Author Archives: michael

Marisa Olson – 2 videos

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Dark Stars
Dark Stars (2006, 6.9MB, 1:30 min)

From Here
From Here (2006, 29MB, 4 min)

Two rather attractive & intriguing pieces by Marisa Olson
made at a 2006 residency at the Experimental Television Center.

Said Marisa:
“Both are made using a combination of analog & digital processes
and Dark Stars is almost completely analog.. but
then again, both appropriate found material from the internet.
From Here is the music video for Zach Layton’s remix of my song of the
same name. Dark Stars uses samples from one of those old VHS video
games”.

More from Marisa on DVblog here.

Sondheim – Watching Them

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watchingthem
Watching Them (2010, 14MB, 38 secs)

ALL

ALL-BEARING Omniparous
ALL-CHEERING That which gives gaiety to all.
ALL-CONQUERING That which subdues every thing.
ALL-DEVOURING That which eats up every thing.
ALL-FOURS A low game at cards, played by two.
ALL-HAIL All health.
ALL-HALLOWN The time about All-saints day.
ALL-HALLOWTIDE The term near All-saints, or the first of November.
ALL-HEAL A species of iron-wort.
ALL-JUDGING That which has the sovereign right of judgment.
ALL-KNOWING Omniscient, allwise.
ALL-SEEING That beholds every thing.
ALL-SOULS DAY The day on which supplications are made for all souls
by the church of Rome; the second of November.
ALL-SUFFICIENT Sufficient to any thing.
ALL-WISE Possessed of Infinite Wisdom

(From John Walker’s Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, 1825 ed.)

38 seconds of strange & aching beauty from Alan Sondheim.
The text above accompanied the original posting
of the vid on the Netbehaviour & Webartery lists.

John Berryman – Dream Song #29

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watchingthem
Dream Song #29 (1967, 11MB, 2:20 min)

There sat down, once, a thing on Henry’s heart
s

Troika Ranch -16 [R]EVOLUTIONS

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16 [R]EVOLUTIONS
16 [R]EVOLUTIONS (2006, 3MB, 1:50 min)

I saw this piece from NY based group Troika Ranch a few years back
in deepest Essex, UK & it was utterly great –
took me about ten minutes to put my jaw back in postion after.
Certainly by far the most convincing & mature use of digital
technology/projection in a dance context I had then seen.
Much of the visual flavour comes from the Isadora real time video
manipulation software created by co-artistic director Mark Coniglio &
used together with motion sensing software.
It’s not just the tech stuff though – it’s great choreography & dance
somehow informed by the particular rhythms, logic, that the tech
feedback loop sets up, implies.
It’s the fact, too, that a company deploying cutting edge tech can
still use simple shadow & stillness to devastating effect.

Victor Robledo – Diarios de Luz

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DiarioDeLuz #15
Diario de Luz #15 (2006, 5.5MB, 1:48 min)

DiarioDeLuz #3
Diario de Luz #3 (2006, 5.3MB, 3:35 min)

Colombian artist & photographer Victor Robledo made a series
of these pieces in 2006 & posted them on a blog entirely given over to them .
Active since the mid Seventies, Robledo says
“The theme of my work has always been

donebestdone

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Willow Creek Coffee
Willow Creek Coffee (2006, 14.5MB, 47 sec.)

A Greater Degree of Hardware Awareness
A Greater Degree of Hardware Awareness (2006, 25.6MB, 4:40 min.)

Is that a Shakespeare reference I see before me?
These 3 artists from Milwaukee ( who seem to have mutated
into an essentially music making outfit since) used whatever comes to
hand or mind, allied to an aesthetic that privileged
collaboration, speed & the improvisational,
to make this beautiful & engaging work.

Derek Bailey & Will Gaines

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Derek Bailey & Will Gaines #1
clip #1 (1995, 7.6MB, 32 sec.)

Derek Bailey & Will Gaines #2
clip #2 (1995, 3.2MB, 14 sec.)

Derek Bailey & Will Gaines #3
clip #3 (1995, 4.1MB, 17 sec.)

Some lovely footage of the great free improv guitarist Derek Bailey,
who died in 2005, working with be-bop hoofer Will Gaines.
As with so much Bailey did, it seems at first deeply
odd & then, in equal measure, wonderful.
Important to understand this wasn’t some sort of gimmick:
Gaines had known Bailey since the sixties & although much of his
fame was garnered firmly in the mainstream, he has spent a great
deal of time working with cutting edge improvisors.
Enjoy two wonderful artists at the top of their game.
From European Free Improvisation.

Markos Vamvakaris sings ‘Atakti’

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vamvakaris
Atakti (196?, 11MB, 2:23 min)

Utterly compelling clip from a 1960s German documentary featuring a
spine tingling live performance in a Piraeus taverna by the great
rembetiko singer Markos Vamvakaris.
I could watch & listen all day.

PS I think atakti means ‘bad’ or ‘naughty’

The Return of Dr Hairy

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Private Charges
Private Charges ( 2010, 51MB, 9:59)

Another bit of pointed fun from the team who brought you
the original Dr Hairy movie.
Made me laugh a lot, especially the superb timing and the
gratuitous cruelty to toy animals.
Shouldn’t need saying, especially with this one, but, US
viewers, please see the disclaimer on the original post.

Takashi Ito – Spacy

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Private Charges
Spacy ( 1981, 14MB, 2:27)

The other day,on a whim, I bought Takashi Ito’s collected works on DVD
from the BFI shop. I’d never heard of him before.
I’m so glad I did. It is utterly compelling and remarkable work.
Spacy is an early piece and the clip here is neither complete
not particularly good quality but it does give you a taste of Ito’s early
– almost formalist – style.
There’s such delight in seeing how this broadens into the flexible,
confidently handled and singular idiom of the later pieces, where a quite
musical rigor in the formal structuring is never absent but which
also underpins a beautifully ambiguous and rich expressivity.
The whole set was one of those all too rare tingle-down-the-spine
revelations which I gulped down in a couple of sittings.
This is outstanding & important work – I urge people to become acquainted with it.