The Beat Experience was a multi-part project that included a one hour documentary about the Beat generation included in the the Whitney Museum of American Art’s exhibition Beat Culture as well as the first interactive museum catalogue, a CD-ROM for the exhibition, and a companion CD, “Offbeat”, featuring contemporary tracks inspired by the Beats including a collaboration between the legendary poet Amiri Baraka and DJ Spooky. It also was a groundbreaking exploration of the seminal DJ culture emerging at the time with tracks by DJ Krush, Skylab, and Moby.
OVERVIEW
FACTS /
ORAL HISTORY
- The Beat Experience CD-ROM sold over 10,000 copies and was the first interactive museum catalogue.
- The CD-ROM included original recordings by Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis and John Coltrane; underground films by Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren, and others as well as texts and spoken word by William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and others.
- The CD-ROM also including among the first interactive art pieces and animations designed and created by Sue Coe, Gary Panter, Stephen Kroninger, Suzan Pitt, Kevin Kerslake and others.
- The one hour non-linear documentary played on a loop in a booth at the center of the Whitney exhibition, allowing the soundtrack to leak throughout the show and create a connection among the visual art and the music and sounds of the era.
- Segments of the video were designed by some of the most innovative contemporary editors in the world including Hank Corwin and Bruce Ashley.
PRESS
ew.com
The Red Hot Organization’s eighth compilation Offbeat: A Red Hot Soundtrip — the proceeds of which benefit AIDS groups — explores post-rock with the same agility as 1995’s Red Hot + Bothered did the indie scene.
all music
collection of ambient breakbeat and soundtrack-influenced rock, Offbeat is an appropriately titled left-field venture of the Red Hot + Blue benefit series.
Ny Times
The sold-out show marked the closing of the “Beat Culture and the New America” exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, celebrated the release of the experimental dance-music compilation “Offbeat” on TVT Records and raised money for the AIDS-prevention group called Red Hot Organization, which compiled the album.
CREDITS
- Created, Designed & Produced by:
- John Carlin
- Offbeat album produced by:
- Paul Heck and John Carlin