Access to Evil [Thank
You For Talkin' to Me, Amerika]
This 2003 radiophonic work by the New Zealand sound artist
Bruce Russell is a response to the recent invasion of Iraq
by the United States led forces.
It consists of interviews made in 2002, in which ordinary
Californians talk about their opposition to the "War on Terrorism",
their disillusionment with their government and their disengagement
from the media consequent on the almost universal self-censoring
of oppositional voices after 11 September 2001. Mixed with
these are recordings from US public radio, an electronic soundscape
by Russell and French artist Jean-Jacques Palix recorded in
Paris in February 2003 at the time of the giant anti-war rally,
and quotations from the 1991 electro-acoustic piece "Gloire
a ..." recorded by Jerome Noettinger in protest against the
first Gulf War.
It is an artistic contribution to the growing debate on the
US government's unilateralism and disregard of international
law, which is at once personal and political. By ventilating
the views of ordinary Americans opposed to what their government
claims to be doing in their name, Access to Evil tries to
redress the impression of the American unanimity presented
by the mayor media.
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