The Summer of Van Torre – Human Dog

vantorre7
European Vacation (2005, 25.6 MB, 2:18 min.)

vantorre9
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.

Lumière et Son Bow Out

checkout art fairs
Checkout Art Fairs (2010, 8MB, 1:07 min.)

Blotting Paper
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…

Shannon Noble – Newt

newt
Newt (2010?, 47MB, 1:48 min)

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.

Rupert Howe – The Wicker Man Remade

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

wickerman live
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.

2 from Lumière et Son

time travel
Time Travel (2010, 10 MB, 1:10 min)

A Right of Passage
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!