Anarchy In The UK (2007, 45.4MB, 4:44 min)
Anarchy In The UK has been a bit of a theme of late here on dvblog.
Now, from the indispensable Rupert Howe comes this breathtaking version.
Not only is it extremely funny, with an off the meter chutzpah quotient,
(witness the animal terror in the eyes of the guys on the tube towards the end)
but like a lot of Rupert’s work it’s a kind of contemporary London travelogue
(of the best sort: hard edged, eyes wide open truthful & hence beautiful) too.
I Don’t Want Your Lasagne Furnace (2009, 41.4MB, 2:23 min)
Artists I really care for tend to fall into two distinct categories.
The first is the extensive or Picasso category – refusing to be
bound by stylistic limitations or boxes they constantly
reinvent themselves, often seeming like ten artists in one skin.
The other might be called the Giacometti or Morandi model, where
the best part of a lifetime is devoted to an intensive, deep,
exploration of a limited set of themes and content.
They have in common more than would at first appear to be the case.
They are both led by a kind of shamanistic passion, a surrender to
the unconscious, to whim, to a playfulness which can be either infantile
or deadly serious, and they reject the most common practice which is the
dull conformity of making work which attempts to guess the market,
or follow fashion or whatever.
If Sondheim is the net exemplar of the first way then Donna Kuhn
must typify the second.
Small miracles of freshness & originality mined and chiselled from
a tiny pallette! Wit and sadness both! Wonder! Delight!
LOMEG_ROM – Now Is Not 2009 (2009, 91.2MB, 26:28)
Absolutely stunning docu-voodle from 2010 by “b.k.” of Oslo’s
LOMEG_ROM (sadly, note the retrospectively rather
plaintive ‘we’ll soon be posting again’, dated 2010).
Just when you think fireworks are
overrated or that you’ve seen it all… I am endlessly
impressed with this duo’s ability to tease out the
nuances of space and time.
Short analog video by Portland based artist Erica Schreiner.
Music by by Prussia.
futurespots – Splinters (2006, 10.1MB, 1:44)
futurespots – Flash (2006, 3.7MB, 1:10)
From the futurespots archives, two older works
from what is now a defunct videoblog.
These days, Christopher Black’s experimental
and interactive media can be found on his personal site.
Climax (2006, 6.2MB, 1:11 min)
We’ve featured Anthony Rousseau’s excellent work here before
this is one of many great pieces you can see on his blog.
I’ve focussed in on this one because I think it’s particularly interesting
in its capacity to be genuinely disturbing in a number of ways over a short spell of time.
Made from appropriated Prelinger footage, Rousseau says it is
Une construction filmique dont la ligne directrice est la
traduction d’angoisses et de peurs infantiles.
‘A filmic construction of which the directorial line is the translation of childhood fears and anguish’
Now, before I read that, I was thinking what Rousseau had done cleverly
& to powerful effect was to deploy many of the tropes of the horror genre
so we fear for, not with, the child.
But then I suppose many of those devices are indeed rooted in
our peurs infantiles & in fact we do both.
Smart. Smart, rich, good.
Grass Barbed (2008, 13.8MB, 41 secs, silent)
Grass In Wind (2008, 20.4, 48 secs, silent)
Utter loveliness from Irish artist Kevin Flanagan in 2008.
Utter loveliness never something to be disdained in my view, but here it’s also allied to a
steadfastness of purpose & well, just simple old fashioned
courage of conviction.
Finger Bolts (2005, 1.9MB, 1:13 min.)
Shannon Noble, an extremely technically accomplished
artist, made this elegant short video in 2005 from the simple, well-timed,
juxtaposition of moving images and sounds.
He’s still making stuff – he’s quite strangely
secretive about his work and quite often as soon
as it’s posted somewhere it disappears again.
A shame – he’s consistently great.
Amy Carpenter – Why Not? (2006, 8.4MB, 2:56)
In thinking back on the people that inspired me when
video online first began to really take hold of everyone,
I remembered Amy Carpenter’s Welcome to Amyville.
This little piece from a few years ago always stuck with me.
It felt so innovative at the time and still really outshines
many similar works to have come after it.
Extended Camera (2005, 5.5MB, 2:19 min.)
Night Performance #3 (2005, 12.1MB, 7:54 min.)
In May 2005 Garrett Lynch & co-conspirators blagged some
money from Arts Council England to spend a weekend at a
country house playing with video.
The result is documented on this great site.
At their best these vids do absolutely match up to the
funding application rhetoric. They combine performance,
technology & layer upon layer of knowingness to produce results
which had me, at least, open mouthed with admiration.
Wonderful!
The Delicate Museum – What Everyone Else Was Talking About (2006, 13MB, 1:21)
The Delicate Museum – A Suggestive Manifesto (2006, 9.7MB, 1:32)
Two more breaths of fresh air from 2006 and The Delicate Museum,
also known as Duncan, formerly of 29fragiledays.
Said before, I’ll say it again: such beauty in the small things.
Ice Flowers – and my cat was so curious (2007, 23.5MB, 3:59 min)
shame (2007, 14.8MB, 2:27 min)
From 2007: first beauty tout court, then beauty with a big sting in the tail.
From Loiez Deniel, all of whose work is worth spending time with.
Bob’s Big Date (2008, 7 MB, 50 sec.)
“These are the adventures of a psychopath named Bob. Bob is not
a nice man; not even a little bit. This show is the video equivalent
of a Sunday comic strip.
Here Bob goes out on a date with Betty, perhaps the first woman
other than his mother to truly understand and appreciate him.”
From The AV Club.
diesalumusic (2006, 27MB, 3:19 min.)
Ben Hanbury entry for the Diesel U Music 2006 VJ competition.
Blurring Fat (2006, 20MB, 5:15 min.)
Podcast from Ajit @ squigglebooth
Her – Kelly Cook, Him/Writer/Director – Ajit Anthony Prem.
Superb !
Sixth Map (2006, 17.3MB, 3.44 min.)
When filmmaker/videoblogger Daniel Liss challenged himself to make 7 videos in 7 days,
he also challenged his online audience to collaborate with him in the process.
His daily assignments came from viewers of his videoblog who determined
where, about what and how he should make each video.
Each day, they posted an assignment and each day Daniel posted a video in response.
Then came praise and criticism in the comments of each day’s videoblog post.
The process took him miles from home, he told personal stories, invented new narratives,
and played more than a few tricks on his guiding/goading audience.
For this video he was given the assignment,
“Today, you are a local. Trick us into believing that you are a local.
Tell us a story about your history.”
By Mica
Jeremy D. Slater – Manic Chinatown Bicycle (2007, 15.6MB, 2:01)
Jeremy D. Slater – Kanjiscroll (2007, 11.1MB, 0:41)
Two travel videos – albeit different sorts of it –
from Jeremy Slater, who primarily works in sound.
But I like his video work – minimal, often observational
in one way or another – so here are two samples.
Duncan Speakman – Is Life Boring? (2005, 5.3MB, 1:17 min.)
From Duncan Speakman (yes, his real name) and the now abandoned 29fragiledays.
Duncan moved onto the less populated Delicate Museum, but I enjoy his older work much more (maybe because there is simply more of it?).
No contrived voice-overs (at least not at first), I’m also given enough time to meditate on the video.
Sometimes short is too short.
This is one of the best pieces from his previous incarnation.
Struggle for Existence (2004, 18MB, 1:58 min.)
“By linking Darwin’s “The truth of universal struggle for existence” with a Taiwanese children’s game, The video represents two individuals’ slaughter in the virtual battle field and reflects on the ideology of boundary dividing, self-defending patriotism and bellicosity.”
by – Yu-Chen Wang.
freudwasafraud (2006, 20MB, 2:32 min)
‘There’s nothing like spending a little quality time with the
latest top ten questions about your potential state of mind.’
podcast from Charlene Rule aka scratch video.
A Broad Way, Trailer (2007, 60.89 MB, 5:17 min)
Saul Goode worked with 400 filmmakers to
document every corner of New York’s most
famous street, Broadway.
By Mica
Mr. & Mrs. Blue Skies (2006, 30MB, 5:30 min.)
‘September 7th marks three exciting years since meeting my wife.
In that time, my life has changed dramatically for the best.
It seems like I finally have a life!
This video should certainly remind you of being forced to sit through the
family vacation videos by your parents.
If it doesn’t then you should watch it a couple of times.’
Music: Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra
From Ajit @ squigglebooth
Beautiful slow moving images accompanied by complex
layered sound collages from the videoblog fast moving animals in 2005.
03.07.06 (2006, 5.3MB, 1:54 min.)
03.12.06 (2006, 3.7MB, 1:08 min.)
03.17.06 (2006, 3.8MB, 1:13 min.)
Back in 2006, when video blogging just started, Andrew Schneider
was the funniest person on the internet.
From Astoria, Queens, it’s the whether|man.
Experiment (2006, 3.3MB, 1:20 min.)
2006: Michael Verdi takes a stand and stakes out
some videoblogging territory.
mobile opera (2006, 7.1 MB, 48 sec.)
from – fast moving animals.
Music: Rossini: ‘La Danza’. Voice: Beniamino Gigili
Movie #4 (2006, 1.9MB, 44 sec)
Movie #14 (2006, 2.9MB, 1:12 min)
Interesting work from Canadian film maker Jimi Bogdanov.
Movie #4 , in particular, has a fragile & arresting beauty.
HD VIDBLOG #119 (2006, 5.9MB, 3:09 min.)
“Why would somebody make something like this?”
by Prof. Chris Weagel from “human-dog”.
Experiment (2006, 28MB, 2:08 min.)
A Ryan Dunn video.
Moma & Seed Media Group..
from del.icio.us:media:video
The Head of Raymond K (2006, 25.3 MB, 2:50 min.)
“Did any of this happen? Should I quit drinking coffee?
Do I exist? Am I only a construct in the mind of some insane norwegian?
Should I quit my job? Change my head?
These are only a few of the existential questions you might ask yourself
when you venture into the head of Raymond K.“
Part 2 of 5 from Bottom Union
Home Movies (2007, 11.9MB, 1:10 min)
Money at the Situation (2007, 6.5MB, 37 sec)
Assured & capable micro movie making from Bill Shackelford in 2007.
In the case of Home Movies, more: beautiful, poetic
& singular, using only the artefact laden footage around cuts in
his grandfather’s 8mm home movies from the 50s & 60s.
Bravo!
The Internet (2006, 5.3MB, 1:03 min.)
2006 report from Valdezatron Industries technology department.
from Aaron Valdez.
Iggy, Cincinnati, 1970 (1970, 28.7MB, 5:05 min.)
Layer upon layer of skin-tingling wonder & bizarreness
(is that a word?) from Iggy & the Stooges in 1970,
long before he discovered car insurance.
It doesn’t get any better than this.
From the excellent WFMU’s Beware of the Blog.
DuPont (2011, 25 MB, 2:42 min.)
Smokey (2011, 25 MB, 2:45 min.)
A couple of previews from Rob Parrish
European Vacation (2005, 25.6 MB, 2:18 min.)
Morning Routine (2005, 44.3 MB, 4:34 min.)
The Summer of Van Torre was hugely popular in 2005 in video blogging circles.
The wepisodes recount the life of Jon VanTorre, each week bringing him closer
to total cardiac arrest with Ether Baths, Spider-Man Nightmares, and Meat Sandwiches.
The series (which began in 2001) was presented online in 05 by Human Dog.
Here is an interview (2005, 67.5 MB, 13 min.) by Josh Leo with writers & directors
Jon VanTorre, Michael Schwartz and Chris Weagel.
Checkout Art Fairs (2010, 8MB, 1:07 min.)
Blotting Paper (2010, 13MB, 1:06 min.)
I hadn’t realized that the splendid Lumière et Son project, which
we’ve raved about here before, was a time limited thing
but, sadly, yes & they’ve posted their last, which we repost here
above.
We’ve grabbed a few more, which we’ll post in the near future, but
do yourselves a favour and go & wallow in their site now…
More Landscaping Views (2010, 54MB, 3:47 min)
Art and Traffic (2010, 14MB, 1:00 min, silent)
We haven’t had anything from the indispensable Sam Renseiw
for a little while so, just to make Monday more tolerable for us all,
here are two recent pieces, both small gems.
I particularly like the Lumière, ‘Art and Traffic’
Nice contrast to Newt – more worked.
The man has range.
We haven’t had anything from Shannon Noble for a long time.
He’s quite elusive. His blog springs up, then disappears, then appears
again under a different name. Currently most of his stuff just seems to
be sitting, unlinked, in a folder on his site.
His work is always interesting (in the strong sense that one can
always learn from it) and hardly ever showy. Maybe his lack of need to show off
or jump up and down saying look at me, even when he’d be justified in so doing
is tied in with his apparent reluctance to promote his work.
Don’t get me wrong -I approve of the former -it makes the viewer do some work and there
are rewards to be had here for doing that work.
Here’s the first of two pieces, a bit like Robert Croma’s piece earlier this week,
not at all in mood or content but simply in being by someone who clearly knows
exactly what they are doing.
The use of sound is both deeply eccentric and wonderful.
More next week.
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.
Amazing (2005, 4.1MB, 2:02 min.)
I found this in my DVblog to-do folder & embarassingly
I can’t remember when or from where I downloaded it.*
If anyone can oblige please mail us.
Anyway, it made me laugh quite immoderately.
* Update -the splendid Sam Renseiw rides to the rescue with
this link.
triplightz (2010, 2 MB, 5 sec silent palindrome loop)
3skullstr (2010, 18 MB, 7 sec silent palindrome loop )
skull3pth (2010, 2 MB, 7 sec silent palindrome loop)
Three new pieces from Abe Linkoln on the ever reliable,
ever astonishing Triptych TV
Time Travel (2010, 10 MB, 1:10 min)
A Right of Passage (2010, 14 MB, 1:04 min)
We’ve not hidden our enthusiasm here for the work,
always interesting ,often stunning, of Sam Renseiw.
Sam’s been a particularly deft & prolific exponent of the
Lumière form re-invented/discovered/conceptualised
by Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen and Brittany Shoot (of this manor).
Here the whole thing goes a stage further with a great
collaboration between Renseiw and British filmmaker/sound artist
Philip Sanderson, archived on a site called Lumière et Son
which title, for me at least, occasions both a groan and a kind of grudging admiration.
The work is great – Renseiw’s originals, with new found-sound additions
from Sanderson; playful, witty and perhaps even a a little profound,
in a Zen kind of way.
I hadn’t really clocked it properly until I saw a couple of these pieces
at a screening in London the other day.
Here’s one from that programme (the original of which
we posted here a while ago) plus another that especially
tickled me.
Splendid stuff & here’s to many more!
Diario de Luz #15 (2006, 5.5MB, 1:48 min)
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
Deaf Swedish Beaver TV (2010, 9MB, 1:03 min)
Sooooo un-PC on just soooo many levels
and quite quite wonderful too, a great Lumière from
DVblog’s own Brittany Shoot.
series 1, #10 (2006, 625KB, 1 sec. loop)
series 1, #1 (2006, 564KB, 1 sec. loop)
series 1, #20 (2006, 550KB, 1 sec. loop)
Attractive & interesting 2006 work from Belgian artist Hugo Heyrman
Despite a superficial similarity to the work of the late David Crawford
this work has a dynamic (and a charm) entirely its own.
Check out Heyrman’s Museums of the Mind site for more.
with wavering light (2010, 31MB, 3:03 min.)
Delicate, beautiful & assured work from occasional contributor here,
Brian Gibson.
I do particularly love the recorded-as-live harmonium, which, unlike
so much of the current use of music in movie-making serves to somehow
open out, rather than close off, the piece’s field of meanings.
Fragmented Occurences (2010, 67MB, 4:33 min.)
It’s a little while since we featured anything from the splendid Sam
Renseiw, so here’s a recent piece.
In contrast to many of his films, which have an incredibly strong
sense of a particular place, this was apparently composed
from odds and ends of footage from various locations during the last
few months.
I think it works beautifully; it’s instructive to see Sam intervening,
perhaps a little more than usual, at the editing level.
(His camera work is always very distinctive – there’s often a sense
-true or not- that many pieces are largely composed in the shooting.)
Whatever the case, this is, as always, a wonderful and utterly distinctive voice.
PS This is our 1000th post of the new series. Many thanks to all who have sent words of encouragement & appreciation. It makes the time spent working on DVblog feel doubly worthwhile.
Direct Language 2.4 (2006, 6.5 MB, 2:55 min)
Direct Language 4.5 (2007, 7.5 MB, 1:20 min)
Direct Language 3.0 (2006, 1.5 MB, 52 sec, silent)
Strange fragments of worked over reality which
lodge in the unconscious like splinters.
From Steven Ball’s excellent Direct Language
project – well worth spending some time there.
More recent work from him soon.
Magma by Rocketboom (2009, 53 MB, 6:22 min.)
The excellent new Magma.
Entry point and guide for online video.
Tuilleries (2005, 480KB, 6 sec.)
Divining (2005, 2.1MB, 30 sec.)
A few gems from Littlewhile, a vlog (no longer with us)
which featured non-fiction clips.
Auto Exposure and White/Black BGs (2009, 23MB, 3:53 min.)
Educational video by Ian Parks.
Interior Footage with Canine (2009, 13 MB, 57 secs)
Exquisite Lumière from the ever reliable, ever astonishing, Sam Renseiw
at spacetwo : patalab.
Patafilm 718 (2009, 30.9 MB, 2:40 min)
The Petanque Discussion (2009, 9.8 MB, 53 secs)
All his work is great but we can’t publish him every day
so we wait for the very finest.
Two Petanque themed beauties, the second
being a Lumière masterclass.
Night Impromptu (2009, 50.9 MB, 5:19 min)
Despite being a very fine still photographer there’s something
paradoxically counter-photographic about Robert Croma’s video work.
Of course, as one would expect from a photographer, he’s extremely
sensitive to finish and the care which is lavished on the working over
of each of his movies is humbling and astonishing but what struck me,
getting this post ready, is how difficult it is to extract a poster image from
these that really prepares us for the coming movie as movie.
(Believe me – mostly this is not so hard, so many people semaphore
from every frame)
Then it further struck me that this a mark of the most profound cinematic
thinking, that despite the pieces’ great visual beauties they are conceived
austerely, with the greatest economy & most of all holistically; that is, entirely
at the level of the final moving image.
Of course here, as so often with Croma, finally it’s also a very moving image.
Charlene Rule – Private Screening (2009, 10.9MB, 1:38)
Lovely view from Scratch TV.
