FREE JAZZ ? (Is it Me..or Is it Memorex?) Zeitwarp Studios, 2024 (original) Audiovisual Soundscape - 1920 x 1080 Exhibited/Debuted at REDACTED Bangkok, November 2024. Reworked/Remixed April 2026 ‘FREE JAZZ’ is a 16 second audiovisual soundscape artwork from the ‘DI$PLACEMENT DI$CO’ series exploring the landscape for creatives, curators and consumers of culture in an exponential machine age, set within an entropic 'only forwards' universe. The visual elements feature digital manipulation of an IRL physical ‘collage’ installation depicting a four piece band of ‘robot’ mannequin jazz musicians. (For absolute clarification - the mannequins and instruments are all real-world physical objects set up as an installation and then photographed.) The accompanying ‘PHREAK MUSIC’ audio is a combination of two separate tracks - one AI generated and one human. The visual distortions in the artwork are seeded by the sonic pattern using a recursive 'FEEDBACK LOOPS' methodology. DI$PLACEMENT DI$CO as a body of work grew out of a Zeitwarp presentation at NEARCon Beta 2022 in Lisbon on the implications of generative AI - almost two months before Chat GPT launched. "Generative AI will fundamentally change the landscape for creatives and consumers of all types of culture - eradicating access barriers in terms of time and increasing the supply of creative work by an almost infinitesimal amount - to the extent that there will be free self-produced music, free art, free poetry, free graphic design…and of course 'Free Jazz'." - Zeitwarp - Lisbon Sept 2022 The conceptual premise of the work - and the original discussion - is a focus on human agency rather than human redundancy: "How do we respond both individually and collectively to the disorientation of a techno-dystopian Promethean conundrum turbocharged by an undefeated Moore’s Law? A reflexive retreat into the soft play area of nostalgia - or a refusal to participate - leads only to disengagement from reality and fossilised arrested development. Humanity’s greatest skill is adaptability to changing circumstances through ingenuity and activity in the present. The analogue continues to offer experiences and interaction in three dimensions that is - as yet - authentically unavailable within digital innerspace. Network effects exist in both realms, however a retreat from the digital may only be a temporary Canute-esque act of resistance that risks Ozymandian calcification. As humans we must go forward - we have no choice. We must engage within both the formality of the techno-digital and the messy imprecision of an analogue world that is - without irony - perhaps more accurate than the rounded number sequences of digitisation." ( - Zeitwarp) or: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" (Gatsby FTW) ----------- History: "FREE JAZZ ?" was created in October 2024 as part of an invitation to exhibit at REDACTED, Bangkok the following month. (REDACTED was the alternative name given to NEARCon IV.) The original work was longer at 32 seconds. For the purposes of the exhibition & provenance it was minted on NEAR Protocol using the Zeitwarp contract at Mintbase. This token has now been burned, and the audio and visual stems of the work have been reworked, remixed and consolidated down to 16 secs (April 2026). NEAR story: Between Feb 2021 & April '25, Zeitwarp exclusively minted on NEAR becoming the most successful 1/1 artist on NEAR in terms of sales & profile, - exhibitions & awards etc - however this is not the flex that it might first appear. The digital art market on NEAR never attained escape velocity and is effectively non-existent. So this is the first piece on the new Zeitwarp/Transient/ETH contract. ----------- Coda: In 1973, the recording tape company Memorex hired jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald for a series of television adverts to highlight the fidelity of their blank cassette recording tapes. The adverts asked the question: “Is it Ella…or is it Memorex?” Well, have a listen to the two audio stems in ‘FREE JAZZ’ and then decide: “Is it Me?...or is it Memorex?” ----------- G100OZGA - Genuine 100% Original Zeitwarp Garage Art