Negativland: ‘Stand By For Failure’ screening + Q&A

The evening of Thursday 12 October at the San Leonardo Theatre opens with a screening of Stand By For Failure – A Documentary About Negativland (directed by Ryan Worsley), followed by a participated Q&A session with the artists and the audience.

Since 1959 at the age of five, David “The Weatherman” Wills has been recording and reporting on his life, self, and anything he likes (such as the weather, toilets flushing, and intercepted cell phone conversations) and broadcasting it to anyone interested. 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 sound, media, technology, control, propaganda, power and perception in the global village. Is what you’re hearing and seeing true or simply familiar? The medium reveals that any message is all in our heads.

Event accessible only to Teatro San Leonardo ticket holders on 12 October.