Lucia Nimcova – Exercise (2007, 40.5MB, 6:03)
Outrageously funny video from 2007 by Slovakian artist
Lucia Nimcova.
I’m pretty sure not being able to understand
the language makes this that much more
endearing and amusing.
Category Archives: satire
The Yes Men – Vivoleum
Tribute to Reggie (excerpt) (2007, 52MB, 2:51 min.)
Vintage Yes Men from 2007, posing as representatives of Exxon-Mobil
and the National Petroleum Council in Calgary, Alberta, to deliver a keynote
speech presenting a new product – Vivoleum, a new fuel made from the
deceased bodies of human climate-change casualties.
‘Tribute to Reggie” was a promo video for the event.
'Paola e Bettino' – Lanza brothers film their parents watching the world cup..
By brothers Marco and Saverio Lanza.
Philippe Decouflé – Le P’tit Bal
Le P’tit Bal (1994, 35MB, 3:48 min)
Total joy !!
Video: Philippe Decouflé.
Song: Le P’tit Bal Perdu by André Bourvil.
Back By Popular Demand – The Lesbian Rangers
The Lesbian Rangers (2005, 18 MB, 1:41 min.)
Welcome to Reorientation 2005 (2005, 34.8 MB, 2:17 min.)
Victory at The Rock (2005, 72.4 MB, 4:45 min.)
Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan are Winnipeg-based collaborators whose
internationally acclaimed work addresses feminist, lesbian, and social concerns
with tremendous wit. “The Lesbian Rangers” were founded in 1997, to help people
learn about fascinating and fragile lesbian ecosystem. Rangers Dempsey and Millan
led the first expedition to Banff National Park, and continue to offer lesbian leadership today.
(thanks jillian)
Sondheim – Unmissable , Unmatchable
Native Dancer (2011, 92MB, 2:08 min)
Genbush (2006, 48MB, 6:03 min)
Two pieces from Alan Sondheim -one we originally posted in 2006
and one in 2011. The piece –Native Dancer –
is a particularly affecting example of recent motion capture/avatar work.
It properly forms part of a triptych but I think it is the outstanding of the
three and I’m going to exercise curatorial perogative & post it singly.
It enchants me -I don’t know exactly why, I think the reasons could be
quite banal -there’s something of the children’s TV sci-fi epic about it perhaps…
Don’t know, just love it.
And here’s what we originally said about the other piece, which I see no reason to change:
Humor is perhaps not a quality that springs immediately
to mind when discussing the work of Alan Sondheim.
Wrong! His work is saturated in it, often a species of
graveyard or gallows wit.
Here, though, he just lets loose, plays.
But the man is incapable of doing anything that doesn’t
resonate with layer upon layer of meaning too!
Experiment – Ryan Dunn
Experiment (2006, 28MB, 2:08 min.)
A Ryan Dunn video.
Moma & Seed Media Group..
from del.icio.us:media:video
Will Oldham & Harmony Korine
No More Workhorse Blues (2006, 6.4MB, 2:55 min.)
Will Oldham a.k.a Bonnie Prince Billy is a writer/performer
of unusual talent & significance.
Extremely smart, genuine skill with language (in many registers)
a wide range of cultural reference, a sense of being part of a
larger tradition, but also a rootedness –
the mining of a very specific & personal seam.
Then, still, within this – a capacity to surprise, even shock.
An integrity.
Here he teams up with Harmony Korine who matches the
complex richness of the song with a roquefort of a video:-
a sweet rottenness -simultaeneously intensely delicious
& to the same degree inducing a certain queasiness.
Douglas Fishbone
Towards a Common Understanding (excerpt) (2007, 9.4MB, 6:50min)
Douglas Fishbone is one of my favorite video art jokesters.
He leaves no stone unturned in his search for a common
understanding, which takes him to the furthest reaches
of the world wide web and back.
I have been trying to find a video of his online to
include here for a while now, then I just asked him and
he graciously sent me this video for the faithful DVBlog viewers.
Beware, there are many disturbing images in this video but none
of them on screen for more than a few seconds and all quite spectacular.
By Mica
The WhetherMan
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.
Jose Carlos Casado – 3D Animation work
Inside.v04 (2001, 6.7MB, 1:51 min)
Newbody.v01e (2004, 14.5MB, 3:32 min)
Two short animations from the series ‘Meat’ by Jose Carlos Casado.
Ideas of potential new forms, clones, and artificially
produced offspring are touched upon in ‘Inside.v04’
‘Newbody.v01e’ is kind of Hieronymus Bosch does the Olympics,
the stuff of nightmares & transcendent beauty too . The score, by
Sophocles Papavasilopoulos, is also a small masterpiece:
complex, yet self-effacingly serving the totality.
‘Un Chien Andalou’ – Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí
Un chien andalou (1929, 156MB, 15:40 min.)
This is just the source.
Can you imagine Cocteau, Deren, later Hitchcock & Cronenberg
without this?
Oh..more:- the whole of cinema would have a great gaping bloody gap
in it & what was left would be dull dull dull & Black Francis wouldn’t have been
able to write ‘Debaser’.
It simply prised open the language.
Afterwards, Bunuel went on to make some of the sharpest, most provocative
& disturbing films of the 20th century & Dali went on to
…well… be Dali.
William Wegman & Steve Martin
Martin on Wegman (1999, 13 MB, 2:09 min.)
The introduction to the identity program from the PBS series
Art in the 21st Century in which host Steve Martin is featured
in this charming and quirky video by the artist William Wegman.
Alan Sondheim – Over The Edge
Over The Edge (2010, 49MB, 1:37 min)
Alan Dojoji Pushes Fau Ferdinand in the Water because
She’s not Paying Him any ATTENTION!
so the story will be about I’m trying DESPERATELY TO GET YOUR ATTENTION,
but you’re ignoring me because you’re away or sleeping or not watching the
terrific goings-on in OpenSim so I sneak up on you (because you’re not
looking) and push you into the water which is very difficult because
pushing avatars requires the greatest skill, making sure that the pusher
is right behind the pushee, otherwise the pushee escapes, so you’re pushed
into the water and just as you’re falling you wake up and type “UOY” which
can only mean it’s a backwards world, and then we’re both in the water and
I’m dancing furiously and AGAIN YOU’RE PAYING NO ATTENTION!
Alan Sondheim
How to Tell When a Relationship is Over (in Ninety Seconds)
How to Tell When a Relationship is Over (2003, 5.6MB, 1:30min.)
A micro-movie of under 90 seconds for
The Encounters Festival 2003.
Directed by Tony Roche.
Body Magic – Javier Morales and John Michael Boling
Body Magic (2007, 26MB, 2:25 min.)
From the old gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com
Music by Javier.
The Good Consumer – Neil Boorman
The Good Consumer (2008, 18.2MB, 5:27)
In honor of , a satirical video about
being a good consumer. BND falls on Nov. 28 in North
America, but everyone else “celebrates” on Nov. 29.
So this whether this video is right on time for you or
a day early, we’re still pretty sure you will appreciate
the message.
Made by Neil Boorman from Bonfire of the Brands.
Eddo Stern – Best…flame war…Ever
Eddo Stern – Best…flame war…Ever (2007, 32MB, 12:08)
Even the non-gamers (that includes me – and I think everyone
else here at DVblog) will appreciate this one from Eddo Stern.
Bob Ross is alive. The Joy of Painting..
Bob Ross is alive (2008, 22MB, 2:50 min.)
The Joy of Painting (2008, 15MB, 5:45 min.)
Bob Ross came to prominence as the creator of ‘The Joy of Painting’,
a program on public television in the US. Here are a couple of great parodies
that poke fun at Bob and his calm and enduring nature.
Top is from Dutch filmmaker Miron Bilski (from the viral video award)
Bottom is from artists Max Kotelchuck and Peter Nowogrodzki.
Robb Bradely/Randy Newman – I’m Dreaming of a White President
I’m Dreaming of a White President (2012, 15MB, 3:16 min)
Great bit of film-making to match a genius song.
But…but…
Of course you want Obama to win just
to wrongfoot the racists et. al. but you
can’t help wishing he’d actually done something
to merit the mad hostility of the rich, the bigots
and the terminally gullible.
The One That Got Away – Marisa Olson
The One That Got Away (2005, 19MB, 9:02 min.)
In the Fall of 2004,Marisa Olson gained worldwide attention
while training to audition for American Idol
Pleix – No Animals Were Harmed
Birds (2006, 15.5MB, 3:04 min)
Netlag (2006, 15.8MB, 4:23 min)
Early 24 carat weirdness & ethereal beauty respectively from the
French Pleix group.
Put Your Hands Up For Detroit – Fedde Le Grand
Put Your Hands Up For Detroit (2007, 13.6 MB, 2:25 min.)
Sexy remix action from 2007 , from Director S.MacKay-Smith using footage
from Till West & DJ Delicious, TV Rock, Dirty South and Claude Von Stroke.
By Fedde Le Grand.
Psycho Bob – Bob’s Big Date
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.
José Carlos Casado – Agnus Dei
agnus dei.v06 (2006, 11.8MB, 2:53 min.)
José Carlos Casado – Agnus Dei.
OK, a species of satire, clearly,
but such dream-beautiful satire.
More Larissa Sansour – Happy Days
Larissa Sansour: A Happy Days (2006, 13MB, 2:57 min)
Following on from the work we showed last week from the
excellent Subversions show, here’s another piece by
Larissa Sansour.
This is featured in the other UK show featuring work
from the Arabic speaking world, this time specifically
from artists with roots in Palestine, Navigations at
the Barbican in London.
There’s some tremendous work on show there, not least this
one – all the work Sansour I’ve so far seen has delighted me
by being much better than a verbal description might lead one
to expect. So with this one you might hear:
“To the tune of the theme from Happy Days Larissa Sansour
edits together stills of herself, a Palestinian woman,
in various locations in the occupied territories.”
And you might think:
“Ho-hum, seen it all, virtuous agit-prop, with the usual sledgehammer irony”
and you would be totally wrong.
Of course the irony is there, and anger, of course, but
there’s a lightness of treatment – the Sansour “character”,
the everyday found surrealism of some of the shots, the
little jokes (the titles: “The Palestinian”
– “The Israeli Army as…Itself” &c.)
which, without negating any political content, makes the
whole thing richly human and a pleasure to watch and watch again.
Navigations is definitely worth a visit – there is a great variety
of very engaging work.
Two complaints though – unlike the lovingly assembled and spacious show
in Manchester, Navigations feels like a somewhat cramped and token
footnote to the “proper business” of the Palestine Film Festival –
publicity for it only appears on the Barbicam website in this context.
(Better than a couple of weeks back when a search for “Navigations” on the Barbican
website yielded precisely – nothing.)
This is disrespectful to artist moving image work in general and
also, I think, to the artists concerned.
Secondly the fact that it sits, looking a tad temporary, on the
busy walk-through mezzanine on four small identical screens, with long
compilation times, gives it an anthropological rather than an art
exhibition character, whilst the (yawn!) Bauhaus blockbuster takes place
upstairs in the galleries proper. This is again disrespectful to
the artists and specifically to them as Palestinian artists:
footnotes, curiosities, on the margins.
Work of this strength and diversity would have made a great large scale
show.
What a shame that the Barbican, with all its resources, doesn’t
seem to understand both why and how it should have attempted something
similar.
Nonetheless, if in London, you should go!
Subversion at Cornerhouse
Larissa Sansour: A Space Exodus ( Clip) (2009, 7MB, 1:15 min)
Tarzan and Arab: Colourful Journey (Trailer) (2010, 11MB, 1:38 min)
Here are two clips from videos featured in the excellent Subversion show,
featuring artists from the Arabic speaking world, currently on (to 5th June) at
Manchester’s “Cornerhouse”.
It is carefully, elegantly and thoughtfully curated by Omar Kholeif, who writes:
“Like many of the artists I was looking at, I felt that collectively
curators and writers associated with the politically unstable Arab world were
being asked to step up and perform to an identity that the world wanted us to play.
With Subversion my aim was to do just the opposite. I worked with artists who
referenced this very language but who wanted to dissent, poke fun, critique
and re-define themselves as artists of the imagination, and not of any specific
social or political condition.”
It has to be said that this bending of the stick is eminently successful – none
of the works included has any taint of tokenism, they are rich with a poetry,
humour and humanity that cuts entirely across any notional cultural divide.
Where they do focus upon political subject matter (and one should not form the
impression that this is a show with, in any sense whatsoever, its political teeth pulled)
what delights is the richness and the playfulness with which this is done.
Larrisa Sansour’s “A Space Exodus” is both gentle and devastating.
Gentle, the Sansour persona (and we’ll have another piece of hers next week)
presented in the work, with the rather stylish space suit, the wistful smile and wave
towards the far away earth, having planted the Palestinian flag on the moon:
–“That’s one small step for Palestinians, one giant leap for mankind”.
Devastating when one sets this gentleness by the side of what we know of the Apartheid
wall, the illegal settlements, punishment demolition of Palestinian homes &c.
(Anyone who doubts the piece’s political impact should take a look at the vile racism
of some of the comments on the YouTube posting of this clip
– “Send all the Palestinians to the moon” &c.)
The other piece featured here is from the Gazan twins Ahmed and Mohamed Abu Nasser,
known professionally as “Tarzan and Arab”.
Although (in a disarming interview in which they come across a bit like a smiley
and un-terminally-corroded-by-snotty-cynicism younger version of the Chapmans)
they assert the piece is in some sense about internecine Palestinian conflict,
to me it reads more like a balletic paean of love to the cinema, to the
moving image (including perhaps the video game too – what do you think?).
Until last year Tarzan and Arab had never been to a cinema and have largely
been unable to attend screenings of their own works abroad.
In fact their first works, also shown at Cornerhouse, were old style film posters
for non-existent movies, all given titles from the names of Israeli military
operations: Defensive Shield, Cast Lead &c.(as, indeed, their film has too).
There is a great deal more to this show, which covers diverse geographical slices
of the Arabic speaking world and where therefore the interaction between life
and art has a different tempo and character to the works by the Palestinian
artists discussed here.
And it’s all great – I don’t have space here to properly do the whole thing justice.
In particular, though, I do want to mention Akram Zaatari’s two luminously beautiful
films set in the milieu of gay life in Beirut – though again to outline them thus,
in one line, in terms of “topic”, is to oversimplify – we must distinguish between
ostensible topics and the dense, lyric and dazzling poetry which they engender.
Also Khaled Hafez’s wonderful short “On Presidents and Superheroes”
(yet another political context, that of a staggeringly prescient augury of a victorious
but still contested Egyptian revolution) but I simply am going to just mention it as I
hope to write something a little bit more extended about it when I post a clip here (soon!).
Eating Disorder- Arzu Ozkal Telhan
‘My practice can be grouped under the interpretation of body and its
relationship to its environment. I make attempts to emancipate the body
from social and cultural norms and try to suggest ways to distance one from
the limits imposed on the society by totalitarian establishments.’
by Arzu Ozkal Telhan.
Charlie Mars – Videomaker from Outerspace
Blurring Fat by Ajit Anthony Prem
Blurring Fat (2006, 20MB, 5:15 min.)
Podcast from Ajit @ squigglebooth
Her – Kelly Cook, Him/Writer/Director – Ajit Anthony Prem.
Superb !
Paul Slocum – Time Lapse Homepage
Time Lapse Homepage (2003, 18.4 MB, 55 sec.)
‘Paul Slocum‘s Time-Lapse Homepage (2003) signifies through accretion.
This high-definition video is composed of 1,000 computer screenshots
of his homepage. Complete with an upbeat score that could easily be
a corporate jingle to promote a new technology, the stills display the
building, erosion, and occasional complete overhaul of an ever-evolving
Web site. This work provides a layered historical record of something
we tend to see only in discrete units-the appearance of a homepage on
any given day-while attempting to think through Web design in the
language of earlier time-based media.’
Ruth Catlow & Marc Garrett –Festival of Money
Festival of Money (2012, 111MB, 8:06 min)
Amusing & depressing both, because it is so spot on, a lovely bit of
satire from Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow of Furtherfield fame.
Most artists, of course, are from the 99%…this is a timely reminder of
where our interests lie and don’t lie…
Cory Arcangel – Urbandale
Urbandale (2000, 43MB, 7:30 min.)
“Urbandale”, an ASCII/ANSI movie by Cory Arcangel.
“Filmed at Urbandale Plaza in the eastern suburbs of Buffalo N.Y.,
“urbandale” is a study of America’s suburban sprawl stripped to its barest
essentials and void of unnecessary contemporary cultural influence. This
film captures the sly, bland smile strip plazas cast at modern culture.
The film, rendered in text, focuses on the repetitive motion of food
stuffs being cooked in the lobby of a discount department store.”
“Urbandale” was a 2000 commission of New_Radio_and_Performing_Arts for it’s Turbulence project.
PS
This is a mp4 version of the original urbandalePNG video. (quality of the video has been degraded)
Yu-Chen Wang – Struggle for Existence
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.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 1975
Jack Goldstein – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1975, 16.2MB, 2:10)
An endlessly cyclical Hollywood, summed up in two minutes,
over thirty years ago. Still relevant and all too real.
by Jack Goldstein.
Grant Orchard – Basketball
Basketball (2007, 205MB, 1:57 min.)
Director Grant Orchard joined Studio aka in 1997, and soon gained attention
for his idiosyncratic design and his ability to approach projects from many
different angles. He has created TV commercials for clients as diverse as Compaq,
Virgin and Orange. Grant has won two prestigious D&AD awards and achieved recognition
for his first independent short film WELCOME TO GLARINGLY.
He subsequently created 10 mini-films for QOOBtv under the banner LOVESPORT.
– from the shining Lumen Eclipse.
Edward Picot – Appraisal parts #3 & #4
Appraisal Part #3 (2011, 159MB, 9:47 min)
Appraisal Part #4 (2011, 143MB, 9:40 min)
Latest two in Edward Picot’s wonderful Dr Hairy series.
Andrew Norman Wilson #5
The Incorporation of Demands for Liberation (2011, 13MB, 3:24 min)
Brilliant!
Last piece from ANW, for the moment, although we
certainly hope to feature more in the future –
some of the most original and exciting work I’ve seen recently.
For some context see Monday’s post.
Andrew Norman Wilson #4
Flow Spot Test #6 (2011, 18MB, 3:34 min)
“Just downloading apps at my Blanc Laptop Cart when all
of a sudden BenJi, an old teammate from XpresSpa shows up.
He happens to be subcontracted now by the American Airlines
subsidiary AffinityAlliance as an evaluator of potential for their
Oneworld Alliance codeshare lounges (of which FlowSpot is the
newest member).”
Andrew Norman Wilson #2
Flow Spot Test #5 (2011, 57MB, 2:03 min)
“Just having my early afternoon session of Body-Work with
Nnah, my Body-Designer.”
Says ANW, of the FlowSpot Tests:
For a large-scale exhibition at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
I created a color coordinated airport/hotel/mall/bank/spa/biennial lounge to
offer a site of relaxation and bodily engagement in an exhibition dominated
by isolated, sellable art objects.
All lounge products were purchased through online transactions (mostly
Target and Walmart), and were returned at the end of the exhibition.
My dystopic science fiction news video Global Countdown played on
a 55” flat panel monitor.
On opening night, visitors to FlowSpot could register for massages from
licensed massage therapists. While participants received massages they
could not see anything and listened to my directors commentary of the
Global Countdown video. The commentary consists of very basic visual
descriptions, with the goal being that the person receiving the massage
can visualize the video in their minds.
Throughout the duration of the exhibition, I used the lounge as a science
fiction video set to make “FlowSpot Tests.” In these videos I engaged
with the lounge both conceptually and materially in a color coordinated
outfit.
Contact me if you are interested in opening a FlowSpot in your airport,
hotel, mall, bank, spa, biennial, gallery, cultural center, or any other
space that you own/lease/use.
See also.
Andrew Norman Wilson – Webinars & FlowSpot Tests
Anxiety About Relationships Between Friendship and Business (2011, 11MB, 2:41 min)
I’m so taken with Andrew Norman Wilson’s work I’m going to devote
the whole first week of this DVblog season to it.
He initially sent us a longish piece, Networking with Andrew Norman Wilson
made with Nicholas O’Brien of Bad At Sports.
It’s wonderful but pretty huge so you should definitely go and
look at the Vimeo version there.
On Monday, Weds and Friday of this week we’ll post smaller
pieces extracted from that (but without the commentary or
‘interview’ as it is styled elsewhere [-the text on the BAS page linked above]) ,
On Tuesday and Thursday we’ll post two of Wilson’s FlowSpot Tests
with some accompanying explanation from him.
I find this work in general very exciting because it does a lot
of interesting, nuanced and often rather funny (and I’m in favour of funny –
there are very few great works of art which contain no funny at all)
and intially apparently contradictory things.
Let me give you my take on it.
The Webinars are all composed entirely of footage sourced from Pond5
“the worlds stock media marketplace” . The FlowSpot Tests are performative
pieces involving bizarre consumer items sourced from e-bay and wallmart and
deployed in a 21st Century updating of silent movie Lloyd-Keaton-Chaplin
deadpan involving, too, a certain degree of slapstick
and displaying a deliciously calibrated sense of the ridiculous.
The Webinars (a least when one takes account of their titles and certainly viewed
in the light of the commentary from “networking”) are a kind of consumerist
reductio-ad-absurdam.
The intent is celarly in some sense satirical but the pieces take risks in
that they don’t stop and end in critique – there is an understanding of
how toxically compelling some of this imagery is and to some extent they
toy with celebrating this.
Wilson is clearly a natural movie maker. He doesn’t restrain himself from
visual flourishes and jokes which are by no means integral to any
satirical case but make the pieces more fun to watch.
(The distortion effects applied to objects in the periphery of the
action in FlowSpot Test #5 are a case in point.)
Additionally, and most impressively, there is a muddying of the
waters in Networking… (and by implication the
Webinars and FlowSpot Tests) whereby
cogent and apparently straightforward philosophising is allowed
to cross pollinate/contaminate with the satire and vice versa,
leaving the viewer with -ahem- work to do.
This work is not glib; it takes risks – in order to maintain its
high level potency it risks misunderstanding.
A look at Wilson’s CV shows a spell spent working for a
labour union and I read the impulse behind these pieces
as radically anti-commodification and corporate mind rot.
Agit-prop, thankfully, it’s not, but “something rich and strange”
– radical art for interesting times to come.
Nice to see this when so many younger artists seem to be
tempted by a career orientated and somewhat cynical celebration
of that same deadend emptiness.
Monument (If it Bleeds It Leads) – Caleb Larsen
Monument (2006, 3MB, 1:53 min)
Monument, a computer program continuously scans the headlines
of 4,500 English-language news sources around the world, looking
for people who have been reported killed. Each time it finds an article,
an algorithm determines the number of deaths, and instructs a ceiling-mounted
mechanism built from Legos to drop one yellow BB per person.
by Caleb Larsen.
Cutting Edge Cinema
A Tough Dance (1902, 7.1MB, 47 sec.)
Bicycle Trick Riding (1899, 5.5MB, 37 sec.)
Three Acrobats (1899, 5.4MB, 36 sec.)
Three exhilarating chunks of early movie making from the
Library of Congress online collection of variety stage motion pictures.
I particularly love the deeply strange A ‘Tough’ Dance.
There’s also a great early animation collection on the LOC site.
Hey Ya – OutKast
“Hey Ya!” was a 2003 number-one single recorded by André 3000 of the
hip-hop duo OutKast.
The song’s music video, directed by Bryan Barber, features a performance,
styled in the manner of TV’s black and white era (although it’s in color).
It won the MTV Video Music Awards in 2004 for Video of the Year.
Dr Hairy – Appraisal Parts 1 & 2
Appraisal Part #1 (2011, 232MB, 10:14 min)
Appraisal Part #2 (2011, 151MB, 9:40 min)
Edward Picot’s bizarre and wonderful Dr Hairy series, the adventures of a hirsute
UK general practitioner coping with NHS (the NHS we love, don’t misunderstand us)
bureaucracy, continues with these first two episodes of Appraisal.
Picot’s comic timing just gets better & better (& occasionally strays into some
almost Beckettian territory) – it’s fascinating to watch a long
project like this unfold. If you missed the preceding episodes they’re here (as are some other
gems, some equally amusing, some altogether different in style and mood)
The Ice Cream Lift – Kristen Baumlier
Ice Cream Lift (2003, 6.3MB, 2:07 min)
“In 1996, I started working on a project idea to change the
aesthetics of exericise. I became a “fitness guru” and made my
own 55-minute workout video where all 12 workouts used food as
exercise equipment. The music in the video is from bands that I knew
in CA, or bands that I listened to while working in my studio.”
Kristen Baumlier from Buns of Butter.
Two from Marcin Rychlicki
C Point (2011, 32MB, 1:15 min)
Cyber Hero (2011, 43MB, 1:25 min)
My name is Marcin Rychlicki, , I’m 29 years old and
I live in Warsaw. For nearly three years I’ve been
creating videos for the Internet under the names
DJ Gacmaster and GacPax. An important element
of my movies is music. For some of them ,
for example, ‘Cyber Hero’, I composed it myself.
I’m trying to combine traditional music video with
the unconventionality of video art. From 2001
to 2006 I was a drummer in hardcore band C. Point.
I made this video for one of our songs: ‘Today’
*****************************************************
Both pieces great but C Point is a particular delight.
(My prejudice showing through of course, but I don’t
generally associate this musical genre with the kind
of gentle wit on display here.)
Not sure I completely understand Cyber Hero which is
apparently some sort of rejoinder to this (Huh?), but I
love the music.
Run Wrake – Rabbit
Rabbit (2006, 56MB, 8:20 min.)
Two kids find an idol in the belly of a rabbit.
Watch this wicked animated short movie by Run Wrake.
(thanks Michael Meiser)
Cory Arcangel – UMMA Projects: Creative Pursuits
Creative Pursuits (2010, 12 MB, 1:03 min)
Images from Cory Arcangel show – Creative Pursuits at
the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
HD VIDBLOG #119 – Research
HD VIDBLOG #119 (2006, 5.9MB, 3:09 min.)
“Why would somebody make something like this?”
by Prof. Chris Weagel from “human-dog”.
The Head of Raymond K – Bottom Union
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
Josh Weinstein – “Cross Examination”
Cross Examination (2005, 44 MB, 5:40 min)
Made in 2005, this is a really extraordinary piece for lots of reasons:
(1) It’s so carefully made ( & must have taken no little work)
(2) The chutzpah quotient is almost 100%
(3) There is more here than meets the eye
(4) The use of music (in its second appearance very reminiscent
of the school of Rifle/Hartley but spot on nonetheless)
(5) The warmth, genuine warmth; the real insight into people
As you see here Josh Weinstein, Brooklyn based film maker
does a lot of work for corporate clients. Hmmm.
Really, all you can think is, on the basis of this, they get way,
way more & better than they could possibly deserve.
Two Short Movies from Nick Fox-Gieg
Disarmed (2002, 15.8 MB, 2:42 min.)
Mother of All Bombs (2003, 9.5 MB, 1:45 min.)
Nick Fox-Gieg is an animator and theatrical designer.
His short films have been shown at the Rotterdam and Ottawa film festivals,
at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and on Canada’s CBC TV.
The Internet – Aaron Valdez
The Internet (2006, 5.3MB, 1:03 min.)
2006 report from Valdezatron Industries technology department.
from Aaron Valdez.
Man Man – Banana Ghost
Banana Ghost (2006, 24MB, 3:15 min.)
Music – Man Man. directed by Jeremy Mayhew..
Bit Max Ernst-ish, eh?
Puzzleweasel – ‘Cvon’
puzzle (2006, 19.2MB, 3:51 min)
Puzzleweasel is the sonic output of Peter Dahlgren.
“Next To Heaven” Returns for a Second Season
DuPont (2011, 25 MB, 2:42 min.)
Smokey (2011, 25 MB, 2:45 min.)
A couple of previews from Rob Parrish who writes;
“Back in September of 2006, I launched Next To Heaven with this staccato mission statement, I download movies from Archive.org. I watch the movies. I write and record new audio. I re-cut the video to the new audio. Every Wednesday there will be a new movie.” And so it was for 52 straight weeks. In January 2011, I started releasing Season 2, another 52-week effort. During both seasons I learned a lot about storytelling, saw scores of amazing public domain films, and garnered a bit of love in the form of awards, film festival appearances, and favorable press.”
Brian Bress – undercover
“Toe Jam” by Keith Schofield
Toe Jam (2009, 23MB, 3:27 min.)
A number of people get naked in “Toe Jam”, The BPA featuring
David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal. Directed by Keith Schofield.
The Summer of Van Torre – Human Dog
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.