Category Archives: documentary arts

‘Want’ by MTAA & RSG

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want
Want (clip) (2008, 74 MB, 2 min.)

‘Want was a new multiple channel algorithmic video installation as part of the exhibition
‘Live’ at the Beall Center for Art & Technology.
The life-sized six-screen video display uses custom software to monitor real time
Internet searches. When the software finds a programmed keyword, it triggers a
video clip of one of several actors/avatars who translates the virtual request to reality.

A soccer mom says,’I want French.’
A rocker dude says, ‘I want Star Trek Enterprise.’
A nondescript middle-aged guy says, ‘I want Little Girl.’
A girl says, ‘I want Forever.’

The six video screens are triggered almost concurrently, causing the voiced requests
to overlap. The result is an audio-visual cacophony of desire; an online echo chamber
of warped reality.‘

By MTAA and RSG.

ZDEN – emptyspaces

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emptyspaces
emptyspaces (2000, 31MB, 2:26 min)

Zdeno Hlinka aka ZDEN.
A multimedia artist from Slovakia who’s been a pioneer in
working with real-time and visual mixing.

Richard Jochum’s group self portraits

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Richard Jochum, Selfportrait as a Group #5 (2006, 14.5MB, 3:33)

Captured by Richard Jochum, proof that a photograph is much
more than we ever see: a collection, a collective process,
the self interconnected.

Paul Rodriguez – the Mean Reds

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Mean Reds
Mean Reds (2007, 11.6MB, 1:48 min)

Artist & filmmaker Paul Rodriguez made this rather good
(I particularly like the collage plus the loopy/scratchy business
towards the very end where he collages/edits the sound too)
music video in 2007.

He said:

‘I was planning on shooting my friends for a
documentary. Magically the Mean Reds were also
playing, so I decided to shoot them as well.
Months went by with me sitting on this footage.
Then I found my self printing out frames,
and doing collage on individual frames.’

Duncan Speakman – Is Life Boring?

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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.

Dan Canyon

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Quilts Never Sleep
Quilts Never Sleep (short version) (2007, 20.9MB, 3:07 min)

Me... U
Me… U (2007, 80MB, 12:45 min)

Two very different but attractive & telling pieces from Dan Canyon.
The first was part of a show of – you guessed it – quilts in London in 2006,
about which read more here.
The second could’ve been made for dvblog, well, at least for me, as I’m a fool
for all things turntablist, & features the splendidly monickered Mickey Morphingaz.

Merry

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a christmas medley from barnsley town centre
A Christmas Medley From Barnsley Town Centre (2011, 87MB, 1:29 min)

Normally we don’t post our own work here but I couldn’t resist this.
Also – it was a gift; no editing, just the take. (OK. I turned down the brightness
& jacked up the contrast a little.)
Barnsley is actually the friendliest of places, with a grumpy, wry, cheerfulness born of
generations of working-class solidarity, especially in the pits, though it’s now
ravaged by the cuts and closures of the past years.
From me & Doron, Happy Holidays and looking forward to a better world next year.
We’re taking a small holiday break & we’ll be back with something rather splendid
from Morrisa Maltz on January 2nd.

Betty Martins – When the Souls Arrive

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when the souls arrive

I recently attended a fairly high profile art video festival,
which shall be nameless, and I came away feeling depressed.
There was some good work (indeed, some magnificent, not much, but some) but
on the whole it was just a dispiriting display of meretricious effects, sloppy thinking
and a striving for the quick impression; all pretty souless & forgettable stuff.
(Oh, and plus a lot of cliched tosh about the – yawn – “post-human”. Wasn’t post human,
most of it, so much as post-being-any-good)
Then, on the other hand, you come across something like this:
no in-your-faceness, modest, austere and subtle, makes you do a little bit of work,
but so, so worth spending time with.
is the Brazilian video maker who made this small and perfect gem
– an account of the celebration of the Day of the Dead by expat Mexicans
living in London.
You can see the whole thing here (and I urge you to do so).
Betty Martins cheered me up considerably and I look forward to much more
work of this quality from her.

Jennifer Steinkamp – Mike Kelley

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steinkamp_kelley
Mike Kelley (2007, 7.3 MB, 15 sec.)

‘Mike Kelley’ are high definition video projections of individual trees
with branches moving in a twirling pattern. Projected to fill the height
of the gallery’s walls, the images interact with the architecture of the gallery,
creating tension between the imaginary landscape and the physical space.

by Jennifer Steinkamp.

Toby Tatum on ‘The Golden Age’

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the golden age
Toby Tatum on ‘The Golden Age’ (2011, 78MB, 4:38 min)

Toby Tatum, talking about his film The Golden Age, which we posted here
a couple of weeks back.
I’m always hungry for artists talking about process. Learn! Steal!