UbuWeb is a web-based educational resource for

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet

Kenneth Goldsmith Kenneth Goldsmith (born 1961) is an American poet and critic. He is the founding editor of UbuWeb and since 2020 is the ongoing artist-in-residence at the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing (CPCW) at the University of Pennsylvania, where ...

. It offers

visual The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sight (th ...

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

and

sound poetry Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging literacy and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words". By definition, sound p ...

, expanding to include

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

and

sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...

mp3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

archives.

Philosophy

UbuWeb was founded in response to the marginal distribution of crucial

material. It remains

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...

and operates on a gift economy. UbuWeb ensures educational open access to out-of-print works that find a second life through

digital art Digital art refers to any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process, or more specifically computational art that uses and engages with digital media. Since the 1960s, various name ...

reprint while also representing the work of contemporaries. It addresses problems in the distribution of and access to intellectual materials.

Distribution policy

UbuWeb does not distribute commercially viable works but rather resurrects

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

and textual works through their translation into a

web environment - re-contextualising them with current academic commentary and contemporary practice. It houses and distributes freely the entire archive of the

Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine Launched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the ''Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine'' utilized the audio cassette medium to distribute no wave downtown music and audio art and was in activity f ...

project. In 2020, Kenneth Goldsmith wrote in his book ''Duchamp Is My Lawyer: The Polemics, Pragmatics, and Poetics of Ubuweb'' that “Perhaps no collection of audio inspired UbuWeb more than the Tellus cassettes….”Kenneth Goldsmith, ''Duchamp Is My Lawyer: The Polemics, Pragmatics, and Poetics of UbuWeb,'' Columbia University Press, New York, p. 243

Content

Beyond its repository of works, UbuWeb features curated sections including ''/ubu Editions'' book-length editions of contemporary

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

, selected and introduced by the poet

Brian Kim Stefans Brian Kim Stefans (born 1969) is an American poet. Biography He was born in Rutherford, New Jersey and, earned a bachelor's degree from Bard College and was awarded a Master of Fine Arts degree from Brown University after studies at the Graduate ...

. ''UbuWeb: Ethnopoetics'', curated by

Jerome Rothenberg Jerome Rothenberg (born December 11, 1931) is an American poet, translator and anthologist, noted for his work in the fields of ethnopoetics and performance poetry. Early life and education Jerome Rothenberg was born and raised in New York ...

, is fusing the avant-garde with traditional ethnic practices. ''UbuWeb: Papers'' is a series of contextual academic essays. ''UbuWeb:Outsiders'' considers the legitimization of Outsider works and features ''The 365 Days Project'' curated by Otis Fodder.

Infrastructure

UbuWeb is not affiliated to any academic institution, instead relying on alliances of interest and benefiting from bandwidth donations from its partnerships with GreyLodge,

WFMU WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station, licensed to East Orange, New Jersey. Since 1998 its studios and operating facilities have been headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. It broadcasts locally at 91.1 Mhz FM, i ...

PennSound PennSound is a poetry website and online archive that hosts free and downloadable recordings of poets reading their own work. The website offers over 1500 full-length and single-poem recordings, the largest collection of poetry sound-files on the ...

The Electronic Poetry Center The Electronic Poetry Center (EPC), is an online resource for digital poetry. It was founded on July 10, 1994 by Loss Pequeño Glazier and Charles Bernstein, of the Poetics Program at SUNY-Buffalo, making it one of the oldest resources for poetry ...

, The Center for Literary Computing, and ArtMob.

References

{{reflist

External links

UbuWeb
*

Damon Krukowski Damon Krukowski (born September 6, 1963) is an American musician, poet and writer. He was a member of the dreampop band Galaxie 500 and the psychedelic rock band Magic Hour, and is half of the psychedelic folk duo Damon and Naomi. He is also a ...

,
Free Verses: Kenneth Goldsmith and UbuWeb
, ''

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

'', March 2008 *Kenneth Goldsmith
"UbuWeb Wants to be Free"
*Kenneth Goldsmith

Experimental film Internet properties established in 1996 American literature websites Non-profit organizations based in the United States Art websites Audiovisual ephemera Arts organizations established in 1996