Latest episode in Edward Picot’s splendid Dr Hairy sequence.
Author Archives: michael
More from Rob Parrish/Hopper Video

Vampire Sun (2004, 13.7MB, 2:41 min.)
Stuff from 2005 from Rob Parrish at Hopper Video.
Couldn’t be more packed to the gills, these movies,
with formal invention. Torn between admiration &
extreme irritation at the Edvard Grieg vocoder.
Not sure it all entirely comes off but it’s
to be commended, as is the fact that
serious thinking is clearly at work here.
Better than timidity, for sure.
(HV still going strong & well worth checking out.
We’ll revisit ourselves, I think, in the Autumn.)
More Virtual Hiking

Rush Creek Wilderness Trail Movie (2006, 41.1MB, 5:43 min.)
This one, from 2006, is as splendid as the one we posted yesterday.
Like that, though, there’s a deep oddness here.
Sometimes the virtual hiker is discussed in a clinical, technical, manner,
then at others anthropomorphised shamelessly.
Then the narration: -is anyone really that deadpan?
Seems like the camping isn’t confined to tents on the trail.
But then it is also utterly beguiling & lovely – makes me, at least, yearn
to pack my boots & book a flight.
A Short History of Virtual Hiking

A Short History of Virtual Hiking (2005, 9.1MB, 3:47 min.)
Originally posted in 2006.
‘Not sure it
Two from Charlie Mars

Singer (2005, 4.7MB, 1:15 min.)

Grouik-Grouik (2005, 11.9MB, 1:48 min.)
Accomplished stop motion shenanigans from French
videomaker Charlie Mars, self-styled ‘Videomaker from Outerspace’.
Morrisa Maltz – First Class

First Class (2010, 127 MB, 3:40 min)
And First Class it is too -we’ve enthused about Morrisa Maltz here quite
recently & her first music vid (for Everybody Else) doesn’t disappoint.
It’s stylish without being glib, chock full of ideas but nicely unified by
a visual language those who’ve seen her work before will instantly recognise.
My only cavil (which I already expressed to her) is the degree of
objectification at work here in the portrayal of women,
(you know…the boys play & the girls kind of dance around
or pose, looking nice &c &c) which I find a tad depressing coming from
a clearly enormously talented & capable woman artist.
More than well made though & I look forward to whatever comes next.
Eddie Whelan – whats ahead

whats ahead (2010, 53 MB, 2:35 min)
Whilst many predicted that datamoshing would quickly become a
tired & routine Cliché who’d ever have thought someone might rather
classicize it: make of it something measured, understated, controlled
& with it yield such delicate & rarefied loveliness as does Eddie Whelan
in this music vid for The Meanest Boys.
Simply great.
Rupert Howe – The Wicker Man Remade

The Wicker Man (2010, 12 MB, 1:09 min)

The Wicker Man Live (2010, 7 MB, 3:31 min)
Rupert Howe is always doing interesting things.
He’s also an early adopter of the sort of tech that in-my-old-age I
would cautiously leave a few months to see how it turns
out, so many of the interesting things he does mystify me
somewhat at first.
SO.. here he seems to have got given (?) lots of extras
(in what universe does this occur?) to remake a section of
cult British horror film The Wicker Man on Hampstead Heath.
The results are jaw dropping in two ways.
Jaw droppingly charmingly-funny.
And jaw droppingly odd.
Most of his work is essentially some combination of these
two axes. ( Plus serious skills)
As an added bonus there a kind of Making-Of-The-Wicker-Man-Remake
which apparently was originally streamed live from his mobile.
I didn’t even know you could do that.
If anything the ‘making-of’ piece surpasses the substantive one on the
Howe strangeness scale. Even his friends & colleagues seem touched too
by a species of benign insanity.
Long may he flourish.
Scanner et al. – Night Jam

NightJam (2006, 26MB, 11:28 min.)
An Artangel commissioned project from 2006 involving
sound artist Scanner working with clients of London’s
New Horizons Youth Centre, devoted to work with homeless youth.
The musical collaborators are MC Utta, MC Marcel,
MC Quick Latino, MC Magic and MC Sweetie.
Undoubtedly evocative, if a tad derivative, especially
considering the resources at play here.
The multilingual MCing is great though!
Moljevic aka Albert Nanning

What Is This? (2006, 20.8MB, 2:31 min.)
Deft & attractive travelogue/visual poem/puzzle taking
us on a dream tour of Moljevic’s native Amsterdam.
More on his YouTube channel, and website

