Author Archives: michael

Karaoke Death Match 100 – MTAA

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We Gotta Get Out of This Place
We Gotta Get Out of This Place [M.River] (2007, 15.8MB, 3:15 min)

Hashpipe
Hashpipe [T.Whid] (2007, 17MB, 3:23 min)

From the bastard progeny of Marcel Duchamp & the Marx Brothers,
the splendid & singular MTAA, comes Karaoke Death Match 100.
Here’s the thing:

Artist collaborative M.River & T.Whid face off in the most brutal performance art smack down of the new millennium.. Karaoke Deathmatch 100! This alcohol-fueled blood feud features 50 rounds of sing-along fury (taped live over an 8-hour period with hardly any pee breaks). No Carpenters hit too cheesy, no heavy metal lyric too trite for these teleprompter warriors to hurl in a battle to the end. Who will emerge victorious? Only YOU can decide.

It’s great stuff & clearly one to follow closely -we’ll be returning to them here ‘ere
close of play in 50 days. Just want to sneak in, though, that actually I found this
quite ahem..er.. moving: – the sheer effort invoked in the
act of singing; T.Whid’s strange shambling captive bear dance & M River’s weird
but somehow totally appropriate sudden & violent changes of dynamics.
A bit like Bas Jan Ader falling over, there’s something more here than originally
meets the eye & ear, & it’s a lot human & a bit wonderful.

PS. compare & contrast

Ken Turner #2 – Derrida &c

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derrida the truth in painting and van gogh
derrida the truth in painting and van gogh’s painting (2006, 9.29MB, 1:52 min)

Ken’s site.

Ken talking about his ideas & work.

Original dvblog editorial

More Brian Gibson

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Atlantis To Interzone
Atlantis to Interzone (2007, 14.8MB, 2:59 min)

Lang Syne Andalusian
Lang Syne Andalusian (2007, 39.2MB, 6:55 min)

Well, Atlantis to Interzone is a neat bit of cell phone footage
derived work but Lang Syne Andalusian is a tour de force of mashology,
remixing Bunuel’s notorious masterpiece with bits of stock footage.
Again: the musical eye… the musical eye…

Music Credits:
Atlantis to Interzone: Klaxons Atlantis to Interzone (Mr. Miyagis Bootleg Remix)
Lang Syne Andalusian: Soundhog “The Rinse” Mix

Martha Deed – October Surprise

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October Surprise
October Surprise (2006, 36.7MB, 2:31 min)

I was going to post this piece by Martha Deed last year but then we had the crash
& it didn’t happen.
It’s a pleasure to do so now.
As with all Martha’s work it’s rich both visually & in some sense ethically.
That’s a hard claim to justify but I think one of her themes is ‘How do we humans live
in both the natural world & the social world of our own making?’
– the how meaning both straight ‘How?’ but also ‘What is the right way?’
I’ll let Martha describe the background to the piece:

Lake Effect snows are a fact of life in Western New York. Usually, cold air blows across the width of the warmer lake waters from Canada to south of Buffalo. Under those conditions and before the lake waters freeze, the Lake Effect storms can dump feet — not inches — of snow in ski country in just a few hours.

But October 12th was early. Fall had barely begun. Trees were still green, their leaves just beginning to turn to the brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows of Autumn. Boats were still moving along the Erie Canal. Snowblowers and generators were still stored in garages, their fuel tanks still empty. Portable radios, snowshovels, firewood, flashlights, bottled water and canned goods were yet to be thought about.

When a light snowfall began, I taped a few sequences — just to have on hand for future projects.

The lake waters were 62-degrees. A cold air mass began moving across Lake Erie, not across its width, but up its length, targeting Buffalo and it’s most populated suburbs.

For many in the Buffalo area, the first realization came with the sounds of huge trees cracking and splitting in the night.

And then, the return to seasonal temperatures and the fast melt. . . And water — everywhere.

No one saw it coming — the ferocity or lethality.

The parks were decimated.

Schools were closed for a week. Telephone lines still downed weeks later.

Thirteen people died.

The damage was the greatest of any storm in Buffalo’s history.

Disco-nnect – Abe Linkoln/JimPunk/Subculture – a mash-up masterclass

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wr4th_o{-g*d_m:x
Subculture: wr4th_o{-g*d_m:x (2007, 16.6MB, 1:26 min)

& j0hn malk°v:tch )::
JimPunk: & j0hn malk°v:ch ):: (2007, 10.2MB, 59 sec)

3P150D33
Abe Linkoln: 3P150D33 (2007, 6.89MB, 1:12 min)

Remix/collab/podcast running May -Sept, commissioned by
the excellent Turbulence & featuring 3 masters of the genre well known to dvblog regulars
[Subculture being Antonio Mendoza’s n0m de rem:x]
Exhilarating & educative too…do yourself a favor & check out the whole project…

‘Infancy is a very good state to return to’
– A Ken Turner season.

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the philosophical table
the philosophical table (2006, 6.89MB, 1:28 min)

Over the next few weeks we’re going to feature 9 short pieces by British artist
Ken Turner. (Which form a sequence, but can also be viewed separately)
None of them will be criticised as slick or win any prizes for technical excellence.
Nontheless I’d much rather these, than much of the technically better made but
oh so shallow & glib stuff I see.
They’re quite extraordinary, incorporating philosophical reflection, visual art,
music & performance in a rich & demanding stew.
I particularly warm to their uncompromising nature – here’s a vision,
take it or leave it, but I think you’ll be the richer for engaging.
Also, perhaps rather sentimentally, I love the feeling that here in Cornwall, UK,
is a last continuously enduring pocket of the tremendous artistic radicalism
associated with arts education in the nineteen sixties UK, far from the semi corporate
bottom lineism that is the rule today.
Particularly interested to see comments….
Ken’s site.
Ken talking about his ideas & work.

The Phil Collins Singalong Hour

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The Phil Collins Singalong Hour
The Phil Collins Singalong Hour (2006, 96.5MB, 9:17 min)

Art Pt1
Art Pt. 1 (2006, 52MB, 8:50 min)

Utterly wonderful & deranged work from Jamie O’Brien.
Up there with the best – well… er… entertainers
in terms of comedic edge & timing & chutzpah & derring-do
but at the same time this work has the imaginative
breadth & the sheer smarts that lots of wannabe
performance artists could only dream about…

Primary and other Remote Locations

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Primary and other Remote Locations
Primary and other Remote Locations (2006, 44.5MB, 3 min)

We’ve featured the work of Brett Stalbaum & Paula Poole here before

*****Lewis Carroll like note – when I say before I might mean after
– I can’t remember whether we’ve reposted their other work yet –
something to look forward to perhaps!*****

a couple of times. I’ve been mystified in public here before (ditto)…are
the videos a work in themselves or merely the documentation of the computing/walking/painting/whatever that comprises the process?
I feel like it’s the former (no justification except my bones & the fact that
these vids are both clear & totally elusive..& it makes me a candidate
for Pseud’s corner but it seems to me no accident that the experience
-the way what seems initially straightforward somehow recedes –
of watching them is not unlike that of reading Emerson)
You can check out the details of the work process on the paintersflat
site but watch the video first..it’s ravishing..it conjures up the richness
of the process so beautifully & excitingly & oh now I’m in a loop because
of course I don’t know what the process was like because
I’ve only seen the videos. But they are sticky & fragrant &
evocative & funny in my head…
These folks are doing something very right.

Brian Gibson – Facade

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facade
Facade (2006, 8MB, 1:29 min)

facade remix
Facade Remix (2006, 5.85MB, 1:20 min)

Brian Gibson is a recently graduated video maker
with real & substantial talent.
In particular he is an excellent editor – with a
very musical eye (sic.).
This is the first of two posts featuring his work.
I’ve deliberately started with the one I think –
although it’s a good piece – is the weakest: Facade.
Nicely made, strong visual sense, marred only for me
by a slight surrender to sentimentality…
Then look at the remix, when he forgets
about expressing himself & starts to play
( & of course thereby expresses himself)
Now that’s good.
More soon – if you can’t wait, check out Brian’s site,
in particular the rather wonderful mash up Energy Flakes .

Music credits:
Facade: Dungen – Gl

His Girl Friday – between the lines…

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still life
‘His Girl Friday’ – Between the Lines Edit (2006, 28.1MB, 8:25 min)

Elegant, witty & revealing re-edit of Hawks’s His Girl Friday
by Valentin Spirik.
The original is downloadable in its entirety from the
Internet Archive.