David Byrne from UbuWeb

In "Foundations of Digital Culture," we were asked to explore UbuWeb at www.ubu.com and write a review of one of the videos. The film and video archive on UbuWeb is remarkable and features some of history's most avante-garde film artists from the earliest years of film and video as well as today's geniuses. After looking at several of the links available on the film/video link, I settled on one of my favorite creators in the music, film, and digital culture David Byrne, known by many for his work as founder and songwriter with the Talking Heads. Byrne has been an innovator in music, theater, dance, and in digital distribution of creative works. For example, www.davidbyrne.com/radio offers a live stream of alternative music on the free download live365 player. Byrne's website links to radio, music, art and books, film and theater, sound and video, stuff to buy (of course), and additional links. He has also been an advocate of Creative Commons. In 2006, fans were "able to legally remix and share their own personal versions of two songs from David Byrne and Brian Eno’s groundbreaking album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. The interactive forum bush-of-ghosts.com has been developed to celebrate the reissue of the album 25 years after its original release" (www.creativecommons.org).

What I found particularly interesting about the UbuWeb video was that it incorporates nearly all media forms. The video is shot in an art gallery as he reads a magazine, discussing movies while a digital music bed builds with the pace of his reading, and literally -- his pace -- as he is ultimately running! Watch the video and experience the amazing David Byrne.