Category Archives: performance

Florian Cramer – Floppy Films

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nkdlunch (2009, 1:24MB 2:44 min)


coraria (2009, 1:35MB 2:09 min)

Ultimately, personally, I admire these more than I like them.
It’s clever/witty stuff, no doubt, squeezing sections of films,
or mash-ups thereof, down to the size of the old floppies
but you just feel it pretty much stops there. Is there much
to actually watch/engage with & if there is, how much of this
arises from the original material before the conceptual
shenanigans commence?
This is especially marked in ‘Coraria’, which feels entirely
parasitic upon John Cage and upon the tremendous performance &
photogenic qualities of Cora Schmeiser.
Hmm. You decide.

[There’s a more detailed ( & sympathetic!) account here
& you can buy the pieces on floppy, should you feel so moved, here]

South and mobile to the house of Mina

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South and mobile to the house of Mina (2009, 31MB 3:18 min)

From DVblog’s own Doron Golan, this is simply stunning.
What I find so exciting is that Doron combines here
(and I haven’t spoken to him about this piece so I don’t know
whether he himself sees it this way) his fascinating & often intense
recent studies in image manipulation with something of the improvisatory
quality & narrative forward motion of earlier pieces.

In a world where so much work is predicatable and safe, what a delight
& what a tonic for the head and heart both, to see work that stretches out
like this and which so resolutely rejects the safe, the dull, the glib & the banal.

Dave Milner – Redmires to Hillsborough and Back

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Redmires to Hillsborough and Back (2008, 274MB 21:09 min)

I love this piece, partly for sentimental reasons in that it
features the town (and in fact at two points the street)
of my birth and upbringing, but it’s not simply that.
I like the formal device upon which Dave Milner hangs this austere
& accurate portrait of a greyish October Sheffield.

Austere, but not without warmth or humour: Milner’s tussle with his SatNav,
his under the breath impatience at the traffic & the various other small
en-route mishaps lend a three dimensionality and a narrative forward
motion to what could be easily have been either a dry exercise or simply
a bit of ,for want of a better word, internet folk art…

Milner’s site, with both contemporary and (slightly) historical photos
of Sheffield and other places is compelling too.
Again, I plead guilty to a personal interest in the places times and
themes but it’s the thoroughness devoted to an evocation of place
and time that is both effective and moving.

Laurie Johnson – Bleak House

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Bleak House (2009, 23MB, 1:34)

Assured & atmospheric piece from Laurie Johnson.
Interesting to compare it with previous work.
There’s a distinct sense of consolidation, of raising the game,
going on here.
One to watch.

Processing

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Processing1
Flight Patterns (2005, 22.9MB, 1:48 min.)

Processing2
A String (2005, 43.5.9MB, 3:49 min.)

Documentation of two projects using the open source processing language.
A String was made by E.J.Gone for a performance at the National Theater
of Korea & Flight Patterns involves flight pattern visualizations from FAA
data parsed and plotted in ‘Processing’ by Aaron Koblin.
Fascinating & austerely beautiful.

Cut Piece – Yoko Ono

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Cut Piece - Yoko Ono
Cut Piece (1965, 36.5MB, 9 min)

‘Ono had first done the performance in 1964, in Japan,
and again at Carnegie Hall, in New York, in 1965.
Ono sat motionless on the stage after inviting the audience
to come up and cut away her clothing, covering her breasts
at the moment of unbosoming.’
from Bedazzled .

More Strangeness from Joan Healy

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Creak (2008, 45MB 10:54 min)


Beautiful Katamari Royal Rainbow (2008, 17MB 5:08 min)

Mad as a box of badgers but also very smart & winning, Joan Healy is a one-off.
We’ve featured her before, here’re some new vids of her work.
Even more here…

I Can’t Deal With This Stupid Ringing Forever – Donna Kuhn

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I Can’t Deal With This Stupid Ringing Forever (2009, 56MB 2:29 min)

Donna Kuhn has joined the little pantheon (Sondheim’s another, as is Sam Renseiw)
of people whose work I’m just going
to post regularly because they are great.
No apology, no argument.
If you can’t see it, the problem is yours.
Great. Great. Great.

Marianne Moore – The Fish

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The Fish (date unknown, 754KB, 1:12 min)


The Fish

wade
through black jade.
Of the crow-blue mussel-shells, one keeps
adjusting the ash-heaps;
opening and shutting itself like

an
injured fan.
The barnacles which encrust the side
of the wave, cannot hide
there for the submerged shafts of the

sun,
split like spun
glass, move themselves with spotlight swiftness
into the crevices

Breathing in B Flat

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breathing1
Breathing in B Flat (2007, 41MB, 5:31 min.)

Breathing in B Flat – a documentation of a live performance by Curt Cloninger.