Dogma00

The dogma00 manifesto was a "post-Luddite" guideline for making computer-based rhythm music. It was originally a parody of the Dogme 95 manifesto, but soon evolved into a small cult of its own.

dogma00 was born in Finland somewhere around 1999. Some "dogma00 compatible" music was made during 2000—2003 and released on the internet.

The dogma00 rules

01. The machines won't follow the needs of humans, but humans accommodate themselves to the needs of the machines. You should let the rhythm device decide the tempo of your tune. You should listen to your synthesizer's will for the sound it wants to play. You can freely choose the method you use to listen to your machines.

02. You have to avoid melodic ingredients in your music. The mechanical rhythm is the main theme of all your tunes. You are allowed to use only one chord per song. Small variations in the chord used are allowed, but not in such way that the composition sounds like it was meant to be rich, entertaining and interesting.

03. The subject of the song — including its name — may not be connected to humanity, living human beings, human emotions or organic nature. All tunes must be about some machine, industry in general or some kind of technical achievement.

04. Human voices are not allowed. Speech created mechanically is allowed, but human speech (or singing) post-processed to sound mechanical is not allowed.

05. Using samples of CD quality is forbidden. The maximum resolution is 8 bits in 22 KHz frequency.

06. The price of a single instrument or any other equipment used to create dogma00 music may not be more than 150 € (about $200).

07. When performing, the artist is not allowed to draw the attention of the audience away from the machines in any way.

08. Smashing machines in public is highly recommended.

09. If a turn of the millennium occurs, the artist following dogma00 must assist those machines which don't automatically get troubles caused by "Y2K", "Y3K" or any similar phenomena. For example, filling a washing machine with stones will certainly cause it some kind of "crashing" problems after turning the centrifuge on.

0A. In the long run, the artist following the dogma00 is trying to get rid of communicating with human beings in traditional human ways. In the beginning, avoiding natural conversation, non-verbal gestures and touching other people is recommended. The goal is a situation, where the artist communicates only with machines in their native language.

0B. The artists don't exist as human beings anymore. An artist following dogma00 must take a synthetic name related to some synthetic function, machinery activity or computer communication. Examples: "Envelope Generator", "CRC Check", "Screen Refresh", "Guru Meditation", etc...

0C. The pr-photos taken of the artist following the dogma00 rules must be black and white telefaxes in the lowest quality possible. The machines shown in a photo must be the main subject of the picture. If a human being can be seen in a dogma00 pr-photo, she/he must be connected to a machine somehow.

0D. When performing on TV, only black and white broadcasting is allowed for a dogma00 artist, no matter how big is the used broadcasting network.

0E. If a dogma00 artist releases a video, it must be in VHS standard. Broadcast-quality formats are not allowed.

0F. A dogma00 internet website may not contain loads of graphics. One picture is allowed per page.

10. No money can be taken as the salary from live performings of a dogma00 artist. The fee can be something that can upgrade the machines - including the artist him/herself. A wire, a food, a synthesizer, an alcoholic beverage or any similar plugins for the dogma00 artist and his/her machine brothers/sisters are allowed.

Following the rules

Only a small fraction of artists who really made dogma00 compatible music, followed all the rules. Very soon after releasing the manifesto, it was modified to allow more freeform adaptation of the rules.

Artists who strictly followed the rules were called "engineer members"; artists who didn't want to use rhythmic components in their compositions — but otherwise followed the rules — were called "machine members"; and artists who merely used dogma00 for inspiration were "consumer members".

Some music inspired by the manifesto

Tolerant Sensor

Tolerant Sensor released the first dogma00 compatible tune "Sonar" [http://scene.org/file.php?file=%2Fmusic%2Fgroups%2Fcommie%2Fcommie001-tolerant_sensor-sonar.mp3&fileinfo on June 19th in the year 2000] . Immediately after the release it became apparent that the manifesto needed an update: "Sonar" didn't follow the rhythm guidelines of the manifesto.

• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie001 Tolerant Sensor: "Sonar"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie007 Tolerant Sensor: "Prototyp B"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie014 Tolerant Sensor: "Diesel Engine"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie024 Tolerant Sensor: "Tubular Corrosion"]

Istari Lasterfahrer

Felix Raeithel used several pseudonyms for his dogma00 compatible releases. His main artist name was [http://istari.sozialistischer-plattenbau.org/index.php Istari Lasterfahrer] . Raeithel was the only manifesto follower who released dogma00 compatible music in CD and vinyl record formats.

• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie017 Istari Lasterfahrer: "Final Renewal"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie008 Yppasswdd Daemons: "Backspace Virus"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie052 Yppasswdd Daemons: "In Ascii"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie023 Demodulizer: "Akkumulator"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie010 Demodulizer: "Fernsprechtechnik"]

High Grade Multi Purpose Intelligent Terminal

• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie070 High Grade Multi Purpose Intelligent Terminal: "Thermo-Optical Disco Switch"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie054 High Grade Multi Purpose Intelligent Terminal: "Electronic MC 8310"]

Full Scale Deflection

• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie009 Full Scale Deflection: "IO Nuclear Waste Recycling Center"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie020 Full Scale Deflection: "Android"]

Diskonext

• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie012 Diskonext: "Overproduction00"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie021 Diskonext: "There We Go"]

DDR Rhythm

DDR Rhythm made some dogma00 inspired tunes, but followed the rules very loosely. Originally the band's dogma00 project was called COM3.

• [http://scene.org/file.php?file=%2Fmusic%2Fgroups%2Fddr%2Fddr_com3-sinclair.mp3&fileinfo COM3: "Sinclair Research 1982"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie018 DDR Rhythm: "Botadroid"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie026 DDR Rhythm: "Fred's Track"]

Vapor

• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie015 Vapor: "Scopolamine"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie060 Vapor: "Phaze It!"]

Makonnen

• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie030 Makonnen: "Bassahn"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie050 Makonnen: "Return"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie058 Makonnen: "Brou'd Fawce"]

Mixture Model

• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie006 Mixture Model: "Optimal Classification"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie040 Mixture Model featuring Cytrus: "Bayes' Rule"]

Analogia

• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie051 Analogia: "Sulattamo"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie059 Analogia: "Koneenkäyttäjän kuolema"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie042 Analogia: "Ajatushäiriö"]

Signal8

• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie013 Signal8: "Base A"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie025 Signal8: "Götter Elektron"]

d.seg

• [http://www.centreimage.ch/blue/http606/untitled/sound/audio02.html d.seg: "ID3TT2"]
• [http://www.centreimage.ch/blue/http606/untitled/sound/audio02.html d.seg: "rzh70gs"]

Others

• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie003 BVR: "S-300PMU"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie005 Decepticons: "Pixel Array"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie028 Spiritual Algorithm: "001"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie029 Tero: "Pako"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie036 Matthew Tyas: "Central Processor 3"]
• [http://www.archive.org/details/commie045 Rabbit-O-Matic: "A Harmless Plan"]

ee also

*Dogme 95
*Luddism
*Neo-Luddism
*Pluginmanifesto

Sources and references

• [http://dogma00.org/ The official dogma00 site.]
• [http://jurinummelin.blogspot.com/2007/05/teknodogma.html A news article about dogma00] , published in the Helsingin Sanomat Nyt-liite magazine in the end of 1990s. (In Finnish)