'Is This What We Want?' is an innovative protest album comprising twelve tracks of silence, created in empty performance venues and studios. This artistic expression involves over 1,000 UK musicians who oppose a government proposal permitting generative AI to use creative works without artist consent. Composer Ed Newton-Rex, who leads the initiative, aims to symbolize the detrimental impact of such policies on artists' livelihoods. The album echoes historical approaches to protest, such as Haydn's Symphony No. 45, emphasizing the need for better treatment of musicians through silence.
Empty studios and empty performance spaces and a negative effect on people's livelihoods is meant to symbolize what we think the result of the government's proposals would be.
The reason it's called the 'Farewell' Symphony is that one by one, each musician in the orchestra stands up, blows out the candle they were using to illuminate their sheet music, and walks off the stage.
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