Lloyd Dunn

Lloyd John Dunn (b. November 10, 1957, Harlan, Iowa, USA) is a founding member of the mixed-media and experimental sound art group the Tape-beatles and founder, publisher and editor of several small-press magazines, such as PhotoStatic and Retrofuturism. Since the early 1980s, he has been making work for a variety of media, including film, video, audio, print, and the web.

At the University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA, he studied Linguistics (BA 1981), before going on to graduate school in Film, Photography and Intermedia (MFA 1987). While in graduate school, Dunn created an extensive body of work using the photocopier as his primary tool. [Plunkett, Daniel. "An Interview with Lloyd Dunn," "ND" [Austin, Tex.] no. 13, 1991]

Dunn’s first major project was [http://psrf.detritus.net/ PhotoStatic Magazine] begun in Iowa City in 1983. Although initiated to showcase photocopy and generative art, it quickly took root in the ‘mail art’ and ‘zine’ sub-cultures that peaked in the late 80s. PhotoStatic began as a largely visual publication, but evolved continually, eventually coming to contain a mixture of graphics and essays, humor, and zine criticism. [Billé, Philippe. "Refusing Art," "Lund Art Press" [Lund, Sweden] vol. 1, no. 4, 1990.]

Spin-offs from the Photostatic project included a series of audio cassette compilations, a video tape compilation, and a series of artist's books by individual artists, edited and produced by Dunn. [Carr, C. "Life Underground: Tunneling into the ʼZine/Cassette Network," "Village Voice" [New York, N.Y.] , January 9, 1990] Photostatic also appeared under a number of print "alter-egos", which include Retrofuturism, YAWN, The Bulletin of the Copyright Violation Squad, The Expatriot, PSRF, and currently, The Photostatic Magazine Retrograde Archive. [Phillpot, Clive. "Critical Fictions: Clive Phillpot on the Changing of the Garde," "Artforum" [New York, N.Y.] , October, 1990]

In 1986, Dunn began composing music and audio art with Ralph Johnson and John Heck. From this activity they formed the group The Tape-beatles ( [http://pwp.detritus.net official web site] ). The idea behind the collaboration was to create music using recording technology itself as the sole musical instrument. They took their inspiration from musique concrète, fluxus, and some of the studio experiments of the 60s carried out by the Beatles and certain other more 'experimental' rock groups. The do-it-yourself esthetic of punk and the zine movement was also a decisive influence. [Blackburn, Philip. " [http://pwp.detritus.net/news/interviews/blackburn-artpaper.html Meet the Tape-beatles] ." "Artpaper" [Minneapolis, Minn.] , vol. 12 no. 1, September 1992. ] Together with other members of the Tape-beatles, Dunn appears in a videotaped interview in the Craig Baldwin film, "Sonic Outlaws". [Anon. [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0242672/?fr=c2M9MXxsbT01MDB8ZmI9dXx0dD0xfG14PTIwfGh0bWw9MXxjaD0xfGNvPTF8cG49MHxmdD0xfGt3PTF8c2l0ZT1kZnxxPWxsb3lkIGR1bm58bm09MQ__;fc=1;ft=21 Internet Movie Database listing] ]

In 2008, a major retrospective of the Photostatic Magazine Retrograde Archive took place in Dortmund, Germany at [http://hmkv.de/ Phoenixhalle - HMKV] as part of a group exhibition showcasing works that raise issues about intellectual property and copyright, entitled "Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System".

References

External links

* [http://psrf.detritus.net/ Official Photostatic Retrograde Archive Site]
* [http://pwp.detritus.net/ Official Public Works Productions Site]
* [http://cvs.detritus.net/ Official Site of the Copyright Violation Squad, Iowa Chapter]
* [http://yawn.detritus.net/ Official Site of YAWN: Sporadic Critique of Culture]
* [http://xp.detritus.net/ Official Site of The Expatriot, Dunn’s travel site]