Lloyd John Dunn (born November 10, 1957, in
Harlan,
Iowa
Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...
, US) 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
Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipat ...
. 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, US, 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.
Dunn’s first major project was
PhotoStatic Magazine' begun in Iowa City in 1983. Although initiated to showcase photocopy and
generative art
Generative art is post-conceptual art that has been created (in whole or in part) with the use of an autonomous system. An ''autonomous system'' in this context is generally one that is non-human and can independently determine features of an ...
, it quickly took root in the ‘mail art’ and ‘zine’ sub-cultures that peaked in the late 1980s. ''PhotoStatic'' began as a largely visual publication, but evolved continually, eventually coming to contain a mixture of graphics and essays, humor, and zine criticism.
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. ''Photostatic'' also appeared under a number of print "alter-egos", which include ''
Retrofuturism
Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipat ...
'', ''YAWN'', ''The Bulletin of the Copyright Violation Squad'', ''The Expatriot'', ''PSRF'', and most recently, ''The Photostatic Magazine Retrograde Archive''.
In 1986, Dunn began composing music and audio art with Ralph Johnson and John Heck. From this activity they formed the group
The Tape-beatlesofficial 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 1960s carried out by
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
and certain other more 'experimental' rock groups. The do-it-yourself esthetic of punk and the zine movement was also a decisive influence. Together with other members of the Tape-beatles, Dunn appears in a videotaped interview in the 1995
Craig Baldwin film, ''
Sonic Outlaws''.
[Anon.]
Internet Movie Database listing
/ref>
In 2008, a major retrospective of the ''Photostatic Magazine Retrograde Archive'' took place in Dortmund, Germany a
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".
Dunn launched a series of filecasts at the sit
nula.cc
in June 2009. The filecasts consist of audio and video programs that use found material, field recordings, original work, and other material assembled together in collage fashion, and offered as downloadable files on no fixed schedule.
References
External links
Site of the Nula filecasts
Official Photostatic Retrograde Archive Site
Official Public Works Productions Site
Site of the Copyright Violation Squad, Iowa Chapter
YAWN: Sporadic Critique of Culture
The Expatriot, Dunn’s travel site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunn, Lloyd
1957 births
American magazine publishers (people)
American sound artists
Artists from Iowa
Living people
People from Harlan, Iowa
University of Iowa alumni