Category Archives: conceptual
Skull Project – Paul Wirhun
A video from my blog “My Year in Art”
documenting my interactions with artists and their work.
Paul Wirhun speaks about his work The Skull Project.
By Mica Scalin.
Thomson & Craighead – Template Cinema – RealTime
Short Film about Nothing (Realtime. 3:40 min.)
Template Cinema– is a networked installation by –
Thomson & Craighead.
It generates lo-fi movies made from existing data
appropriated in realtime from the world wide web.
Watch a sample movie.
Ramon and Pedro – Brazil
Ramon and Pedro – Brazil (200?, 31.8MB, 2:50)
From “two directors behind one camera is better
than two cameras into one director’s behind” duo
Ramon and Pedro.
Via Partizan.
Tinjail – Dante
Soft Cinema – Interview with Lev Manovich
lev_interview_1 (2003, 2MB, 2:12 min.)
lev_interview_2 (2003, 2MB, 2:08 min.)
lev_interview_3 (2003, 2.5MB, 2:14 min.)
lev_interview_4 (2003, 2.7MB, 1:45 min.)
A 4 part interview on Soft Cinema with Lev Manovich –
the Mecca of new media arts.
DEAF 03, Rotterdam.
Also: “On Database Driven Movies”.
Sondheim in Second Life
Beam Me Up #1 (2009, 34.3MB, 1:50 min)
Beam Me Up #2 (2009, 9.5MB, 31 secs)
Beam Me Up #3 (2009, 12.4MB, 25secs)
unique blah blah blah genius blah blah blah nonpareil blah
inimitable blah matchless blah blah sui generis blah blah
nonesuch blah peerless blah blah blah sondheim
A lot of Robert Croma
Future and the Dream (2009, 298MB, 53:36 min)
A 53 minute piece from the indispensable Robert Croma,
which was made for the 24 hours 24 artists webcast earlier this year.
It’s Croma’s obsessive – lapidary – attention to detail
(as well as, of course, bucket loads of talent and flair) on quite small
canvasses that makes him unique so it’s interesting to see how
effectively he pulls this one off.
For comparison here’s a recent, haunting, miniature:
Nira Pereg – G Spotting
G Spotting (2003, excerpt, 4MB, 1 min.)
“G Spotting is a search for the pleasure zone of the look. In keeping
with commands, which are read out aloud, the camera moves horizontally
and vertically over an architectural landscape towards what seems like
pleasure zones. Although the search is visual, the image remains unplanned,
following the sound and carrying out each command. While using the urban
landscape as a chart of the female body, the work touches on the themes of
surveillance, modern weaponry and pornography.”
by Israeli video artist Nira Pereg.
Ash Sechler – 2 movies
Transformation (2009, 15.5MB, 1:18 min)
Representation of Memory (2006, 75.4MB, 2:22 min)
Clearly there is something in the water in Athens, Georgia giving us,
as it has, John Michael Boling & Javier Morales, John Crowe,
Dan Osborne, Brantley Jones and now Ash Sechler.
Hmm – The School of Athens, Georgia.
There’s no common style but there is a certain sensibility which,
curiously, pervades the quiet meditative stuff as well as the more
out-there and bizarre – it’s a species of wryness combined with an
eye for the casually arresting, odd and beautiful.
It’s exemplified here in both these rather good pieces, though I particularly
like Representation of Memory.
Liars – Plaster Casts of Everything
Liars – Plaster Casts of Everything (2007, 21.7MB, 4:00)
Another excellent video from The Liars
From The Directors Bureau
Sam Renseiw – Blind Voodles
Blind Voodle #1 (2009, 57.4MB, 6:25 min)
Blind Voodle #2 (2009, 31.6MB, 3:35 min)
Oneiric gorgeousness from the magnificent Sam Renseiw.
Voice by Cinzia Cremona
A performance to camera taken to its extreme with the power of digital editing,
Voice ignites a conflict between an object of desire and its uncomfortable voice.
Refusing to be passive, this female collapses the psychoanalytic good breast and
bad breast into a paradoxical creature that defies expectations. It is a witness to the
complexities of subjectivity and relationships – and of being in the world.
by Cinzia Cremona.
The Girl You Lost To Cocaine
Dan Osborne – Mariah Carey/Boyz II Men
Mariah Carey/Boyz II Men(2009, 86MB, 4:49min)
Splendid bit of drôlerie from Dan Osborne, whose work
we’ve featured here before and certainly will again.
It’s funny, sure, but as with a good deal of Osborne’s work it
treads an interesting line between funny bone and heartstring.
Oh..alright..maybe heartstring is a bit strong but there’s a
certain, and a rather touching, melancholy lurking here.
Also – what is it about Mariah Carey and art video on the net?
Chocolade Haas by Sander Plug and Lernert Engelberts
Chocolade Haas (2007, 26MB, 2:35 min.)
Three chocolate bunnies meet their smoking hot fate in this
twisted short movie realized by Sander Plug in collaboration
with Lernert Engelberts. Commissioned by Cut-n-Paste.
Henry Hills – Money
Door by Lewis LaCook
From Lewis LaCook.
Like his poetry – fragile, complex & perfectly judged
( or – better – judged according to careful & complex
personal criteria, of which we kind of get a glimpse,
an intuition).
Lingers in the mind long afterwards.
Just have to admit it at times – Patrick Lichty
Ritornello (2003, 700k, 25 sec.)
There are just points in which a person has to admit the panic moment.
The point in which the suspersonic tidal wave is headed at you as you
stand on Rockaway,
and you have simultaneous feelings of doubt or denial.
The moment comes, looping in on itself until the moment of action arrives.
Time to hang ten.
Homographies by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Homographies (2006, 33MB, 8 min.)
HOMOGRAPHIES is an interactive installation featuring 144 robotic fluorescent
light fixtures controlled by 7 computerized surveillance systems. As people
walk under the piece, the light tubes rotate to create labyrinthine patterns of
light that are
Red Shoe Delivery Service
Red Shoe Delivery Service (2006, 18.6.5MB, 3:10 min)
Red Shoe Delivery Service is a group of artists who take
up residence in various cities & go around in a vehicle
offering people rides & um.. while people are in the vehicle
they get to look at art & uh
Light Criticism – the Anti-Advertising Agency
Light Criticism (2007, 14MB, 2:21 min.)
Light Criticism is a project by Steve Lambert (the Anti-Advertising Agency)
with Graffiti Research Lab.
From Eyebeam R&D Open Lab.
‘Bird’ by Ken Seeno
Flooded McDonald’s
Superflex – Flooded McDonald’s (2009, 8.2MB, 0:41)
Clip from a twenty minute video of a McDonald’s
being fully submerged underwater. (Don’t worry –
they recycled the water, and no staff was present.)
What do you think it means? Is it a statement about
collective inability to act, climate change and multinational
corporations, or consumption?
Whatever the intentions, the video is oddly calming.
From Danish video collective Superflex.
Listeners by Brantley Jones
Listeners 1 (2009, 6.7MB, 0:23)
Listeners 2 (2009, 10.5MB, 0:29)
Listeners 3 (2009, 16.2MB, 0:46)
Three lovely short remixes from Athens, Georgia
artist Brantley Jones.
‘Easy Listening’ – Marisa Olson
Easy Listening (2005, 4.2MB, 1:56 min.)
At once a performance and performance-documentation, this video
grew out of the admission that much of Marisa Olson
“Assembled Cinema” – G.H. Hovagimyan
Assembled Cinema (2006, 28.9MB, 5:19 min.)
“You walk into a room and a film/video is projected on a wall.
The scenes played are not in any particular order yet they make sense.
What occurs is that a computer is picking sequences in a random order
and playing them. Your mind and your imagination fill in the story.”
From – G.H. Hovagimyan.
Robert Todd – NEST
Robert Todd – NEST (2008, 33.2MB, 4:36)
More from the brilliant, always poignant Robert Todd.
The NEST is a place of resting, but for the restless spirit,
it is a moving island. Here we find silence, if not solace.
This film is both the third in a series and the first of a
trilogy. To understand how it fits within Todd’s vision,
you should go watch more on his site. It will take your
breath away.
Gabriel Shalom – Beardbox
Beardbox (2009, 24.8MB, 2:44 min)
We’ve featured work by Gabriel Shalom here before.
Deft, witty and involving it was then & so it is here too.
Shalom is also public spirited and has just started up this
interesting looking blog for ‘Both theoretical & practical dialogue
about the future of the cinema’.
This combination of some serious thinking with high level technical chops
promises more of interest in the future -we’ll be watching.
For the moment, more here.
DVblog will eat itself
mouth study (2005, 7.8MB, 3:40 min)
Using footage from the ‘cutting edge cinema‘ thing
we posted here before Lewis LaCook,
created an utterly exuberant & assured piece of appropriation
video with 186,000 ideas per second.
Must Read After My Death
Must Read After My Death – Morgan Dews (2007, 23.9MB, 1:47)
When a Hartford couple turns to psychiatry for help
with their marriage in 1960, things quickly spiral out
of control. Couples counseling, individual and group
therapy and 24-hour marathon sessions ensue. Their
four children suffer and are given their own psychiatrists.
Pills are prescribed, people are institutionalized, shock-therapy
is administered. This is an intimate story in the family
A Series of Practical Performances In The Wilderness (3)
moose and atv (2005, 2MB, 46 sec.)
springwater finale (2005, 6.5MB, 2:27 min.)
Final two pieces, chapters 7 & 8, from
Under Scan by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Under Scan (2005, 31MB, 9:51 min.)
“Under Scan” is a public art installation based on self-representation.
Thousands of “video-portraits” taken in Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton
and Nottingham are projected onto the ground; at first, the portraits are not
visible because the space is flooded by white light coming from a high-powered
projector. As people walk around the area, their shadows are cast on the ground,
revealing the video-portraits in short sequences.
By Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.
Bram Crevits and Pall Thayer on Obama
Pall Thayer – Inaugurationanimation (2009, 300MB, 49:56)
As far as I know, none of us at DVblog have become
infected with Obamania. Doesn’t mean we don’t
appreciate the fine art of the remix or dig hope.
First, from Bram Crevits of Cinamatics,
Obama’s Berlin speech, composed entirely of video shot
on cell phones. Remember when the gaze was
given to us by the TV news? Now we give it back.
Second, from Pall Thayer, a silent
animation piece of the entire inauguration.
Free to download and remix as you like. We like.
Both of these pieces surprise and amaze me by the
amount of work they must have taken to compile.
Painstaking, no? Unless these gentlemen know
something I do not, these are labor-intensive pieces
in their own respective ways. Lovely and timely.
My Name Is Oona – Gunvor Nelson
Gunvor Nelson – My Name Is Oona (1969, 26.9MB, 9:12)
Historic piece from the Swedish filmmaker about her daughter.
Typical of Gunvor’s work, this film addresses themes about
nature, childhood, and maintains an ethereal quality.
Excellent early piece from a uniquely talented woman.
Hair Shoes Love and Honesty
Mike Mills – Hair Shoes Love and Honesty (2004, 13.8MB, 2:57)
From the inimitable Mike Mills.
moiMovies – Marisa Olson
moiMovies, compilation #1 (2005, 5MB, 2:19 min.)
Consisting of short video juxtapositions of old images of
the artist andrecordings of her voice, Mo
Passage to Ill – Nathaniel Stern
Passage to Ill (1999, 5.5MB, 2:34 min)
“Passage to Ill was one of the first pieces I wrote as “hektor“,
playing the cynical romantic and trying to get in bed with “Ill”
(a punny nickname for a real person).
After seeing me perform it at the Nuyorican poet
Another Chance
Another Chance – Philippe Andre (2001, 13.1MB, 4:57)
“Another Chance” by Roger Sanchez, directed by
Philippe Andre.
According to Andre, this video has received the most
MTV airtime in the dance category.
The girl in this video is my personal hero(ine).
4:33 – Rocketboom Daily with Amanda Congdon
rb_06_apr_26 (2006, 26.5MB, 4:33 min.)
Sublimity & wit from Amanda Congdon.
from rocketboom, April 26, 2006.
Anke Lanzon – At Times it Seems that I Awake
At Times it Seems that I Awake (2003, 116.9, 8:55)
A philosophizing bulldog reflects about the
senselessness of his dog
Jonathan Schipper – Opposition
Opposition (2005, 4.5MB, 1 min.)
Interactive kinetic sculpture from Jonathan Schipper performed at Pierogi gallery in 2005.
“Two participants are taken from the audience and buckled into the saddles on either
end of the machine. The participants are then lifted into the air. Both participants are provided
hand controllers that allow them to control the movement of the saddles, which are on
pneumatically powered gimbals, and the central rotation of the machine. Some movements
are shared and some affect only one or the other of the two participants. The function of each
input button on the controllers is changed by a computer on a regular basis so that the
participants can not gain full control of the machine. A rock and roll band is playing electric
instruments near by. The amplification for the band is turned on by the machine while the
machine is in the air. The band members (Outside Man) wear helmets that isolate the band,
who can not hear anything other than their own sounds. After a few minutes the participants
are brought back to the ground and released from the machine. The band is turned off and
the machine is ready for the next cycle.”
KontraKontrolle – by Roel Wouters and Luna Maurer
KontraKontrolle (2003, 8MB, 3:13 min.)
Performance during the Visual Power Show, Paradiso Amsterdam, October 2003
by Poly-Xelor (collaboration between Roel Wouters and Luna Maurer).
“KontraKontrolle is a performance concept where we literally stepped into the
computer-screen. By placing ourselves as icons (via bluescreen technique) on
top of the presenters screen we could interact live with the presenter’s actions.”
Curt Cloninger – Pop Mantra #3
Pop Mantra #3 (2008, 103MB, 9:53 min.)
The third in a series of performances where Curt Cloninger continuously
performs a short excerpt from a single pop song for several hours,
blindfolded.
At OTO in Brooklyn, New York.
Excerpt: “tonight / wait, now” from The Ramones song “I Just Wanna Have Something To Do”
Duration: 6 Hours
Media: Electric Guitar, Voice, Black Felt Blindfold, Black Converse All Stars, Time
Read more here.
Justin Kemp – hard timez
Justin Kemp – hard timez (2008, 35MB, 5:52)
Justin Kemp is a ridiculously funny video artist who,
among other things, remixes YouTube videos.
Almost nothing video related brings me as much joy
lately as this does.
Sally – by Roel Wouters and Luna Maurer
Sally is a project by Poly-Xelor (collaboration between Roel Wouters
and Luna Maurer). Sally is a movie for the project ‘Grote kunst voor kleine mensen‘
and has been be presentend at cinekid 2005, @ the Stedelijk museum.
The movie shows marbles in a room. The gravitation of the room is variable
therefore the marbles will dance over the floor, walls and ceiling.
Stephen Slappe – 3 out of 4
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.
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen in Tokyo
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen in Tokyo – (2008, 5.1MB, 1:18)
Bear with me here: have you ever felt lost? I don’t
mean existentially. I mean alone in a place that was
not your own, a foreigner in a strange land, a stranger
in a foreign land. I have on several occasions – including
during a solo trip to Japan a few years ago – and when
this commercial came on my TV about a month back, I
couldn’t tear myself away. No, it isn’t net art or experimental
animation, but it’s beautiful and haunting and something I
certainly see far too little of on television. If you think a little
Lost in Translation, you wouldn’t be wrong for that. The guys
behind the this piece admitted in a recent interview that they
paid special attention to reproducing LiT details for fans of the film.
Other facts: this is a commercial for SAS featuring former
Danish Secretary of State, and two more similar follow-ups
are running/forthcoming (though not featuring Ellemann-Jensen or Japan,
sadly). The startlingly mournful music is appropriately from Babel.
The tagline reads, in English, “Almost home” or “As good as home.”
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.
MoTV News, Episode 1 – Marisa Olson
MoTV News, Episode 1 (2005, 13.6MB, 6:20 min.)
During her American Idol audition training process,
Marisa Olson asked MTV News veteran Tabitha Soren to interview her and
then critique her
Michael Guidetti – Ocean
Flatness:145
Flatness:145 (2006, 11.5MB, 2:25 min.)
Deftly made & somehow rather British quirkiness
from artist Rob James.
Kelly Mark – A Man & A Woman
Kelly Mark – A Man & A Woman (2007, 4.5MB, 8:10)
Hilarious piece from the very funny, very talented
Kelly Mark.
Mark says: While working on my 2 hour mash-up
movie REM I kept a log book of every movie I watched
during this time. The text for “A Man & A Woman” comes
from the movie synopsis listed on the cable tv menu.
The piece starts off with one word descriptions and
then more and more adjectives are added.
Mischa Kuball – Public Square
Mischa Kuball – Public Square (date unknown, 4.4MB, 2:41)
Do you miss the public square, the everyperson
common space? Yeah, so did Mischa Kuball. So
he made this. It’s quite fantastic. Enjoy.
Les Filmistes
Kinetocast in autumn
Kinetocast – To Watch In Preparation For The Deep Fall (2006, 8.5MB, 1:25)
Kinetocast – To Watch For Help Getting Through (2007, 16.9MB, 2:55)
Two more from the endlessly delightful kinetocast,
conceptual pieces about existential moments.
2 from Bernard Gigounon
Nicolas Provost – Bataille
Bataille (clip) (2003, 1MB, 32 sec.)
“In Bataille, fragments from the Akira Kurosawa’s film Rashomon
are subject to a mirror effect. A scene in which two samurai fight
each other becomes a cosmic field of monsters where horror and
pain evoke beauty and joy.”
from Nicolas Provost.
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.
Sharon Hayes – Symbionese Liberation Army Screeds #13, 16, 20 & 29
Sharon Hayes – Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) Screeds #13, 16, 20 & 29 (2002, 7.4MB, 2:49)
Between 2001 and 2002, artist Sharon Hayes
reenacted four tapes from the SLA Patty Hearst
abduction in 1974. These respeakings were
performed before an audience, mostly memorized,
but the audience was instructed to correct or feed
Hayes a line when she made a mistake.
Entertaining, reflective, and somewhat moving.
A real treat whether you lived through the original
events or not.