Chris Korda

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Chris Korda
Chris Korda au papier bulle.png
Born1962 (age 6162)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Artist, Musician, Software Developer, Activist
Known forFounder of the Church of Euthanasia
Father Michael Korda
Relatives Vincent Korda (grandfather)
Alexander Korda (great-uncle)
Zoltan Korda (great-uncle)
Website Official website of Chris Korda

Chris Korda (born 1962) [1] is an American artist, electronic musician, software developer, and environmental activist, best known as the leader of the Church of Euthanasia. Korda's work combines provocative performance art with political and environmental activism, challenging societal norms and advocating for sustainable living.

Contents

Early life and education

Chris Korda was born in 1962 in New York City into a family with a intellectual and artistic background. Korda is the daughter of Michael Korda and his first wife, Carolyn Keese. [2] She is the granddaughter of art director Vincent Korda, and the great-niece of film directors Alexander Korda and Zoltan Korda. She is a graduate of the Hammonasset School.

Career

Artistic work

In 1992, Korda founded the Church of Euthanasia, a satirical religious organization advocating for population reduction through non-traditional methods, including abortion, cannibalism, and sodomy. The Church's slogan, "Save the Planet, Kill Yourself," garnered significant media attention and sparked controversy. Korda used this platform to raise awareness about overpopulation and environmental degradation.

In 1995, Korda, together with Lydia Eccles, launched the campaign Unabomber for President. This campaign took the form of a political action committee, Unabomber Political Action Committee (UNAPACK). The group supported the arguments set forth in the Unabomber Manifesto, but not Ted Kaczynski himself.

The Church of Euthanasia's activities often involved performance art, including provocative demonstrations and multimedia presentations. [3]

The music video "I Like To Watch", which was published on the website of the Church of Euthanasia after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, provoked massive criticism. It combined footage from the coverage of the attacks with excerpts from pornographic films and sporting events. [4]

In 2022, the "Le Confort Moderne" main gallery showed a retrospective of Korda's work. [5] Artforum magazine wrote about the exhibition: "The cumulative effect of these pieces, ... is to sow doubt. Korda, ... excels at appropriating the very language and tools of political populism and evangelism that are prevalent across mass media and culture." [6] Frieze Magazine reviewed the exhibition and wrote: "Korda's primary aim is to raise awareness about the environmental crisis and the need for radical solutions. Her secondary aim, ..., is to revitalize human creativity through collaboration with machines. She explores this project as a software developer, creating programs designed to generate forms and music exceeding human capacities." [7]

In 2024, Korda's work was featured in an exhibition titled "Artist's Con(tra)ception" at the Kölnischer Kunstverein in Germany. This exhibition showcased the depth of Korda's artistic contributions, presenting her blend of art, activism, and performance. [8]

Musical work

Korda's musical career is deeply intertwined with her activism. Korda began experimenting with electronic music in the late 1980s, using synthesizers and computer software to create innovative soundscapes. As an electronic/techno musician, Korda has released several LPs, singles, and EPs. Notable albums include Six Billion Humans Can't Be Wrong (1999), The Man of the Future (2003), and Akoko Ajeji (2019).

Korda toured Europe with the album The Man of the Future, released in 2003 by the German electronic music record label International Deejay Gigolo Records. Korda has performed at numerous electronic music festivals and events worldwide, including the Sonar Music Festival in Barcelona in 2001. Korda's live performances often feature the use of her own software. [9]

Software development

In addition to her artistic and musical endeavors, Korda is a software developer. In 2008, Korda designed Fractice, a fractal renderer. [10] She is also the inventor of music software such as Waveshop (2013), a bit-perfect lossless free audio editor, [11] and ChordEase (2014), a free software tool that simplifies playing notes on any MIDI instrument. ChordEase was presented at the 2015 International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. [12]

Artistic style and techniques

Korda's artistic style is characterized by a blend of performance art, electronic music, and software development. Technologically adept, Korda frequently incorporates custom software and advanced production techniques into her music. The provocative and often controversial nature of Korda's work challenges societal norms and encourages critical thinking about environmental and political issues. [13]

Personal Life

Korda is transgender and has been open about her gender identity. [14] [15]

Reception and Legacy

Korda's work has been both celebrated [16] and criticized [17] for its unorthodox approach and provocative messaging. While some view Korda as a visionary artist and activist, others see the methods employed by the Church of Euthanasia as extreme and controversial. [18] [19]

Selected discography

Albums

Singles and EPs

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MusicBrainz</span> Online music metadata database

MusicBrainz is a MetaBrainz project that aims to create a collaborative music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the Compact Disc Database (CDDB), a database for software applications to look up audio CD information on the Internet. MusicBrainz has expanded its goals to reach beyond a CD metadata storehouse to become a structured online database for music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chiptune</span> Style of synthesized electronic music

Chiptune, also called 8-bit music, is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The term is commonly used to refer to tracker format music using extremely basic and small samples that an old computer or console could produce, as well as music that combines PSG sounds with modern musical styles. It has been described as "an interpretation of many genres" since any existing song can be arranged in a chiptune style defined more by choice of instrument and timbre than specific style elements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electroclash</span> Music genre

Electroclash is a genre of popular music that fuses 1980s electro, new wave and synth-pop with 1990s techno, retro-style electropop and electronic dance music. It emerged in the late 1990s and was pioneered by and associated with acts such as I-F, DJ Hell, Miss Kittin and The Hacker, and Fischerspooner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Kevorkian</span> American pathologist and euthanasia activist (1928–2011)

Murad Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian was an American pathologist and euthanasia proponent. He publicly championed a terminal patient's right to die by physician-assisted suicide, embodied in his quote, "Dying is not a crime". Kevorkian said that he assisted at least 130 patients to that end. He was convicted of murder in 1999 and was often portrayed in the media with the name of "Dr. Death".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of Euthanasia</span> Religious anti-natalist organization

The Church of Euthanasia (CoE) is a religion and antinatalist activist organization founded by Chris Korda and Robert Kimberk in Boston, Massachusetts in 1992. As stated on its website, it is "a non-profit educational foundation devoted to restoring balance between Humans and the remaining species on Earth." Its members affirm that this can only turn into a reality by a massive voluntary population reduction, which will depend on a leap in human consciousness to species-awareness. According to Korda, it is likely that this church is the world's only anti-human religion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DJ Hell</span> German DJ

Helmut Josef Geier, known professionally as DJ Hell, is a German DJ.

Beatport is an American electronic music-oriented online music store owned by LiveStyle. The company is based in Denver, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Beatport is oriented primarily towards DJs, selling full songs as well as resources that can be used for remixes. It also operates a specialized music streaming service oriented towards DJs.

International DeeJay Gigolo Records is a German electronic music record label run by techno artist DJ Hell. The label was founded in Munich in 1996 by DJ Hell and DJ Upstart as an affiliate of label Disko B. It is Germany's most successful electronic music record label, specialising in electro, house and techno with 80's pop and disco influences. "Gigolo" has released records by Dave Clarke, Jeff Mills, DJ Hell, Miss Kittin, The Hacker, The Penelopes, The Advent, Dopplereffekt, Fischerspooner, Tiga, Princess Superstar and Vitalic. In particular, the label is widely credited as being the germ cell of the electroclash music genre in the late 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital goods</span> Intangible goods that exist in digital form

Digital goods or e-goods are intangible goods that exist in digital form. Examples are Wikipedia articles; digital media, such as e-books, downloadable music, internet radio, internet television and streaming media; fonts, logos, photos and graphics; digital subscriptions; online ads ; internet coupons; electronic tickets; electronically treated documentation in many different fields; downloadable software and mobile apps; cloud-based applications and online games; virtual goods used within the virtual economies of online games and communities; community access; workbooks; worksheets; planners; e-learning ; webinars, video tutorials, blog posts; cards; patterns; website themes and templates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unabomber for President</span> Political campaign

Unabomber for President was a political campaign with the overt aim of electing the "Unabomber" as a write-in candidate in the 1996 presidential election. The campaign's slogan was the Shermanesque statement "if elected, he will not serve."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted Kaczynski</span> American domestic terrorist (1942–2023)

Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, was an American mathematician and domestic terrorist. He was a mathematics prodigy, but abandoned his academic career in 1969 to pursue a reclusive primitive lifestyle.

A euthanasia device is a machine engineered to allow an individual to die quickly with minimal pain. The most common devices are those designed to help terminally ill people die by voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide without prolonged pain. They may be operated by a second party, such as a physician, or by the person wishing to die. There is an ongoing debate on the ethics of euthanasia and the use of euthanasia devices.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Activism</span> Efforts to make change in society toward a perceived greater good

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Electra is a London-based non-profit arts organisation that commissions new work by artists working across sound art, moving image, performance and visual art. The organisation particularly works with feminist concerns and overlooked histories. One of its earliest projects, Her Noise, has an archive, the Her Noise Archive, that is housed by University of the Arts, London Archives and Special Collections at London College of Communication, and has an online resource hernoise.org.

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References

  1. Broder, Henryk M. (1996). "Macht Liebe, nicht Babies". Der Spiegel. Archived from the original on 2021-03-10. Retrieved 2023-07-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. "Big-Shot Editor Michael Korda Writes of Power, Success and Charmed Lives". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
  3. Sundermeier, Jörg (25 November 1999). "Wie es ihm gefällt". Die Tageszeitung: Taz. p. 23.
  4. "This Just in | VIDEO".
  5. "Le Confort Moderne" . Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  6. "Chris Korda - Artforum". 27 July 2022. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  7. Simon, Vincent (7 July 2022). "Chris Korda - Woman of the Future". Frieze (230). Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  8. "Artist's Con(tra)ception Kölnischer Kunstverein zeigt erste Ausstellung Chris Kordas in Deutschland". Kivvon. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  9. "Chris Korda: "Se l'umanità si estinguesse, la Terra starebbe molto meglio"". Rolling Stone Italia. 23 May 2024. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  10. "Church of Euthanasia". Discours. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  11. Beta News.
  12. Korda, Chris (2015). "ChordEase: A MIDI remapper for intuitive performance of non-modal music" (PDF). Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-09-29.
  13. Simon, Vincent (7 July 2022). "Chris Korda - Woman of the Future". Frieze (230). Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  14. "In Search of Chris Korda". Financial Times. October 18, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
  15. "Macht Liebe, nicht Babies". Der Spiegel. September 22, 1996. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
  16. "Chris Korda: A Voice for the Future". Trommel Music. August 24, 2022. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
  17. "Salva el planeta y suicídate: Los suicidas de Barcelona". Agente Provocador. June 7, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
  18. "Chris Korda: Die Bob Dylan des Klimawandels". Groove. September 10, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
  19. "Interview with Activist and Artist Chris Korda". Ouvert Magazine. April 22, 2024. Retrieved September 3, 2024.