Paper Rad

Screenshot from Paper Rad's Facemaker video (2005).

Paper Rad is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania/Providence, Rhode Island art collective that makes comics, zines, video art, net art, MIDI files, paintings, installations, and music. The three primary members are Jacob Ciocci, Jessica Ciocci, and Ben Jones.

Paper Rad exhibited works at several major galleries including PaceWildenstein, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, and Deitch Projects. It also published a book, Paper Rad, BJ and da Dogs[1] in late-2005 as well a DVD on Load Records in 2006 (Trash Talking). Electronic Arts Intermix distributed Paper Rad's video works.[2]

Style

Paper Rad calls its style "Dogman 99", a play on the Danish filmmaking movement Dogme 95. According to one of its project websites, the rules of Dogman 99 are: "No Wacom tablet, no scanning, pure RGB colors only, only fake tweening, and as many alpha tricks as possible".[3]

Paper Rad's visual projects often employ bright fluorescent palettes juxtaposed with primary colors to create a distinctive "lo-fi" look. It adopts a variety of techniques and elements to achieve this look, including pop art, collage, punk art, as well as imagery from popular culture.

Its multimedia projects often incorporate MIDI audio, poor recordings of original sound effects and voices, pixelization, and other crude audio and visual components.

Paper Rad often recycles or appropriates obscure sounds and images from a variety of sources, including: old cartoons, commercials, and late-night television.

Collaborations & Other Works

Super Mario Bros. Movie

Paper Rad collaborated with multi-media artist Cory Arcangel to make Super Mario Bros. Movie, a 15-minute video piece about the life and times of Nintendo's Mario. The piece consisted of a hacked Nintendo Entertainment System video-game cartridge where the backgrounds and scenarios were altered and rearranged into a narrative story about the game world becoming corrupted and Mario's existential crises about being a video game character.[4] The movie debuted at Deitch Projects in New York in 2005.

Wyld File

Main article: Wyld File

Wyld File consisted of duo Ben Jones and Jacob Ciocci with the collaborator Eric Mast (better known as E*ROCK).[5] Wyld File is a commercial entity that makes lo-fi music videos for artists like Islands, The Gossip ("Standing in the Way of Control"), and Beck ("Gameboy Homeboy").

Music

Paper Rad splintered into several bands in the genres of electronic music, noise, techno, and rock. Some of these bands are: Extreme Animals, Dr. Doo, Doo Man Group, ROTFLOL, Paz, Star Kings, Pajama Boys, Natural Reflex, Gay Nerds, Pracky Pranky, DJ Jazzy Jexx, and Running Free.

These various side projects released several records and CD-Rs on a number of independent labels, including Breaking World Records, Scratch N Sniff Entertainment, FrequNC Records, Autumn Records, Vicious Pop, and most recently on the RatFace DreamAngel Label.

Television

The main characters, Horace, Alfe, and Roba.

Ben Jones collaborated with PFFR and Williams Street on a pilot for Adult Swim titled Neon Knome. It was passed by the network and went on to become rebranded as a Cartoon Network show, which is called The Problem Solverz.

References

  1. ↑ Archived September 27, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ http://eai.org/artistTitles.htm?id=7440 Paper Rad artist page on Electronic Arts Intermix
  3. ↑ http://www.wyldfile.org Wyld File Official site
  4. ↑ http://www.paperrad.org Official Paper Rad site
  5. ↑

External links

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