Articles Of Incorporation

Institutions are best destroyed not reformed, says the ancient wisdom of founding fathers long muted. Yet even this, a radical sentiment on its surface, conceals a convenient and discrete lack. What should one make of the institution of destruction and negation? The political-aesthetic project of the avant-garde has long danced on the balance between Dionysian negation and an affirmative gesture. For Ultra-red, sound activists from Los Angeles, the scale of that dance expanded in its tenth year, 2004. Reconstituting itself from a band of four to a larger organization international in scope, Ultra-red set about documenting its own transformation in a series of texts culled under the title "Articles of Incorporation." Enlisting the support of a prestigious Advisory Board, Ultra-red drafted a new constitution for itself both in sounds and in words. The sounds construct an alternative historical record for the group, while textually, the "Articles of Incorporation." plot an alternative future: respectful and, necessarily, disrespectful; hopeful and, necessarily, skeptical.