Duchamp’s Fountain (2011, 93MB, 1:59 min, silent)
Fascinating bit of footage from Kev Flanagan arising out
of a piece of work by Rob Myers (together with Curt Cloninger one
of the two smartest people I know) –here’s the original post
from his blog to give some context.
The whole thing sparked an interesting discussion on the Furtherfield
(see Monday’s post) originated Netbehaviour list this week.
Furtherfield (2011, 103MB, 5:28 min)
Great film about the wonderful UK arts organisation Furtherfield
– you can see & hear me* in it, enthusing further at a couple of points.
Beautifully made by Pete Gomes, it really captures something of
what makes Furtherfield such a big & special deal.
* So let that stand for a full declaration of interest:
I work with them, they’re my friends, they’ve shown
my work – none of which makes any of the nice things
said by me or anyone in the film any less true…
Samuel Beckett‘s only venture into the medium of cinema, Film was written
in 1963 and filmed in New York in the summer of 1964, directed by
Alan Schneider and featuring Buster Keaton. For the shooting Mr.
Beckett made his only trip to America. The film, which has no dialogue,
takes its basis Berkeley’s notion esse est percepti that is, to be is to be perceived.
‘Flock’ in Liverpool (2008, 152MB, 2:44 min)
How many times do you read artists’ descriptions of their own work
and think ‘naaaaa…’ totally failing to recognise their stated ambitions
in what appears to you to be, at best, somewhat pedestrian and at
worst, a total disconnect from what they write.
This is the complete opposite of that, utterly living up to the makers’
stated intentions, and an absolute spine tingler to watch even through
the distance of video documentation.
Check out the KMA site for a complete description of the piece,
an ‘interactive light installation’ based around Swan Lake,
but not until you’ve watched this beautiful bit of documentary.
Particularly touching is the genuine joy in participation it evokes.
Very hard to pull off and very moving to see.
Religion (2010, 8 MB, 1:28 min.)
“‘Religion’ is based on a language text corpus containing about 140,000 words.
With Cycling74’s Max/Msp/Jitter, I created a virtual canvas for my video that is
covered with random text from the corpus. Then used this canvas to mask a clip
of animation that I’ve prepared for that purpose, allowing only text to appear where
pixels in the original animation were moving. My goal was to give the entire clip
random text textures that are aesthetic, recognizable and unreadable.”
By Omer Golan. Sound collage: Itamar Kav Tal.
European Vacation (2005, 25.6 MB, 2:18 min.)
Morning Routine (2005, 44.3 MB, 4:34 min.)
The Summer of Van Torre was hugely popular in 2005 in video blogging circles.
The wepisodes recount the life of Jon VanTorre, each week bringing him closer
to total cardiac arrest with Ether Baths, Spider-Man Nightmares, and Meat Sandwiches.
The series (which began in 2001) was presented online in 05 by Human Dog.
Here is an interview (2005, 67.5 MB, 13 min.) by Josh Leo with writers & directors
Jon VanTorre, Michael Schwartz and Chris Weagel.
Mutant #2 (2010, 64MB, 4:04 min)
Annie Abrahams is a singular and compelling voice, her singularity
ironically copper-bottomed by her willingness to embrace the network
& collaboration thereon fearlessly, inquisitively and to always
striking effect. This piece is described as a video arising out of
the second session of a
“Telematic Performance / Experiment investigating communication and
relational dynamics in a dispersed group.”
and it’s bewitching.
The pages documenting it bear the motto
“Communication is never clean, smooth and transparent”
True – and to turn that truth into crystalline & affecting art is a little miracle.
Ethernet Orchestra on FBi Radio (2010, 92MB, 11:48 min)
More from the splendid Ethernet Orchestra with:
in Sydney, Australia – Roger Mills (Processed Trumpets), Bukhchuluun Ganburged (Mongolian Horse fiddle and throat singing) and Yavuz Uydu (Turkish Oud and Bendir)
in Londrina, Brazil – Chris Vine (Guitar)
and in Braunschweig, Germany – Martin Slawig (Laptop Electronics and Max/MSP processing).
All of it great, though I’m particularly a sucker for the throat singing.
Nuit blanches 2010 – DIEZ and paradigme (2010, 41 MB, 1:55 min.)
Collaboration of Video mapping, light and sound installation, done for
Nuit blanches 2010 Metz.
Audio Visual design by paradigme.
Scenography and video mapping by DIEZ.
At Winter Equinox We Burn the Sun (2010, 37MB, 3:48 min)
And by way of wishing a Happy New Year to all, here’s a tremendous piece from my friends
Marc Garrett & Ruth Catlow, the movers behind the indispensable Furtherfield.org & the Netbehaviour list.
Here they ritually burn a copy of the evil Murdoch’s UK organ The Sun & accompany this
with music both apposite and well executed.
I think this is shot very well. I don’t mean in a boring technical sense – who gives a? –
but that it is utterly alive, especially those beautiful final, almost vertical, shots.
There’s a delicious play here too on folkishness which treads a fine line in avoiding
being itself folksy.
Further – here’s a practical demonstration of how political art doesn’t have to
be dour or ploddingly earnest and indeed can summon a visceral beauty.
There’s a dialogue (or, perhaps better, an argument) between this celebration of the beauty
of the world, betokened in this scene and what passes therein, and the real ugliness and
anti-humanity of the paper and its contents.
Great Great Great.
