GX Jupitter-Larsen
Encyclopedia
GX Jupitter-Larsen is an artist, based in Hollywood, California
, who's been active in a number of underground art
scenes since the late 1970s. Jupitter-Larsen has been involved in punk rock
, mail art
, cassette culture
, the noise music scene, and zine culture
. During the 1990s he was the sound design
er for the performances of Mark Pauline
's Survival Research Laboratories
. His best known work's as the founder of the noise act The Haters
, who've performed all over the world, and appear on over 300 CD & record releases.
, and a self-created lexicon consisting mainly of personalized units of measurement
such as polywave, the totimorphous, and the xylowave. In 1985, Jupitter-Larsen invented his own number system. Jupitter-Larsen says his transexpansion numeral unit (TNU) explore the distance & separateness in between linear counting locations that do not neighbor each other. When arranged in order, the TNUs form a spiral around the standard linear numbers. If one assumes that each individual linear number is a particular location along a counting order, then each individual TNU would be the distance between two selected linear number locations. Where the TNUs have been placed is unimportant. What is important is that anyone can make up their own personal numbers to symbolize any numeral interrelationship that Jupitter-Larsen's do not. Instead of a way of doing arithmetic, what you end up with here is an emotional & philosophical barometer. The base TNU is I which is located in between 1&4 but not 2&3.
However a number of Jupitter-Larsen performance art
events that are mentioned in numerous issues of the 1980s mail art zine KS are often non-confrontational projects. Such as the artist counting garbage cans
while walking down a street by himself. His latest performance piece entitled "Loud Luggage / Booming Baggage", first performed in 2010, has The Haters operating amplified suitcases, shaking and banging them about till the luggage eventually brakes.
entitled Blank Banner to over forty video festivals. It was screened in nine. In 1994, using an all female cast, Jupitter-Larsen produced a short lesbian vampire film entitled "Holes On The Neck". The film's narrative is of a group of vampires who work and play on their garlic farm. Their human lovers desire to become vampires themselves, and so lure these garlic farmers into initiating them. In 2009, Jupitter-Larsen started production of a feature length movie with the working title "A Noisy Delivery". It is said to be about a post office where time has stopped working.
, entitled Saccages has also been published by the Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival
and Rip on/off. Vincent Barras, who has translated John Cage
's Silence into French, wrote one of the book's introductions.
, 2001, since 1983, Jupitter-Larsen had performed over 3500 hours of live radio
art on 31 different stations in 11 countries.
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
, who's been active in a number of underground art
Underground art
Underground art, as with underground music and underground film, is a term that seeks to describe art forms that are aloof to the mainstream art world, are illegal, taboo, unconventional, rebellious or revolutionary...
scenes since the late 1970s. Jupitter-Larsen has been involved in punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
, cassette culture
Cassette culture
Cassette culture, or the cassette underground , refers to the practices surrounding amateur production and distribution of recorded music that emerged in the late 1970s via home-made audio cassettes...
, the noise music scene, and zine culture
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
. During the 1990s he was the sound design
Sound design
Sound design is the process of specifying, acquiring, manipulating or generating audio elements. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including filmmaking, television production, theatre, sound recording and reproduction, live performance, sound art, post-production and video game software...
er for the performances of Mark Pauline
Mark Pauline
Mark Pauline is an American performance artist and inventor, best known as founder and director of Survival Research Labs. He is a 1977 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida....
's Survival Research Laboratories
Survival Research Laboratories
Survival Research Laboratories is a machine performance art group credited for pioneering the genre of large-scale machine performance. After about 30 years in San Francisco, California, SRL spent most of 2008 moving to Petaluma, California....
. His best known work's as the founder of the noise act The Haters
The Haters
The Haters are a noise music and conceptual art troupe from the United States. Founded in 1979, they are one of the earliest and best-known acts in the modern noise scene...
, who've performed all over the world, and appear on over 300 CD & record releases.
As a conceptual artist
Underlying all of Jupitter-Larsen's work's a peculiar mix of aesthetic and conceptual obsessions, particularly entropy and decay, professional wrestlingProfessional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
, and a self-created lexicon consisting mainly of personalized units of measurement
Units of measurement
A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a physical quantity, defined and adopted by convention and/or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same physical quantity. Any other value of the physical quantity can be expressed as a simple multiple of the unit of...
such as polywave, the totimorphous, and the xylowave. In 1985, Jupitter-Larsen invented his own number system. Jupitter-Larsen says his transexpansion numeral unit (TNU) explore the distance & separateness in between linear counting locations that do not neighbor each other. When arranged in order, the TNUs form a spiral around the standard linear numbers. If one assumes that each individual linear number is a particular location along a counting order, then each individual TNU would be the distance between two selected linear number locations. Where the TNUs have been placed is unimportant. What is important is that anyone can make up their own personal numbers to symbolize any numeral interrelationship that Jupitter-Larsen's do not. Instead of a way of doing arithmetic, what you end up with here is an emotional & philosophical barometer. The base TNU is I which is located in between 1&4 but not 2&3.
As a performance artist
In an article entitled "30 Years of the Haters" which appears in the premiere issue of the magazine As Loud as Possible a number of early performances by Jupitter-Larsen are listed. In most of these performances, enacted during the 1980s and 90s, whole audiences were led by inside agitators to actually ruin or destroy the venues that the performances were taking place.However a number of Jupitter-Larsen performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
events that are mentioned in numerous issues of the 1980s mail art zine KS are often non-confrontational projects. Such as the artist counting garbage cans
Waste container
A waste container is a container for temporarily storing refuse and waste. Different terms are in use, depending on the language area, the design and material and the respective site .The most general terms are waste receptacle and container bin.Common terms include dustbin ,...
while walking down a street by himself. His latest performance piece entitled "Loud Luggage / Booming Baggage", first performed in 2010, has The Haters operating amplified suitcases, shaking and banging them about till the luggage eventually brakes.
As a video artist & filmmaker
From 1982 to 1986, he submitted a black video tapeVideotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
entitled Blank Banner to over forty video festivals. It was screened in nine. In 1994, using an all female cast, Jupitter-Larsen produced a short lesbian vampire film entitled "Holes On The Neck". The film's narrative is of a group of vampires who work and play on their garlic farm. Their human lovers desire to become vampires themselves, and so lure these garlic farmers into initiating them. In 2009, Jupitter-Larsen started production of a feature length movie with the working title "A Noisy Delivery". It is said to be about a post office where time has stopped working.
As a writer
There are three published novels written by Jupitter-Larsen. Raw Red and The Condor was published by Blood Print Press in 1992. Sometimes Never and Adventure on The High Seas were both published in 2009 by Crossing Chaos. These novels are without chapters. Instead, Jupitter-larsen uses passages of random letters to represent nothingness, sections of entirely self-invented words to represent the spiritual, and regular words to represent the physical. A book of French translations of his essays and short fictionShort story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
, entitled Saccages has also been published by the Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival
Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival
The Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival, or LUFF, is a film festival and music festival devoted to underground film and music. It is held each year in Lausanne, Switzerland. It began with the formation of the LUFF Association For The Promotion of Independent Cinema. The festival thus rests...
and Rip on/off. Vincent Barras, who has translated John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
's Silence into French, wrote one of the book's introductions.
As a radio performer
According to Experimental Sound & Radio, MIT PressMIT Press
The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...
, 2001, since 1983, Jupitter-Larsen had performed over 3500 hours of live radio
Live radio
Live radio is radio broadcast without delay. Before the days of television, audiences listened to live dramas, comedies, quiz shows, and concerts on the radio much the same way that they now do on TV. Most talk radio is live radio where people can speak about their opinions/lives....
art on 31 different stations in 11 countries.