With a new year comes new possibilities and it’s in the impenetrable world of US art collective Paper Rad that they can be fully explored. At the vanguard of the ‘New Media’ wave of young artists delving into the black hole of the all things 8-bit and html5, the three core members Jacob Ciocci, Jessica Ciocci and Ben Jones are messiahs of modern media, and part of the exciting crop of cross-platform practitioners that include James Ferraro, and Ryan Trecartin.
D.i.Why? by Ben Jones, March 2005
They’ve collaborated with artist Cory Arcangel and Paul B Davis, who pioneered the field in the mid-90s, culminating in his vinyl release of songs composed by hacked video game consoles 8-Bit Construction Set in 2000. Not ones to leave one of the most essential areas of creative life out, Paper Rad are also associated with several musical offshoots including Extreme Animals and ROTFLOL, while commercial venture Wyld File is credited with producing music videos for the Gossip and Beck. Meanwhile, Jones has a series called Problem Solverz on Adult Swim channel -the same one responsible for launching the careers of Tim & Eric. The comedians have a similar aesthetic to Paper Rad -although theirs is a satire of free-to-air television programming, rather than ‘omnimedia’ art and music based in the digital world. Read More
It’s always hard to say goodbye. Especially when you’ve finally managed to find a little corner in the pretentious and sometimes dismissive cultural web ecosystem… grab a few quality freelance writers give them some freedom to explore, propose and positively add some value to your personal tasteless blog and you’re set for several thousand visitors a month. It ain’t that hard, to keep it up and running is a completely different thing.
But we’ll leave the “goodbye” for another occasion because we’re not going anywhere ladies & gentlemen! We’re only taking a break, a well-deserved break after nearly 3 years of non-stop digital & arts obsessive paranoia.
Please Stand By... Rapture by ~mmmmdeath on deviantART
For the next few weeks aqnb will be taking a reviewing & interviewing pause. Our news (attractions) and events sections will continue to deliver crap stuff as usual (just like our social network alter-egos) but our flashy-artist discovery and exploration mission will have to halt for the time being. We need to reshape, rethink and adapt our major categories just like a much-needed design overhaul.
Everything will come… one at a time, today it’s a stop & go for us.
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