Diffraction (2006, 22.3 MB, 5:23 min.)
Scratching & video: two good things in one package.
DJ GKUT & Brendan Dawes of Manchester, UK, based
outfit magneticNorth run mN’s video-control-by-vinyl tools
through their paces at FACT in Liverpool.
More than neat.
smoke (excerpt) (2007, 7MB, 56 sec.)
‘A symbol of the human desire to monumentalize ideas in physical form,
the Empire State Building is a subject of Mark Napier‘s artwork in the past four years.
This icon of American hegemony is key to exploring shifting structures of power,
specifically the transition from steel to software as the medium of power in our time.’
In Smoke, a generative software installation projected on the bitforms gallery wall.
Images from the show –here.
Josef Müller-Brockmann (2006, 30MB, 1:57 min.)
Wicked little animated tribute by Gary Butcher for the
Swiss graphic design legend Josef Müller-Brockmann.
The movie was made for the forty-eight posters exhibition
being held at the Image Now gallery in Dublin.
A Panopticon in Burnley (2007, 20.9MB, 1:45 min)
Great short by Giles Perkins about a piece of public art by
Tonkin Liu situated on a hillside outside Burnley, UK.
I love Giles’s Super 8 work (folk might remember
his catalogue of British seaside bathing huts here last year, don’t
know whether we’ve re-posted it yet, but we will,
gentle viewer, we will) & there’s an added bonus in the sound
of those beautiful Lancashire vowels – ‘uor ouwses’ – on the soundtrack.
Delicious!
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.
.
Treehouse Kit (excerpt) (2005, 2.3MB, 1 min.)
Excerpt from a single channel video installation and sculpture by Guy Ben-Ner.
“Treehouse Kit” consists of a large wooden tree created from recombined, generic furniture.
The sculpture is presented along with an instructional style video in which Ben-Ner
(in swim trunks and a huge beard, a cross between Robinson Crusoe and an archetypical Israeli settler) converts the pre-fab tree back into a rudimentary home.
Originally commissioned for the Israeli Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale 2005.
Open City (2007, 26.2 MB, 4:27 min)
Open City: Tools for Public Action was an exhibition and series of public programs
at Eyebeam that focus on the ingenuity of graffiti writers, artists, protesters,
pranksters & hackers attempting to reclaim the public realm.
Here’s work from 11 of the artists featured in the exhibition.
From the Graffiti Research Lab.
golden cage (2007, 5.5MB, 4:03 min)
western state: geoff mcfetridge (2007, 36.2MB, 9:04 min)
Geoff Mcfetridge has had his hands in some amazing things including the title sequences for Adaptation and Virgin Suicides as well as music videos for The Avalanches, Simian, and (the first video posted) Whitest Boy Alive. I came across this video on my local skate shop’s blog and was interested to find out more about the creator and stumbled across the incredibly interesting series Western State put on by Coudal Partners. The second video posted “examines Geoff Mcfetridge, his work and his moustache.” I have put the videos in this order because this is the way I viewed them and I found it was fun to watch the artist’s work and then take the time to get to know more about him. Things seem to tie themselves together nicely that way.
Whitest Boy Alive
from star w (2005, 3.1MB, 1:40 min.)
watched wire (2006, 6.1MB, 2:15 min)
Compelling sound stuff from two different sources.
First a piece from projectsinge.net,
a kind of feedback carillon & the movement that
it engenders/engenders it totally absorbing –
comedic, touching, strange.
Secondly, work by Alan Sondheim, who needs
no introduction here. More delicate & austere
than the Larsener piece, it provides a sharp &
fascinating contrast in the, one would have hitherto
thought, relatively easily exhausted, genre of
“work-made-by-having-microphones-or
-other-devices-attached-to-one’s-body.”
Messa di Voce (2003, 12.3MB, 2:40 min)
Messa di Voce (Ital., “placing the voice”) is an audiovisual performance
in which the speech, shouts and songs produced by two abstract vocalists are
radically augmented in real-time by custom interactive visualization software.
by Golan Levin & Zach Lieberman.
Compressionism (2006, 17.2MB, 5:37 min)
About time we had a new ism 🙂
DVblog regulars will have seen Nathaniel Stern’s video work here before
in particular the Odys series, characterised both by a luminous intelligence
& a willingness to take artistic risks.
In this short documentary about this (genuinely interesting & fruitful) ism of his own devising Stern
avoids lots of pitfalls: it’s clear, it’s thoughtful & smart, never smug & it makes
one want to see more of the work.
Variations V (1965, 7.5MB, 2:22 min)
‘John Cage made ‘Variations V’ in 1965 for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
He and David Tudor settled on two systems for the sound to be affected by movement:
directional photocells aimed at the stage lights, so that the dancers triggered sounds as
they cut the light beams with their movements, and a series of antennae.
When a dancer came within four feet of an antenna a sound would result.
Cage, Tudor, and Gordon Mumma operate equipment to modify and determine
the final sounds.’ – from mediaartnet.
Ting Ting Solo (2003, 6MB, 1:06 min)
Ting Ting plays “Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major” Third Movement
by Mozart at the Kichijoji Music Festival. Ting Ting plays the ancient Chinese
“Pi Pa” – a four-stringed Lute, one of the oldest Chinese musical instruments
which first appeared in Chinese written texts of the second century BC.
Filmed and edited by Rob Pongi.
Primary and other Remote Locations (2006, 44.5MB, 3 min)
We’ve featured the work of Brett Stalbaum & Paula Poole here before
*****Lewis Carroll like note – when I say before I might mean after
– I can’t remember whether we’ve reposted their other work yet –
something to look forward to perhaps!*****
a couple of times. I’ve been mystified in public here before (ditto)…are
the videos a work in themselves or merely the documentation of the computing/walking/painting/whatever that comprises the process?
I feel like it’s the former (no justification except my bones & the fact that
these vids are both clear & totally elusive..& it makes me a candidate
for Pseud’s corner but it seems to me no accident that the experience
-the way what seems initially straightforward somehow recedes –
of watching them is not unlike that of reading Emerson)
You can check out the details of the work process on the paintersflat
site but watch the video first..it’s ravishing..it conjures up the richness
of the process so beautifully & excitingly & oh now I’m in a loop because
of course I don’t know what the process was like because
I’ve only seen the videos. But they are sticky & fragrant &
evocative & funny in my head…
These folks are doing something very right.
Knitpro (2005, 19.7MB, 3:18 min.)
Cat Mazza and Sabrina Gschwandtner speak about their piece
at the exhibition We Are All Together at Artist’s Space.
part of Performa 05.
BONUS VIDEO! –
Enclose (2005, 9.21MB, 2:27min.)
Artist Bea Camacho knits herself in.
From PresentSpace.
By Mica Scalin.
Hot Club of France Live (1938, 12MB, 3 min.)
A beautiful old film of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli
playing their signature Hot Club jazz.
Kid Quaalude -‘Upside Downer’ (2006, 37MB, 4:01 min)
“Well!”, as my dear mother used to say,
“What will they think of next?”
Neat film by Dave Whiting, shot in a rather
atmospheric former Tram depot in Weimar
& featuring Kid Quaalude doing what it
says on the tin.
What Godard Said (2005, 29MB, 5:19 min.)
Two pieces, extraordinary in both ambition & affect,
from filmmaker Helen Park.
It takes a little while, ‘it did for me’ then not only
does the quiet ecstacy of the thing kick in, but your
mouth drops open at how boldly and confidently this
world grows & blossoms from very simple & at first
apparently unpromising material.
Helen Park also maintains a rather good vlog.
House of Cosbys (2005, 10MB, 5 min.)
from Channel 101.
This video should recieve lots of attention because it is really really
funny. Instead, it made the papers because Bill Cosby’s lawyers
threatened Channel 101 and their video hosting service with
cease and desist letters.
By Mica Scalin.
MTAA in The Studio (2006, 33MB, 5:49 min.)
MTAA’s ’10 Pre-Rejected, Pre-Approved Performances’, was included in
Performa05. The work, selected by an online voting process is described as follows:
An installation is created with $100 worth of materials bought at the nearest
24-hour ATM-enabled deli or convienance store.
The materials are purchased at midnight.
In this video, Mica interviews MTAA in their studio &
gets the lowdown on this project and more.
By Mica Scalin.
Suicide Jumper (2005, 8MB, 4 min.)
Improv Everywhere strikes again.
This is a video of a sketch performed,
unannounced, on the streets of NYC.
By Mica Scalin.
the storyteller (2001-4, 13.3MB, 2:24 min.)
Six pieces originally shown as a gallery installation.
Says their creator, the artist Nathaniel Stern :
‘The odys series consists of six short digital video poems / monologues for
small screen viewing in an intimate gallery space. By stuttering between
odys actions and words, listeners construct his person. As he attempts
to re-member, bringing the past back to his body and calling it his own,
listeners attempt to piece together a story for themselves. Viewers are
encouraged to re-visit and jump over juxtaposed media, and create a
shifting collage of, and in response to, his person.’
This is work of huge ambition both aesthetically & technically &
it’s brave and it’s edgy, sometimes to the point of being uncomfortable to
watch. Neither does Stern fear engaging with complex & difficult ideas.
Definitely worth more than one viewing.
they may be giant (2001-4, 12.3MB, 2:06 min.)
multiplicity (2001-4, 5.3MB, 1:17 min.)
My Funny Valentine (2006, 15.1MB, 2:55 min)
Video by Michael Szpakowski.
The singer is his daughter, Anna Szpakowska.
(Michael playing the piano).
..and a happy Valentine’s Day to all from us at DVblog.org
The Human Browser (2006, 29.7MB, 8:18 min)
Documentation recorded at last year’s transmediale in Berlin
of a quite marvellous project by Christopher Bruno which
just won the share festival & most deservedly too.
It’s a fantastic blend of technology, performance & a kind of ‘information poetry’.
In many hands it could have been smart but dullish, but this is joyous stuff.
There’s a whole load of videos up on the human browser site
& they all have their particular delights.
Bruno’s short project description goes:
Human Browser is a series of wireless Internet performances
based on a Wi-Fi Google hack.
Thanks to its headset, the actor hears a text-to-speech
audio that comes directly from the Internet in real-time.
The actor repeats the text as he hears it.
The textual flow is actually fetched by a program
(set up on a Wi-Fi laptop) that hijacks Google,
diverting it from its utilitarian functions.
Depending on the context in which the actor is,
keywords are sent to the program and used as
search strings in Google (thanks to a Wi-Fi PDA)
so that the content of the textual flow is always
related to the context.
The performer in this video is Manon Kahle.
A good deal of the charm of this project
is due to the “performances” of the actors which are
highly professional but also very human too.
.
Great stuff!
8 BIT trailer (2006, 8.7MB, 1:28 min.)
“Premiering in New York at the Museum of Modern Art,
8 BIT is a hybrid documentary examining the influence of
video games on contemporary culture.
‘At Home with the Colonel’ – pilot (2006, 54 MB, 14:53 min.)
Pilot for a proposed series of interviews by Mark Sanders
with contemporary artists, directed by Mark Logue,
who seems to have a serious track record.
The press release says the interviews wil be ‘playful & conversational’.
Can’t be bad – on the basis of this, hope v. much it gets commissioned.
Still undecided about the Chapmans, whether tossers or wunderkinder,
but this definitely attempts to shed some light thereon.
Good.
from Howl part 2 (1997, 7.5MB, 4:07 min)
The mighty Allen Ginsberg, buffoon, trickster, personality, conscience, catalyst
above all genuine, genuine poet; our Whitman, sometimes bad but never boring,
who in so many ways shaped ‘the best minds of his generation’,
reads from part two of ‘Howl’ shortly before his death in 1997.
From the excellent allenginsberg.org
