Off the beaten tracks: Björn Segschneider + Simon Mullan
A classic collage with hidden depths.
At the heart of “off the beaten trackz” is the composition of a fractured record by visual means.
The fracture or crack is transposed into a new, or to be precise, into a reawaked medium,
in accordance with the Dadaist tradition: in this case, into the vinyl record.
The mix, a classic medium, becomes a defence against a conformist music industry,
the apparently beautiful surface of the records, itself a collage, contains a wild montage,
although conscious awareness was not entirely forfeited in its making, given that “consciously chosen juxtapositions”
also had a part to play.
The Dadaist gesture, the purely visual formation is thus internally fractured, connected to a conceptual problem,
with the intention of driving consciously towards difference. The fact that the record itself remains functionally
viable means that it is an object committed to everyday use. In the same way that “Karawane” by Hugo Ball,
next to Kurt Schwitters “Primal Sonata” the best known example of Dadaist sound poetry, remains a poem or more precisely becomes a poem.
The work of deconstruction creates something new. But this is only one aim, surprise, shock;
the other aim consists in the conscious creation of relationships, similarities, juxtapositions and differences.
Michael Hammerschmid. 2008.