Peter Conheim

Since 1959 at the age of five, David "The Weatherman" Wills has been recording his life, self, and anything he likes (such as the weather, toilets flushing, and intercepted cell phone conversations) and broadcasting it to anyone listening. Together with childhood friends Richard Lyons and Mark Hosler they formed Negativland, which quickly became an absurd and noisy multimedia world without boundaries, ownership or privacy. Negativland's complex chaos of plunderphonics poses both serious and silly questions about the nature of culture, media, technology, control, propaganda, power and perception in the United States of America. Is what you're hearing and seeing real or simply familiar? The medium reveals that any message is all in our heads.

When Don Joyce and Negativland discovered their mutual love for “found” sounds, an intensely collaborative creative partnership was cemented. It continued non-stop for the ensuing decades, with Don endlessly scanning the airwaves of radio and television, along with his massive LP collection, for new material, day by day, week by week. “It was Don who took the idea of reshaping previously recorded words – in a pre-sampling age – and ran with it to an extent and depth never before heard, and never equaled. ‘Recontextualization’ became his weapon, with the 1/4” tape machine and razor blade his ammunition, and the radio ‘cart player’ – an entirely forgotten piece of broadcast history using endless-loop tape cartridges, which he used until he death – his delivery system.” -Negativland