carol Parkinson. Cover art by Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and film director, best known for her conceptual portraits. Sherman currently lives and works in New York City. In 1995, she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. She is represented by Sprüth Magers Berlin London in and Metro Pictures gallery in...
.
|-
| With Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys was a German performance artist, sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art.His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social...
, Maurice Lemaître
Maurice Lemaître
Lettrist painter, producer of Lettrist works since the 1940s. Lemaître , Isidore Isou’s right hand man for nearly half a century, began to distance himself from Lettrism in the 2000s. He still continues to pursue traditional Letterist techniques, but now in relative isolation from the main...
, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti was an Italian poet and editor, the founder of the Futurist movement, and a fascist ideologue.-Childhood and adolescence:...
, Raoul Hausmann
Raoul Hausmann
Raoul Hausmann was an Austrian artist and writer. One of the key figures in Berlin Dada, his experimental photographic collages, sound poetry and institutional critiques would have a profound influence on the European Avant-Garde in the aftermath of World War I.-Early biography:Raoul Hausmann was...
, Antonio Russolo
Antonio Russolo
Antonio Russolo was an Italian Futurist composer, brother of the more famous Futurist composer and theorist Luigi Russolo. The 78 rpm record made by him in 1921 is the only surviving sound recording that features the original intonarumori...
, Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
, Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as...
, Lawrence Weiner
Lawrence Weiner
Lawrence Weiner was a central figure in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s His work often takes the form of typographic texts.- Life and career :...
, George Brecht
George Brecht
George Brecht , born George Ellis MacDiarmid, was an American conceptual artist and avant-garde composer as well as a professional chemist who worked as a consultant for companies including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Mobil Oil...
, Patrick Ireland
Patrick Ireland
Patrick Ireland was the alter ego of Brian O'Doherty an Irish sculptor, conceptual artist, author, and installation artist. He was born in County Roscommon in 1928 and lives and works in the United States. O'Doherty began signing his work under the name Patrick Ireland in reaction to the Bloody...
, Richard Huelsenbeck
Richard Huelsenbeck
Richard Huelsenbeck was a poet, writer and drummer born in Frankenau, Hessen-Nassau.Carl Wilhelm Richard Hülsenbeck was a medical student on the eve of World War I. He was invalided out of the army and emigrated to Zürich, Switzerland in February 1916, where he fell in with the Cabaret Voltaire...
, Arrigo Lora-Totino & Fogliati, Jean Dubuffet
Jean Dubuffet
Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making.-Life and work:Dubuffet was...
, Mimmo Rotella
Mimmo Rotella
Domenico "Mimmo" Rotella, , was an Italian artist and poet best known for his works of décollage and psychogeographics, made from torn advertising posters.Rotella was born in Catanzaro, Calabria....
, Joan Jonas
Joan Jonas
Born in 1936 in New York City, Joan Jonas is a pioneer of video and performance art and one of the most important female artists to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s.She began her career in New York City as a sculptor...
, Christian Boltanski
Christian Boltanski
Christian Boltanski is French sculptor, photographer, painter and film maker.-Life and work:Having no formal art education, he began painting in 1958. Nevertheless, he first came to public attention in 1960 with few short films and publication of several notebooks...
, Ian Murray, Terry Fox, Jonathan Borofsky
Jonathan Borofsky
Jonathan Borofsky is an American sculptor and printmaker who lives and works in Maine.Borofsky was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University in 1964, after which he continued his studies at France's Ecole de Fontainebleau and received his...
, Magdalena Abakanowicz
Magdalena Abakanowicz
Magdalena Abakanowicz is a Polish sculptor. She is notable for her use of textiles as a sculptural medium. She was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, Poland from 1965 to 1990 and a visiting professor at University of California, Los Angeles in 1984...
, Richard Prince
Richard Prince
Richard Prince is an American painter and photographer. Prince began appropriating photographs in 1975...
with Robert Gober
Robert Gober
Robert Gober is an American sculptor. His work is often related to domestic and familiar objects such as sinks, doors, and legs.-Life and work:...
, Martin Kippenberger
Martin Kippenberger
Martin Kippenberger was a German artist known for his extremely prolific output in a wide range of styles and media as well as his provocative, jocular and hard-drinking public persona....
, Jack Goldstein
Jack Goldstein
Jack Goldstein was a Canadian born, California-based performance and conceptual artist turned painter in the 1980s art boom.-Early life and education:...
, John Armleder
John Armleder
John Armleder as the son of a hotelier , is a Swiss performance artist, painter, sculptor, critic, and curator. His work is based on his involvement with Fluxus in the 1960s and 1970s, when he created performance art pieces, installations and collective art activities that were strongly influenced...
, Terry Allen, Gretchen Bender, Y Pants
Y Pants
Y Pants were an all-female No Wave band from New York City active from 1979 to 1982. The trio, made up of photographer/musician Barbara Ess , visual artist Virginia Piersol, and filmmaker Gail Vachon, developed a unique sound via their acoustic toy instrumentation of toy piano, ukulele and a...
, Ed Tomney, Susan Hiller
Susan Hiller
Susan Hiller is an American-born artist who lives in London, UK. Her art practice encompasses installation, video, photography, performance and writing.-Early Life and Education:...
.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #22 False Phonemes
|-
| Cassette, 1988.
|-
| Curated by Ellen Zweig. Cover art by Matt Mullican.
|-
| With Remko Scha
, Larry Wendt, Brian Reinbolt, Mark Rudolph, Alice Shields
, Paul DeMarinis
, Paul Lansky
, Jon English/Jim Pomeroy
, Ron Kuivila
, John Cage
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1988.
|-
| Curated by Ellen Zweig. Cover art by Matt Mullican.
|-
| With Remko Scha
Remko Scha
Remko J. H. Scha is a professor of computational linguistics at the faculty of humanities and Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the University of Amsterdam. He is also an internationally renowned composer and performer of algorithmic art....
, Larry Wendt, Brian Reinbolt, Mark Rudolph, Alice Shields
Alice Shields
Alice Shields is an American composer. She is a respected electronic composer particularly known for her work in opera....
, Paul DeMarinis
Paul DeMarinis
Paul DeMarinis is an American electronic music composer, sound, performance, and computer-based artist.-Education:In 1971, Demarinis received a B.A. in Music and Filmmaking Interdisciplinary from Antioch College...
, Paul Lansky
Paul Lansky
Paul Lansky is an American electronic-music or computer-music composer who has been producing works from the 1970s up to the present day .-Biography:...
, Jon English/Jim Pomeroy
Jim Pomeroy (artist)
James C. Pomeroy was an American artist whose practice spanned a variety of media including performance art, sound art, photography, installation art, sculpture, and video art.-Career:...
, Ron Kuivila
Ron Kuivila
Ron Kuivila is an American sound artist from Boston, MA. He is primarily known for his sound installations, which often utilize computers.-Biography:...
, John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #23 The Voices of Paul Bowles
|-
| Cassette, 1989.
|-
| Curated by Stephen Frailey. Cover photograph by Antonin Kratochvil
.
|-
| Audioportrait incl. Paul Bowles
early compositions ‘Music for a Farce’, ‘Interlude and Prelude # 2’, and Moroccan field recordings.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1989.
|-
| Curated by Stephen Frailey. Cover photograph by Antonin Kratochvil
Antonin Kratochvil
Antonin Kratochvil is a Czech-born American photojournalist. He is a founding member of the VII Photo Agency. He received his BFA in Photography from Gerrit Rietveld Academie which is located in Amsterdam, Holland...
.
|-
| Audioportrait incl. Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator.Following a cultured middle-class upbringing in New York City, during which he displayed a talent for music and writing, Bowles pursued his education at the University of Virginia before making various trips to Paris...
early compositions ‘Music for a Farce’, ‘Interlude and Prelude # 2’, and Moroccan field recordings.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #24 FluxTellus
|-
| Cassette, 1990.
|-
| Curated by Fluxus
archivist Barbara Moore. Cover art by Peter Moore
. Including a 16 page accordion fold-out booklet with Moore’s essay “The Sound Of Music”.
|-
| Featuring early sound work by George Brecht
, Philip Corner
, Dick Higgins
, Joe Jones
, Alison Knowles
, Takehisa Kosugi
, George Maciunas
, Jackson Mac Low
, Larry Miller, Tomas Schmit, Robert Watts
and Emmett Williams
. The cassette case includes a sound art
work by Takako Saito.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Cassette, 1990.
|-
| Curated by Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
archivist Barbara Moore. Cover art by Peter Moore
Peter Moore
Peter Moore may refer to:*Peter Moore , professor at Yale University*Peter Moore , former SOA President, former Microsoft executive, head of EA Sports*Peter Moore , British serial killer...
. Including a 16 page accordion fold-out booklet with Moore’s essay “The Sound Of Music”.
|-
| Featuring early sound work by George Brecht
George Brecht
George Brecht , born George Ellis MacDiarmid, was an American conceptual artist and avant-garde composer as well as a professional chemist who worked as a consultant for companies including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Mobil Oil...
, Philip Corner
Philip Corner
Philip Corner is an American composer, action musician, trombone/alphornist, sometime vocalist, pianist-improvisor, theorist-educator, graphic score designer, and visual artist, collage&assembleur, calligrapher.-Biography:After The High School of Music & Art in New York City, Philip Corner...
, Dick Higgins
Dick Higgins
Dick Higgins was a composer, poet, printer, and early Fluxus artist. Higgins was born in Cambridge, England, but raised in the United States in various parts of New England, including Worcester, Massachusetts, Putney, Vermont, and Concord, New Hampshire.Like other Fluxus artists, Higgins studied...
, Joe Jones
Joe Jones (Fluxus artist)
-Formation:Joe Jones grew up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and received a classical musical education at Hartnett Music School in New York City. In the late 1950s he began a short career as a jazz drummer. In 1960 Jones began to study avant-garde experimental composition first briefly with John Cage and...
, Alison Knowles
Alison Knowles
Alison Knowles in New York City is an American visual artist known for her soundworks, installations, performances, and publications. Knowles was very active in the Fluxus movement, and continues to create work inspired by her Fluxus experience....
, Takehisa Kosugi
Takehisa Kosugi
is a Japanese composer and violinist associated with the Fluxus movement.Kosugi studied musicology at the Tokyo University of the Arts and graduated in 1962....
, George Maciunas
George Maciunas
George Maciunas was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He was a founding member of Fluxus, an international community of artists, architects, composers, and designers...
, Jackson Mac Low
Jackson Mac Low
Jackson Mac Low was an American poet, performance artist, composer and playwright, known to most readers of poetry as a practioneer of systematic chance operations and other non-intentional compositional methods in his work, which Mac Low first experienced in the musical work of John Cage, Earle...
, Larry Miller, Tomas Schmit, Robert Watts
Robert Watts (artist)
Robert Watts was an American artist best known for his work as a member of the international Avant-garde art movement Fluxus. Born in Burlington, Iowa June 14, 1923, he became Professor of Art at Douglass College, Rutgers University, New Jersey in 1953, a post he kept until 1984...
and Emmett Williams
Emmett Williams
Emmett Williams was an American poet and visual artist.Williams was born in Greenville, South Carolina, and grew up in Virginia, and lived in Europe from 1949 to 1966...
. The cassette case includes a sound art
Sound art
Sound art is a diverse group of art practices that considers wide notions of sound, listening and hearing as its predominant focus. There are often distinct relationships forged between the visual and aural domains of art and perception by sound artists....
work by Takako Saito.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #25 Siteless Sounds
|-
| Compact Disc, 1991.
|-
| Cover art by David Wojnarowicz
.
|-
| Contains ‘political and personal views as expressed through new audiotext works” by David Wojnarowicz
and Ben Neill
, Shelley Hirsch
, David Moss, Constance Dulong, Brenda Hutchinson
, Gregory Whitehead and a collaboration with Jacki Apple, Linda Albertano, Keith Antar Mason and Akailah Nayo Oliver.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Compact Disc, 1991.
|-
| Cover art by David Wojnarowicz
David Wojnarowicz
David Wojnarowicz was a painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and activist who was prominent in the New York City art world of the 1980s.-Biography:...
.
|-
| Contains ‘political and personal views as expressed through new audiotext works” by David Wojnarowicz
David Wojnarowicz
David Wojnarowicz was a painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and activist who was prominent in the New York City art world of the 1980s.-Biography:...
and Ben Neill
Ben Neill
Ben Neill is a composer and trumpeter who has studied with La Monte Young. His music has been recorded on the Thirsty Ear, Astralwerks, Verve, and Six Degrees labels. Neill spent seven years as the music curator for The Kitchen in New York. He has collaborated with DJ Spooky, David Wojnarowicz...
, Shelley Hirsch
Shelley Hirsch
Shelley Hirsch is a singer, performer, and composer. Central to Hirsch's work are her versatile vocal abilities, which are often enmeshed in a kaleidoscope of electronic music and sound effects....
, David Moss, Constance Dulong, Brenda Hutchinson
Brenda Hutchinson
Brenda Hutchinson is a composer and sound artist who has created a body of work she calls "collaborating with strangers." Hutchinson encourages her participants to experiment with sound, share stories, and make music...
, Gregory Whitehead and a collaboration with Jacki Apple, Linda Albertano, Keith Antar Mason and Akailah Nayo Oliver.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #26 Jewel Box
|-
| Compact Disc and Cassette, 1992.
|-
| Curated by Brian Karl. Cover art by Kiki Smith
.
|-
| With Anne LeBaron
, Laetitia Sonami, Sussan Deihim, Bun-Ching Lam
, Catherine Jauniaux
& Ikue Mori
, Sapphire, Mary Ellen Childs
, Michelle Kinney.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Compact Disc and Cassette, 1992.
|-
| Curated by Brian Karl. Cover art by Kiki Smith
Kiki Smith
Kiki Smith is an American artist classified as a feminist artist, a movement with beginnings in the twentieth century...
.
|-
| With Anne LeBaron
Anne LeBaron
Alice Anne LeBaron is an United States composer and harpist.-Biography:Anne LeBaron holds a B.A. in music from the University of Alabama , an M.A. in music from the State University of New York at Stony Brook , and a D.M.A. from Columbia University...
, Laetitia Sonami, Sussan Deihim, Bun-Ching Lam
Bun-Ching Lam
Lam Bun-Ching is a composer, pianist, and conductor.She holds a B.A. degree in piano performance from the Chinese University of Hong Kong . She obtained a scholarship from the University of California at San Diego, where she studied composition with Bernard Rands, Robert Erickson, Roger Reynolds,...
, Catherine Jauniaux
Catherine Jauniaux
Catherine Jauniaux is a Belgian avant-garde singer. She has been described as a "one-woman-orchestra", a "human sampler", and "one of the best kept secrets in the world of improvised music". Her solo album, Fluvial is regarded as one of her most accomplished works...
& Ikue Mori
Ikue Mori
, also known as Ikue Ile, is a drummer, composer, and graphic designer.-Biography:Ikue Mori was born and raised in Japan. She says she had little interest in music before hearing punk rock...
, Sapphire, Mary Ellen Childs
Mary Ellen Childs
Mary Ellen Childs is an American composer and multimedia artist and founder of the ensemble Crash...
, Michelle Kinney.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus #27 Mini-mall
|-
| Curated by Brian Karl. Cover art featuring work by Vito Acconci
|-
| Compact Disc, 1993.
|-
| With Brenda Hutchinson
, Jin Hi Kiim, and Pauline Oliveros
with Fanny Green.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
|-
| Curated by Brian Karl. Cover art featuring work by Vito Acconci
|-
| Compact Disc, 1993.
|-
| With Brenda Hutchinson
Brenda Hutchinson
Brenda Hutchinson is a composer and sound artist who has created a body of work she calls "collaborating with strangers." Hutchinson encourages her participants to experiment with sound, share stories, and make music...
, Jin Hi Kiim, and Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros is an American accordionist and composer who is a central figure in the development of post-war electronic art music....
with Fanny Green.
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
!
Tellus Tools
|-
| Double-LP (TE-LP01), 2001.
|-
| Curated by Taketo Shimada. Cover art by Christian Marclay
.
|-
| Including selections from previous issues: Isaac Jackson, Alan Tomlinson, Joe Jones
, Christian Marclay
, Ken Montgomery, Catherine Jauniaux, Ikue Mori, David Linton, Gregory Whitehead, The League Of Automatic Music Composers, Maurice Lemaire, Jerry Lindahl, Tim Schellenbaum & Jack Goldstein
.
|}
|-
| Double-LP (TE-LP01), 2001.
|-
| Curated by Taketo Shimada. Cover art by Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...
.
|-
| Including selections from previous issues: Isaac Jackson, Alan Tomlinson, Joe Jones
Joe Jones (Fluxus artist)
-Formation:Joe Jones grew up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and received a classical musical education at Hartnett Music School in New York City. In the late 1950s he began a short career as a jazz drummer. In 1960 Jones began to study avant-garde experimental composition first briefly with John Cage and...
, Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...
, Ken Montgomery, Catherine Jauniaux, Ikue Mori, David Linton, Gregory Whitehead, The League Of Automatic Music Composers, Maurice Lemaire, Jerry Lindahl, Tim Schellenbaum & Jack Goldstein
Jack Goldstein
Jack Goldstein was a Canadian born, California-based performance and conceptual artist turned painter in the 1980s art boom.-Early life and education:...
.
|}
Online articles
- Carlo McCormickCarlo McCormickCarlo McCormick is a culture critic and curator living in New York City. He is the author of numerous books, monographs and catalogues on contemporary art and artists.-Pedagogic Activity:...
Tellus: Time Loops Our Sonic Stigmata, UbuWebUbuWebUbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:...
Tellus Notes - Marvin @ Freealbums Various Artists - Tellus 1 & 2
- Kenneth GoldsmithKenneth GoldsmithKenneth Goldsmith is an American poet. He is the founding editor of UbuWeb, teaches Poetics and Poetic Practice at the University of Pennsylvania and is Senior Editor of PennSound. He hosted a weekly radio show at WFMU from 1995 until June 2010...
Poetry Foundation Podcast: The Tellus cassettes - Marc Weidenbaum Classic Tellus Noise
- Amanda MacBlane at New Music Box writing on TellusTools LP
External links
- http://www.harvestworks.org/cms/
- http://www.harvestworks.org/tellusWEB/
- http://www.ubu.com/sound/tellus.html