www.ubu.com
I discoverd
ubu.com several years ago while doing research on one of my favorite filmmakers, avant-garde artist
Stan Brakhage. I was amazed at the depth and variety of experimental films, poetry, music and sound I found at this incredible archive. At least once a week, I spend an hour or so just pouring through this amazing virtual library of avant-garde artworks.
Founded in 1996 by poet and dj, Kenneth Goldsmith, ubu.com was originally a site devoted to concrete poetry, but expanded to include music, documents and film. It's a completely free site whose goal is to make experimental and avant-garde works easier to access. The experimental in any art form is often marginalized with little commercial distribution. Ubu.com is a treasure trove of artworks many of which are in the public domain.
Many selections at ubu.com are curated by artist like the poet Jerome Rothenberg. One of my favorite sections at ubu.com is the
365 days project curated by Otis Fodder, a wonderful musical artist and founder of the mash-up band
The Brand Flakes. The 365 days project aims to collect "cool, strange and often obscure audio collections" for every day of the year. Believe me, these selections (drawn from over 200 contributors) are weird and wonderful.
I urge you to visit
www.ubu.com and explore this remarkable archive of poetry, spoken word, sound, film and documents. And if you have any spare dough, drop it in their donations box as the whole site is run by donations.
