World Revolution: Scratch Videos

Submitted by myles on November 29, 2006 - 9:17am.

(go to the bottom of this page to simply link to the videos, or read on to learn a bit about the project first)

Question. Analyze. Manipulate.

Feeling a need to evoke global social action and awareness, UK a/v pioneers Coldcut and friends are picking up where they left off with Revolution:USA, this time bringing the world in under World Revolution.tv.

Coldcut has invited numerous politically-conscious Internet denizens í¢â‚¬“ including artists, grass-roots organizations, and filmmakers- to create cut-up a/v tracks and documentaries using regional footage, audios clips and whatever else they can get their hands on. Artists will work on a regional level to remix their local media and politicians. The project will serve as a hub for all the regional remixes, thereby facilitating a macro view of world politics from the microcosms created by the participating artists. This allows for a new intersection between artist and audience where the worlds of the filmmaker and the viewer merge into a single act. What Coldcut and friends are asking the viewer not to simply accept what the media says but to question it, to analyze it and to manipulate it. The end result is an intersection between the worlds of documentary, interactive film making and web interactivity.

Each artist remix, as well as textual information concerning their work, the politics of their region and the issues addressed in general, will be hosted on the World Revolution website for the world to access. The site will also offer audiovisual clips and music tracks from Coldcutí¢â‚¬â„¢s archive for users to download and begin working with. In essence this will be a digital library de[t/r]ailing the blatant corruption of the global political landscape in order to evoke social change through audience participation. The concept of this site is also a new form of documentary filmmaking. By using audiovisual content in such a raw and concise form, and by offering the artist works on the site, it is possible for the user to essentially create their own documentary experience by simply following the links and watching the materials in the order they choose í¢â‚¬“ without the bias and editing decisions of the filmmaker.

The concept of this project is primarily to use art as a vehicle to encourage people to explore/question the media (namely, television and film) and to counteract the passive viewing model that our society has come to live by. Much as the turntable has shifted from being a static form of media to being a malleable instrument for the reinterpretation of its original media (i.e. records), Coldcut are presenting a revolution not just in terms of political consciousness, but also in terms of how we approach the media in general. With the power of online distribution and the increasing abundance of consumer-level digital editing tools, it is becoming increasingly easy for the average person to manipulate the media. Taking their penchant for audiovisual political entertainment to the next level, Coldcut are proving that with digital culture the paradigm shift is underway; that now, more than ever, it is possible to become the media.

This project seeks to remind the world citizens that politicians are not always working in our best interests and that democracy is a power of the people í¢â‚¬“ and now so is the media.

Attached are a number of videos from the beginning of this project.

For more information go to www.worldrevolution.tv

or, click on the below links to view an assortment of these truly innovative videos.

Coldcut Vs. TV Sheriff: World of Evil