Sometimes we write about Negativland, sometimes we are simply Negativland. Look, here's proof. We are legion.
Hive mind aside, a few years ago, director Ryan Worsley teased at us with a 5-minute clip on Youtube from her forthcoming documentary on metamedia group Negativland. We were all dispeptic about missing the premier and subsequent screenings until we discovered a curious thumbnail on Youtube. And that, Contra Costa County enthusiasts, was when we finally found what we were looking for. That's Stand By for Failure, in it's entirety, uploaded by the Creator herself. Enough teasing!
Stand By for Failure is a portrait of Negativland painted in the plunderphonics mode. It takes about ten minutes of fairly abstract montage to get into narrative, a stylistic choice parallel to some of Negativland's album arcs. When it does break into linear structure, still in rickrack form, the story within is presented as self-evident. There are a few collaged title cards that offer a little exposition, but the film is mostly comprised of experimentally edited footage from David Wills' collection and advertisement ad nauseam, just like God intended. Fittingly, there's no neat voiceover explaining the timeline of when the band formed, what year they had a fire, etc. ("band" here is a classification used for commercial indexing purposes; the Weatherman himself disagrees with that taxonomy).
Negativland's work (another taxonomical misrepresentation- "Work is too scholarly of a word!") forces meaning or lack thereof via the hard juxtaposition of advertisement against news against useless celebrity soundbyte against static. Worsley successfully adapts the channel flipping format for the small screen and creates a coherrent history out of it.
A traditional documentary would hardly fit the collage artists ensemble taped together in the shape of a band. Stand By, self reflexive in the spirit of Dawson City Frozen Time, is just as much a piece of art as it is a "popular feature length documentary [in] entertainment format", and it excels wonderfully at both.
Pallatable, popular and the price is right! Mmmm, thanks, Mom!
"[The internet] is a bunch of crap! It's run by Woolworth's people" -Don Joyce
What's more, they're on tour!
