Stephen Slappe – 3 out of 4 (2005, 1.6MB, 0:45)
Short, rather humorous piece from Stephen Slappe,
which simultaneously celebrates large, antiquated rotating
advertisements and laments the disappearance of the four
basic food groups.
Category Archives: documentary odd
Erik Bunger – the Allens
Erik Bunger – the Allens (2004, 23.3MB, 3:19)
Absolutely clever piece by Swedish artist Erik Bunger,
drawn from his experience moving from Sweden to
Germany, where many films on TV are dubbed. As
language can be so central to a character, Bunger
started thinking about people like Woody Allen, who
always play the same character but also one so
connected to his whiny, nervous New York accent.
For this installation piece, a computer program
continuously changed the dubbing of Allen between
his various vocal incarnations. Totally delightful.
Zach Kmiec – mmmff
Mmmff Activities Workshop 2006: Call for entries (2006, 10.1MB, 1:58)
Mmmff Activities Workshop 2006 (2006, 13.8MB, 3:44)
Here’s the setup:
Jennifer Proctor taught a videoblogging class at the
University of Iowa in 2006. Every student set up
his/her own videoblog and made vloggy goodness.
Then, many abandoned their work, though I’d
personally expect nothing less.
While I knew one of the students in the class
(UI is one of my alma maters), a guy I didn’t
know – mmmff – caught my attention more.
Using a cell phone I’m pretty sure he just found
somewhere, Zach then made collage videos of the
five seconds or less the phone would capture in every go.
In the first video, the premise of the phone and
its limitations are introduced, and in the second
follow-up piece, the plan – to make a compilation
of activities you can do in 5 seconds or less – is executed.
It’s pretty much the opposite of boring, predictable,
talk-to-your-camera vids that litter so many hosting
services these days.
This is video functioning within constraints.
It’s also wildly hilarious.
Some of the very best random and weird videoblog
work I’ve ever seen.
Sacha Baron Cohen – Borat – Throw the Jew Down the Well
Peace (2005, 19.7MB, 2:46 min)
This Borat performance at a country-western bar in Tucson, Arizona
provoked a sharp letter from the Anti-Defamation League.
Sacha Baron Cohen – Borat – Wine Tasting
wine tasting (2002, 28MB, 3:57 min.)
British chameleon Baron Cohen as Borat – the spoof Kazakh television presenter.
more Borat here.
Keep On Smoking
Michel de Broin – Keep On Smoking (2006, 8.2MB, 2:51)
Absolutely hilarious video for a fantastic piece of interactive art.
I thought I was going to end up with a statement about
smoking cigarettes with I came across Michel de Broin’s
Keep On Smoking.
But completely unrelated, de Broin says this:
As an alternative to petrol, this custom-made bicycle
transforms kinetic energy produced by the cyclist into smoke.
The will to power is a renewable energy resource that can be
recuperated by a power generator supplying enough electricity
to operate a smoke machine. The work is the result of two
coupled machines; the one human is productive and the other
machine, consumptive. This coupling of machines produces smoke,
a waste energy that is liberated freely in the atmosphere.
Day of Ashurah (Day of Tenth)
Day of Tenth (2006, 13.6MB, 1:40 min.)
Europe January 2006.
Sunnis and Shi’a Muslims commemorating ‘Day of Ashurah‘.
German Political dogs?
Tinjail
Still Project 07 (2007, 5.7MB, 1:29 min)
Half of the splendid & indispensable MTAA, whose work we feature here
whenever possible – conceptualist pranksters with a rare (for the territory)
& self deprecating human warmth – Mark River makes interesting video stuff
(amongst other things) on his Tinjail site.
A lot of them are kind of multi-channel (go look) & don’t fit the dvblog format.
This one does & is excellent too..
Here’s his preamble to it:
‘The wild blue yonder, the decent, la jetee, fearless, street fight,
loud QUIET loud, a sound of thunder, enemy at the gate, so wrong they
Inflatables in Public Space
JooYoun Paek – Self-Sustainable Chair (2007, 4.2MB, 1:37)
Joo Youn Paek demonstrates how to use her
self-sustaining chair on a walk down the street.
This and several related excellent related projects
originate in the NYU ITP program.
Real DMB TU – Life Dress (2007, 5.2MB, 0:33)
From Anna Maria Cornelia (also known by pseudonym
Ann De Gersem), a Life Dress which allows a person
to create instant personal boundaries in public.
As a woman often bothered by unwanted attention
in public – not to mention a lover of profound design
– I am so pleased by this concept, even if the end
result might be even more unsolicited scrutiny.
The dress is featured here in a commercial for
South Korea’s mobile broadcast service, TU Media.
Wim Delvoye, showing skin
Wim Delvoye – Sybille II (1999, 15.8MB, 4:35)
Wim Delvoye, in addition to his main artistic passion of tattooing pigs,
here shows us what could be worms, mutant fungus, or blackheads
(yes, I know which it is – but I’m not telling).
Things are never as they seem.
This is a little gross, but so are most things when scrutinized this much.
The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema
The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema -Trailer (2007, 8.97MB, 1:06 min.)
Slavoj Žižek, philosophy’s PT Barnum, struts his stuff
con shed-loads of brio in this Sophie Fiennes directed opus.
Doesn’t seem to be much genuinely new (the terrible fate of
the celebrity academic being to be lionised for what we already
know they’re going to do/say) but still vastly entertaining.
Antinormalizer
Antinormalizer (2007, 83.9MB, 9:58 min)
This has quite a complex history, which is explained
better in the video than I could do here.
My nose twitched when I saw it posted on the
Rhizome list by Brett Stalbaum.
Anything associated with him is worth checking out
as witness the various excellent things he’s made with
a hiking theme ( & hiking theme so fails to do justice to the peculiarity
& wonder of them).
Anyway this one is a big team thing, students and staff from
two courses at Unviersity of California San Diego &
it’s entertaining & thought provoking & it feels like
a 2007, modern tech twist on 1968’s
‘Sous les pavés, la plage!’.
Mark E Smith Reads the Football Results
Mark E Smith Reads the Football Results (2005, 12.7MB, 7:14 min.)
God-like genius & professional curmudgeon Mark E Smith
of The Fall reads the football (OK – soccer to
about two thirds of you) results on the BBC in 2005.
The full glory of this possibly only totally comprehensible to
Brits of a certain age but stay with it – the last third is
a hoot.
Curt Cloninger – cannonball
cannonball (1996, 32.6MB, 3:35 min.)
Hi all,
This was recorded at the Blockbuster Video grand opening in Daphne,
Alabama, US, on December 6, 1996. They had a video karaoke machine
with a bluescreen, and you could choose your song and they would tape
you and give you a copy of the videotape. I think I might have also
had the option to select “Sci-fi” background or something like that.
The whole process took about five minutes and this was the result.
Some close friends refer to this as the highlight of my artistic
career, and sometimes I am inclined to agree with them.
Enjoy,
Curt.
The Donut Eating Challenge – this or that
Exciting Prizes (2006, 36.8MB, 4:38 min)
The challenges continue, as special guest challenger, Dr. Donut,
takes the stage.
Now our contestants must satisfy Dr. Donut’s insatiable donut
lust by jumping into the air to eat donuts from a clothes line!
With your hosts: the Great Fredini and Julie Atlas Muz.
Performed before a hungry theater audience at the Belt theater,
NYC, January 21, 2005.
From – this or that.
The Art of Bleeding
Introduction to First Aid (2005, 24MB, 13 min.)
If you have ever had to train for Red Cross certification,
you will know why this is funny and not just awful.
When I came upon this, I thought to myself,
‘Wow, I am actually, deeply creeped out by this!’ then I thought,
‘This is the kind of sick stuff the internet is all about
and yet is so rare these days!’
So, it is with great pleasure that I can share with you
thirteen disturbing minutes of First Aid presented by LA based
educational cult/performance art group Art of Bleeding Foundation.
By Mica Scalin.
The Glamazons – Alison Ward
Wonder Women (2002, 3.6MB, 1:30 min.)
This wonderful clip of a live performance by The Glamazons,
a New York based dance group created by video artist and
burlesque performer Alison Ward, will make your day.
By Mica Scalin.
Union Docs – #2
Moon & People Watching
Millie Watching Martha Watching Moon (2007, 18.7MB, 26 sec)
Millie in SUV Watching Martha and David Watching Moon (2007, 1.67MB, 10 sec)
Does exactly what it says on the package & poetry too.
See more from Millie & Martha.
Union Docs – Three Whiteboard Pieces – #1
whiteboard #1 (2007, 21.2MB, 3:09 min)
Hmm..this might be controversial but it strikes me that Union Docs ,
an NYC based documentary arts collaborative are flirting with something
one might loosely call documentary formalism.
Well, I’m a sucker for formalism, the proviso of course
being it generates something I care about.
This does (although it seems to pushing the far boundary
of the ‘documentary’ category – I’d be interested in
UD’s thoughts about what constitutes this).
So, thinking going on…good! good!
Looks to be lots of other interesting stuff on their
site too.
Two more to come.
.
Maurice Bogaert goes shopping
Hekje (Fence) (2006, 4.2MB, 1:52 min)
If Maurice Bogaert tried this in my local Sainsbury’s
he would be dead meat, so points for a twisted kind of courage.
Amusing, if frothy, item found at BasementArtProject.
KDM 100 – A Dispatch from the Front Line
Hey Joe [M.River] (2007, 17.9MB, 3:35 min)
Hey Joe [T.Whid] (2007, 17.5MB, 3:31 min)
Previously:
…bastard…Duchamp…Marx…splendid & singular….
Karaoke Death Match 100…brutal…alcohol…blood…sing-along…
fury…pee breaks…Carpenters…heavy…teleprompter …clearly…
50 days…sneak… ahem…er… moving…
T.Whid…shambling…M River…weird…dynamics…
falling over…human…wonderful…
Just over half way through: – vote early, vote often!
Self Preservation in an Atomic Attack
Self Preservation in an Atomic Attack (1950, 44.2MB, 17.41 min)
A real winner from the Prelinger Archives, this film is
seventeen funny and frightening minutes of useless
disinformation from the American government.
Karaoke Death Match 100 – MTAA
We Gotta Get Out of This Place [M.River] (2007, 15.8MB, 3:15 min)
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.
Borat on Politics
Borat on Politics (2004, 25MB, 3:31 min)
Official Borat Homesite.
Sacha Baron Cohen – Borat on Republicans
borat on republicans (2004, 9.1MB, 4:10 min)
“Lunch with Arizona Republican Committee”
Rupert Howe – FatGirlInOhio -2 cell phone movies.
ShotCutScoredAndPostedByEmailFromMyNokia93Phone (2007, 2.4MB, 2:41 min)
I’ve been reflecting a lot recently on how, whatever is the ostensible
subject of movies, they are all in some sense ‘about’ everything we see
in every frame. And with the passing of time how this often becomes
more true as if, like a dog from water, the meaning is shaking itself out.
The Bas Jan Ader ‘falling’ movies exemplify this ( & how poignantly!) for me –
their conceptual motor aside, I remain most haunted by their background landscapes..
Rupert Howe of FatGirlInOhio brings this sharply to mind –
the subject might be a morning jog or Falafel but the totality of each movie
contains some of the best evocation of the glory & the grime that is
2007 London I’ve yet seen. That doesn’t exhaust it, of course, which is why this
work is deft & it is fine.
He is gravely mistaken about the Falafel though – undoubtedly the
best Falafel in London is at Gaby’s on the Charing Cross Road…
Japanese Tradition – Sushi
japanese tradition sushi (2003, 30MB, 8:08 min.)
from – del.icio.us
Extreme Skipping
Extreme Skipping (2006, 15.7MB, 2:36 min.)
This short was made a little while back, about one of the most
underappreciated universal sports: extreme skipping. If you are a skipper
and have footage of yourself skipping, make sure to submit it to us.
We would love to check out your moves.
Music by Blink 182. Edited by Ajit Anthony Prem.
Directed by Marc Miller and Marc Levine.
from – squigglebooth.