on-air / on-line: 20th January 2002

CoRRoSioN computer group, as one of the most enduring experimental numedia art group in serbia explore the infinite world of computer technology and release genuine forms of electronic creation. By combining computer generated audio and visual aspects with hardcore programming skills, CoRRoSioN is learning the ways to coexist with the machine rather than expecting from it to emulate reality. By becoming closer to how machine really works, group is able to use it in full capacity rather than sticking to brand software which mostly isn't able to serve our creative needs.

As one of group's basic interests, electronically generated and composed music is one of the groups most productive field of creation which gathers more than 10 original music projects in this land of seemingly unexistable electronic music scene. Being ignored for years by local public and production houses, CoRRoSioN, as a part of KOSMOPLOVCI conglomerate, is fighting its battle for independent serbian electronic scene, trying with all its powers and enthusiasm to provide at least some place and space for serbian electronic music authors, mostly through internet as our basic release media with occasional self-made cd releases...

Audio mix you are about to hear is just a glimpse of who we are, so if you really want to know what is going on in our heads, there is no better way than to visit our servers, browse some of our numerous project pages and download at least some of our online releases...

00:00 speaker for the dead - ja kvant
05:55 tatar - bma
14:16 speaker for the dead - killer clouds
21:16 speaker for the dead - d5
26:52 tatar - rxp0001
31:15 havoc - spread
39:10 tatar - nzd1
44:50 speaker for the dead - all over again
[total playing time: 50:11]

d/c
CoRRoSioN SERVER GATEWAY>>www.kosmoplovci.net/corrosion
KOSMOPLOVCI>>www.kosmoplovci.net

One can hardly hear any of the members of CoRRoSioN declaring himself/herself as an artist, although their works contain what Webster's dictionary considers a capital attribute of art - craftsmanship. When you speak to them in person they are ready to spend hours explaining the technical difficulties they had in achieving a result, or why AMIGA has a smarter architecture than an Intel-based machine. Some members have an opposite opinion - they are liberal on that matter. Yet, you will hardly get any statement on their "art" or "artistic concepts". They will rather play you some music or video.

Looking at the contemporary Serbian artistic scene, this is a rare phenomenon. Most audio-visual artists are putting much more effort in promoting their content than in making one. But is it not a global phenomenon, after all? One must admit that it is much easier to put a small content into a big context and wait for the stream to do the rest, than to make a content just for the beauty of it, taking the risk of being masked by a historical/political/technical moment. In Serbia this meant putting all sorts of content into a pro- or anti-Milosevic context (depending on the sponsors artists were aiming to). Since 11th September 2001, many world artists have recognised the global anti-terrorist campaign as a perfect chance to make their (sometimes rather thin) art visible and even popular.

People of CoRRoSioN have always had their private points of view on such matters, of course, yet they never explicated them in their artwork. This has been the main reason for their absence from both mainstream and independent media, but this lack of media support did not make them change their course - they persistently put their content above the context. In my opinion, this is what makes an artwork stay fresh and comprehensive, even without spectator's knowledge about the time or environment of its origin.

Oscar Wilde said: "The artist is the creator of beautiful things". I got a copy of Ghost in the Shell by CoRRoSioN a couple of weeks ago, and I still play it over and over again. Simply because it is beautiful... Or is it just me?

Aleksandar Vasiljevic