Three from Writtle

Impossible Conversations
Ashleigh Smith – Impossible Conversations (2010, 75 MB, 2:30 min)

Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Emma Haggis – Out of Sight, Out of Mind (2010, 118 MB, 2:18 min)

Response
Lucy Mills – Response (2010, 108 MB, 2:02 min, silent)

So, first, I should say, Writtle is where I taught this year, but it cuts both ways:
I wouldn’t post these pieces by graduating students here on DVblog unless I
thought they were all great, which I do.
They’re also diverse, in a fascinating way.
There’s Ashleigh Smith’s haunting – stays with you long afterwards – game/real life hybrid,
Lucy Mills beauty industry critique – half mash-up, half rather brave performance,
(It’s interesting the way that all three pieces incorporate, to
some degree, elements of self performance) and Emma Haggis’s superbly made
and utterly captivating stop motion environmental piece.

In each case one can see a personal language well into its development.
(All these pieces or variants/derivatives thereof formed part of larger
installations; I’m impressed by the naturalness & lack of self consciousness
with with these three move between modes of working/presentation)

I hope they’re all still making work in ten years – given this
starting point then that would be a treat in store.

Howe Gelb – Spiral

Spiral
Spiral (2008, 16 MB, 3:41 min)

On the whole I’m totally bored with popular music of all kinds,
especially sick at hearing how “innovative” this or that is just to find
it as dull & derivative & lazy as the rest.

SO..the wonderful Howe Gelb continues to be a signal exception
to the gloom. Passionate, odd and totally engaging music seems to flow
from him continually & ( I could be wrong) he doesn’t seem to have
fallen into the trap of giving people what he thinks they want rather
than what his artistic conscience tells him to make – or to put it better
art trumps business in his work in a shockingly unusual way.
Long may it continue.

Edward Picot – Dr Hairy’s Address to the Nation

election
Dr Hairy’s Address to the Nation (2010, 69 MB, 9:42 min)

With the UK general election coming up on Thursday
here’s Edward Picot’s Dr Hairy putting in his three penn’orth.

Whilst previous efforts have been more straighforwardly satirical
this is simply, and quite splendidly, barking…

Because it *is* funny ( the vicar punchline being my favourite)
it’s easy to overlook how much Picot has developed as
a filmmaker -there’s a quite individual and original syntax at work here,
deployed confidently and effectively throughout.

Sacha Baron Cohen – Borat on Politics

Borat on Politics
Borat on politics (2004, 25MB, 3:31 min)

Wiki Borat. More Borat on DVblog.

Brian Gibson – On A Roof

on a roof
On A Roof (2010, 20 MB, 2:52 min)

Sheer ravishing loveliness from DVblog’s own Brian Gibson
( I posted his last piece too, I know, but he’s not making that much these days
& what he does make is just so great, I can’t resist.)
More please!

John Berryman – Dream Song #14

watchingthem
Dream Song #14 (1967, 8MB, 1:43 min)


Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,
we ourselves flash and yearn,
and moreover my mother told me as a boy
(repeatedly) ‘Ever to confess you’re bored
means you have no

Inner Resources.’ I conclude now I have no
inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
Peoples bore me,
literature bores me, especially great literature,
Henry bores me, with his plights & gripes
as bad as achilles,

who loves people and valiant art, which bores me.
And the tranquil hills, & gin, look like a drag
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.

Another Dream Song.
For details see original post

Morrisa Maltz again

Dial Up
Dial up (2010, 3MB, 28 secs)

Quick return here for the witty, strange & winning work of
Morrisa Maltz.

Previous postings…

John Berryman – Dream Song #29

watchingthem
Dream Song #29 (1967, 11MB, 2:20 min)

There sat down, once, a thing on Henry’s heart
s

Troika Ranch -16 [R]EVOLUTIONS

16 [R]EVOLUTIONS
16 [R]EVOLUTIONS (2006, 3MB, 1:50 min)

I saw this piece from NY based group Troika Ranch a few years back
in deepest Essex, UK & it was utterly great –
took me about ten minutes to put my jaw back in postion after.
Certainly by far the most convincing & mature use of digital
technology/projection in a dance context I had then seen.
Much of the visual flavour comes from the Isadora real time video
manipulation software created by co-artistic director Mark Coniglio &
used together with motion sensing software.
It’s not just the tech stuff though – it’s great choreography & dance
somehow informed by the particular rhythms, logic, that the tech
feedback loop sets up, implies.
It’s the fact, too, that a company deploying cutting edge tech can
still use simple shadow & stillness to devastating effect.

Nam June Paik – documenta performance

NJP_documenta1977.mov
documenta performance (1977, 6 MB, 1:35 min.)

The 1977 “documenta” show, which became known as the ‘media documenta’,
opened its doors with a live satellite telecast from Kassel.
Nam June Paik appeared together with Charlotte Moorman and used the slot
for a Dadaistic, allusive excursion through his performance and installation works.
from ZKM Videosammlung.