DJ Spooky and The Internet Archive receives 2017 Hewlett 50 Arts Commission Award

MENLO PARK, Calif. (November 14, 2017) - The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation announced today the first 10 recipients of its Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions, an $8 million commissioning initiative that is the largest of its kind in the United States.

Reflecting the foundation’s longstanding commitment to sustaining artistic expression and encouraging public engagement with the arts in the San Francisco Bay Area, 10 local nonprofit organizations will receive grants of $150,000 each to commission major new musical compositions from world-class artists in genres including chamber, electronic, jazz, opera, and hip hop.

ABOUT SONIC WEB

Teaming up with Internet Archive (archive.org) and data artist Greg Niemeyer, Sonic Web is a multimedia hip hop concert experience about the history and exponential growth of the Internet. An exploration of network evolution, Sonic Web brings new, fresh perspectives on the 50-year evolution of information technology. Philosopher Marshall McLuhan said that the new media “works us over completely. It is so pervasive in its personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that it leaves no part of us untouched, unaffected, un-altered.”

DJ Spooky will create live loops and layers of sound and data visualizations using a one-of-a-kind touch screen instrument designed by Niemeyer. The hour-long experience will feature a local string ensemble and a narrator, resulting in a multi-sensory journey illuminating ever-present issues of inclusion and exclusion, echo chambers and small-world phenomena. A celebration of the history of the Internet, Sonic Web is a tribute to the depth and high stakes of free speech and creative expression involved in our daily use of media.

PIONEERS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN CINEMA.

The project was curated by Charles Musser from Yale University and Jacqueline Stewart.


The New Yorker
"The new five-disk set 'Pioneers of African-American Cinema' (Kino Classics) is a landmark in the history of the art form..."

LA Times:
"One of the year’s most exciting and historically significant archival projects"

Boston Herald:
"Fascinating cinematic history"

Flavorwire:
"The new box set is both a necessary contextualization of a cinematic movement and a counter-narrative to American film history."

RogerEbert.com (Blu-ray review):
"Pioneers of African-American Cinema" is an essential and groundbreaking Blu-ray set. It's more than worthy to be considered one of the most important and valuable releases of the year"

RogerEbert.com (interview):
"Kino Lorber's Pioneers of African-American Cinema set is ready to dazzle film buffs with its extraordinary archive of rarely seen cinematic treasures."

Huffington Post:
"This is an historic release. ...for all its landmark status it’s a pleasure to report that your first real response will simply be pleasure."

CriterionCast:
"It’s hard to consider the release of a piece of entertainment, specifically a DVD and Blu-ray box set, as a culturally significant moment, but then again there are few items quite like the newest release from the team at Kino Lorber. ...This collection of films is a must own for cinephiles, and a worthwhile purchase for those with other sociological interests."