Thanks to JingJing for making this video. I wish the audio had the mixing I did on the Laoban 1.0s instead or just no music. Regardless, great work documenting the Ai Weiwei boycott the internet day.

[ End of the day photo by Shasha Liu ]

The event went quite well. Even before, the Chinese government delayed the requirement for all computers sold after July 1 to install this spyware, green dam youth escort.

The party started at 9 AM on July 1 with a mass amount of journalists interviewing Ai Weiwei. Various summer fun activities continued all day. Matt, Phil, Yang Tao, and I brought out the speakers after lunch and began mixing it up until the night. Massive fun! Great connections and drinking all around.

Here are some links connected to this big press hit:

• http://government.zdnet.com/?p=5018
  
• http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/chinese-protest-censorship-july-internet-boycott-green-tsunami
  
• http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-china-greendam1-2009jul01,0,3453969.story
  
• http://technews.am/conversations/mashable/china_gives_up_on_green_dam_people_celebrate
  
• http://www.chinadigitaltimes.net/china/ai-weiwei/
  
• http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6554801.ece
  
• http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE55L0YD20090622
  
• http://mashable.com/2009/07/01/china-green-dam-celebration/
  
• http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/green-dam-net-filter-hurts-media-like-cancer--612649?src=rss&attr=all
  
• http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2349625,00.asp
  
• http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/01/china.filtering.software/index.html
  
• http://www.crn.com/software/218100514;jsessionid=LKBTTEVTW400KQSNDLOSKHSCJUNN2JVN
  
• http://twitter.com/rmack/statuses/2290583077
  
• http://www.digiactive.org/topic/green-dam/
  
• http://www.digiactive.org/2009/06/25/action-of-omission-to-protest-chinese-censorship/
  
• http://www.nydailynews.com/tech_guide/2009/06/22/2009-06-22_web_protest_planned_as_chinese_government_introduces_green_dam_filtering_program.html
  
• http://www.chinalyst.net/node/71453
  
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/30/censorship-china-internet-software
  
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/jun/25/china-censorship-green-dam-internet-boycott
  
• http://www.pcworld.com/article/145302/has_chinas_green_dam_burst.html
  
• http://shanghaiist.com/2009/06/23/ai_weiwei_protesting_green_dam_with.php
  
• http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/744ae9be-6639-11de-a034-00144feabdc0.html
  
• http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/07/02/2009070200228.html
  
• http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/07/01/china.green.dam.business/
  
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/30/AR2009063001047.html
  
• http://www.ictmag.info/politics/china-thinks-twice-on-green-dam/
  
• http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/31840/chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-calls-for-web-boycott/
  
• http://opennet.net/chinas-green-dam-the-implications-government-control-encroaching-home-pc

The first Laoban Soundsystem event at CPU:798 in Beijing went quite well for the a frist event thanks to Ed having a great space, lots of current and new friends coming out and of course, because some really great artists came out to mix in. After getting our contractor friends to drop off the soundsystem, some installers mounting a projector, and then us taping up the Laoban posters, we started the night off with getting five crates of beer and some street meat sellers and progressed to having a rotating set of people from all over Beijing stopping in. From Yang Tao's blip hop, Long2's brilliant visuals and symphonic set all the way to good friends like Ya Zhu, Jenny and our friend Phil bringing out the cool contingent from Ai Wei Wei's fake studio, the event jumpstarted the creation of the Laoban soundsystem. Thanks to Ed, here's a quick video sampling of some of the sets:

Ed also has a good wrap-up keeping critical of the event and holding us to task for what the outcome for Laoban events will be. I definitely agree with him about the format of the event and not having enough women mixing in. We did have some video from Lu which we ran out of time to play and I wanted to get our friend Ya Zhu to plug into the event, but we pushed this event out in a week from lock-in to event, so without really knowing anyone doing this type of work in Beijing really until Friday, I'm still happy with where we arrived. Check out a bit more from Ed on his comments:

Looking ahead, I hope there will more variety in the material in future events, last night was very focused on DJs and VJs. Films and short talks were promised, which would have given more of a conceptual structure to the proceedings and will help prevent it becoming just another club night.

I hope, too, that more women will present their work. Last night the performers were without exception all men – it seemed to be the cliché of boys with their toys (I don’t know maybe this is perhaps a feature of the scene rather than a bug, as they say to excuse some oddity in software). I can’t believe there are no women making material and this would make a valuable contribution to the event.

But this was the first version of the event, and was very much about investigating a format for the future, so I want to see how it develops. The original spec for the night I thought was very exciting and something which had the potential for development into something very strong – and this was one of the reasons why I agreed to go with it. I hope that more of what was originally announced becomes incorporated into future events, as they have the possibility to a) bring together some of the creative communities here in Beijing and China in general which hover round each other but which don’t really get to cross-fertilise so often, and b) make links out from the local to the international creative scenes which all have their representatives here in BJ.

I'm not giving a description of the night adequate love, so I will just say thanks to all the folks who came out to both consume and produce at the first Laoban event. Xu Tao came on last for the night and I look forward to plugging him into a larger event as well. Him and his mate had really great tracks and kicked in some San Francisco House music which was quite cool. I look forward to stretching out a bit more and getting these guys on with some extended sets. I'm even happy that Sandy and his trance mates came out and brought their laser which added to the overall event's decor and theme of seeing who comes out to this type of mixing event in Beijing.

I'll post up other photos as they become available. Ed took some great shots of the night up on flickr like:

Long2 Mixing by Ed

Yang Tao Mixing by Ed

Matt and I talked yesterday and set-up plans for Laoban Soundsystem 2.0 which is going to be made in parts, CNC'd and then put together by us. We will make it all with Chinese wood, hardware, parts and companies. It will have a distinctive look, but be of supreme quality.

The next event we do, I really want to make heavy on the dubstep side. Maybe that means that Matt and I both need to get our DJ'ing chops up and we need to plan ahead a bit more to get folks like DJ Mael and others out from Beijing art and music scenes.

In closing, I will ask what you all out there want to see in these events? Are you interested in mixing in? We are quite hopeful to make these events different each time, make them sustainable, easy to put on, but also as a great venue to get new artists out to mix work, show work, and have things fail or succeed in a live setting. This is another invitation to plug into the Laoban Soundsystem by producing art at the events, consuming art at the events, making your own speakers, and generally connecting up with the soundsystem to help shape what happens. You are the Laoban!

I've blogged about Cantocore launching on rejon.org, mediaexperiment.org and of course, cantocore.com. Please help us by spreading the news about the project to all your friends!

Last week we did a press barrage for the upcoming Cantocore show in Guangzhou, China! I know a lot of you are spread all throughout the globe, but nonetheless, I hope that anyone in the region can make it for the big September 5th Opening! It will be fantastic.

I wrote the exhibition text, have been coordinating fabrication, and somewhere in the midst trying to finish my project for the exhibition. We are up late right now finishing some projects and the publication is coming along nicely for the last minute print deadline for tomorrow :) Here is a sampling of the press text which you can read in full at cantocore.com:

Today the Cantocore Project and Ping Pong Space announced the upcoming contemporary art show, Cantocore: Import/Export in Guangzhou, China during September 2008. This initial show features contemporary artists from San Francisco and Guangzhou producing artwork around the more detailed relationship between import and export of culture and materials between Guangzhou, China and San Francisco. This first part of the Cantocore exhibition, Import, begins with an opening on Friday, September 5 from 8 PM at the brand new Ping Pong Space in Guangzhou, China. The show continues until Tuesday, September 16 with gallery hours of 2:00 PM until 10:00 PM daily. The second part of the show, Export, opens Sunday, September 21 at 8 PM until 10 PM when a special video screening developed by San Francisco’s Mission 17 titled “Stardusted” will be presented at the Ping Pong Bar from 10 PM until 11PM. The second half, Export, continues daily until Saturday, October 4 with daily hours from 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

The Cantocore Import/Export exhibition examines, through applied art practice, the relationship between import and export of culture between Guangzhou and San Francisco by asking a simple phrase: Are you Cantocore? Guangzhou, also called Canton, is the third most populous city in China and its province, Guangdong, is a major manufacturer of textiles and electronics for export to the United States. San Francisco has the largest import of Chinese immigrants of any US city, primarily from the Guangdong province. Chinese immigrants also created the largest Chinatown in North America in San Francisco. However, understanding the conceptual framework of Cantocore is not limited to geographic divisions, nor reductive dichotomies driven by post-colonial stereotypes such as East vs. West, nor Olympic nationalism pridefully paramount in China vs. US “non-political” sports matches. Cantocore is the reality of life versus the theory set forth by jurisdictions where people live.

The artists in the Cantocore exhibition were tasked with creating projects which explore import and export, materially and conceptually. Practically, how can one’s artwork be actualized either through fabrication locally in Guangzhou or imported from San Francisco? Guidelines for the creation of the work were left alone since modern strategies for creating artwork such as remaking, remixing, interpreting, pirating, translating, copying, and appropriating content, already espouse the Cantocore style. After the proposals were received from invited artists, curation of works took place based upon the processes, scope, location of artists and available resources to constitute this first Cantocore dialogue.

Curation for this show has been a group effort by Deer Fang, Justin Hoover, and Jon Phillips from the Cantocore Project and Wu Jay from Ping Pong Space (PPS). Layout and Design for the show is done by Pierre Picard (PPS) while wordsmithing has been handled by Nikita Choi (PPS), Jon Phillips and Deer Fang.

Exhibition Venue

#60 Xian Lie Dong Heng Lu Ping Pong Space, Guangzhou

Cantocore Import
September 6th - 26th, 2008
Opening: Friday, September 5th, 8PM – 10 PM.
Drinks after at Ping Pong Bar.

Cantocore Export
September 22nd - October 2nd, 2008
Opening: Sunday, September 21st, 8PM - 10PM

Video Screening “Stardusted” at Ping Pong Bar

September 21st 2008, 10PM – 11PM

Regular Gallery Hours
Tuesday - Sunday 2 PM – 10 PM
Gallery Closed on Monday

Ping Pong Bar Open Everyday

Also, we just updated some images of works for the show. Here is a sampling of the full post over at Cantocore.com.

For all you needing images out there, we have just up pushed out images for David Johnson who will be exhibiting a work titled "Made in China" and Guy Overfelt who is getting some magic smoke fabricated.

Please check out the press section to help blog and promote this show!