LSD Spell (2008, 560kb, 30 sec.)
“video banner created for Art Fag City’s masthead ”
by John Michael Boling.
Monthly Archives: October 2008
Will Luers – Commute
Will Luers – Commute (unnamed one of eight) (2001, 3.6MB, 1:00)
Will Luers – Commute (unnamed one of eight) (2001, 3.5MB, 1:00)
I set myself the task of recording the same route
to work (Brooklyn-Manhattan) eight different
mornings from winter through spring. Each
segment was edited to exactly 60 seconds.
The linear and cylical experience of the urban
commuter lends itself to the database structure.
Will Luers, also known as Taylor Street Studios and
various projects under the name SolubleFish, has a
great history of making web video. Sometimes artists
are a little miffed when we post their older work, but
I think respecting your own history is important.
Luers’s work is no different. This piece from 2001
might seem obvious in 2008, when taping your
commute seems pedestrian (hah) and obvious.
But these vignettes – eight in total – are a lovely
reflection on repetition, routine, and subtle change.
Xologola – Michael Robinson
Xologola (2007, 49.3MB, 1:18 min)
DeK, from no fat clips!!!, recommends this piece by Michael Robinson
with sound by Bish.
It’s undeniably skilfully made & pretty though I can’t help wishing
more happened.
There’s a moment, about 1:06, where we seem to be gearing up
for some visible variation in tempo & geometry but the moment
passes & the piece ends.
Nonetheless one can’t help but admire the process:
… made up of scans and pictures of branches,
broken and scratched glass, and digitally painted textures…
Simon’s Cat
Simon’s Cat – “TV Dinner” (2008, 8.8MB, 2:35)
Award-winning sketch (Best Comedy at British
Animation Awards), of the several available,
this is my favorite video. Each is equally
endearing, and I’m particularly fond of the
amusing vocals.
From London’s Tandem Films
Recent work from Paul Kelly
The Video Artist (2004-8, 15.5MB, 1:19 min)
Corporate Flag (2008, 47.2MB, 4:06 min)
Narrative (2008, 19.9MB, 1:35 min)
We’ve featured a number of pieces by Paul Kelly
in the last year, although in terms of their date of
making they stretch over some 4 years.
Looking back it seems to me there’s a very striking
sense of development.
The language and technique here is leaner, tougher
& more focussed, though without any loss of the
delight in the beauty & mystery of the everyday
that is a keynote of all the work.
As a little aside I know Paul has been making stuff
for Brittany (of this manor) & Andreas’s
Lumi
Dan Osborne’s Investigations
Investigations (2008, 40.1MB, 2:05 min)
Perfect piece of film making by Dan Osborne.
Interesting to compare it to the piece by him we posted
earlier this year.
There’s a lot in common, true, but what strikes me is both the
real elegance & the very precise focus of this new piece.
In contrast with the (admittedly very attractive) sprawl of
the earlier work there is not a second here that doesn’t feel
purposeful & controlled.
Interesting to see how this body of work develops.
Ari Marcopoulos – Claremont
Ari Macopoulos – Claremont (2008, 50.5MB, 10:44)
Okay, this requires some breakdown and explanation.
So Adam Kimmel is an NYC men’s wear designer. This
video is a promo for his Spring 2009 line. And you’re
thinking, what does this have to do with video art or
conceptual cinema or animation? Right. Well, not much.
But what it does have to do with is the Internet. The way
that now, we get to see things we didn’t five years ago.
Five years ago, this video would have been shown at some
runway event that few to none of us would ever fathom
attending – not that they’d let us in the door. And I’m not
worried about that. But I am worried about not seeing great
video. And that changed.
So now, you can watch this insane video of two skater guys –
yes, in Adam Kimmel suits, that’s the point – ride down wild
hills, dodging cars, in southern California. It isn’t that this
has superior quality – the first two minutes are a little dry –
and it doesn’t say anything meaningful about the evolution
of digital video, though they did make an HD version, if that
sort of thing interests you. But you get to see it, and you
probably wouldn’t get this point of view unless you’re a
gifted skater in our midst and we had no idea. It would also
be tacky to hate on this kind of video because the skill of
skating, filming, and not wiping out is something laudable
on its own. This kind of extreme boarding? Well, it clearly
struck a chord with me. No one makes this video for a film
festival, and if they did, it wouldn’t be like this. The Internet
is the natural home for this sort of piece. I’m just saying that
I’m glad the house was built.
Video by Ari Macopoulos.
the whether|man
10_10_07 (2007, 8MB, 1:16 min.)
From Astoria, Queens, it’s the whether|man.
More vids here..
Muto by BLU
BLU – Muto (2008, 30.7MB, 6:54)
Fairly surreal wall painted graffiti animation from BLU,
shot in Baden and Buenos Aires over the past two years.
Always pleasing to see street art legitimized, this piece is
particularly fun and feels much shorter than its run time.
Kurt Ralske – Alphaville
Alphaville ( extract) (2008, 32.MB, 51 secs)
Rather fetching art-work-over of Godard’s
great film Alphaville, by Kurt Ralske.
Laric – 50 50, 50 50 2008
Oliver Laric – 50 50 (2007, 12.1MB, 2:06)
Oliver Laric has really grown on us over time.
In 2007, he mashed up fifty YouTube videos of
random kids lip-syncing (or really singing, sort of)
to “In Da Club,” “Candy Shop,” and “How We Do”
by the American rap artist (artist?) 50 Cent,
leaving them in their original YouTube format.
Also keep in mind that “In Da Club” is around five
years old by now. I guess the youth know what they
like, though it’s worth noting these songs are generally
foul and offensive at best. Nevertheless, due to what I’m
calling the constant influx of amateur 50 Cent covers onto
YouTube, Laric decided that he had to make a follow-up
video, 50 50 2008, seen below.
Just
Radiohead – Just (1995, 11MB, 4:05)
Arguably one of the , and
certainly one of the formative videos of my youth.
It never gets old or feels cliched, no matter what is
made today of new weight and relevance.
Video directed James Thraves.
Sondheim – Swirl
Regular visitors will be aware of how little excuse we need
to post work from the formidable Alan Sondheim.
So…it’s Wednesday… – here’s one of his recent Second Life
pieces.
His accompanying text appears below.
Jennifer and Julu: Clean yourselves, you dirty boys!
Jennifer and Julu: Clean yourselves, you dirty girls!
Julu: Hello Nikuko, you are looking wonderful this very morning.
Nikuko: Hello Julu, why you are looking odd I do think!
Julu: And my leg too hanging by a thread! Nikuko, where are you?
Nikuko: Oh dear you are half-blind Julu!
Julu: And you are All-Blind-Nikuko!
Julu: Can you see anything here? Can you see anything at all?
Nikuko: I hear your voice!
Nikuko: You do not, Julu, you do not have anything!
Julu: Maud, you must move slightly to your left, thank you.
Julu: Maud, you are not looking properly or you would move!
Nikuko: I am looking just fine, thank you!
Nikuko: I am so, I’m trying as hard as you are!
Julu: Adjust yourself!
Julu: You are adjusting yourself in a very wrong way!
Julu: It is 10:30 and you have just lost your head!
Nikuko: Ha ha ha I have lost my head over you!
Julu: And hello Nikuko, and how are you?
Nikuko: Now we will Swirl and Change.
Robert Croma –The Journey
The Journey(2008, 30.8MB, 3:12 min)
Like a modern day Dante Robert Croma manages to squeeze
poetry even from a rush hour journey on the London Underground.
Beautiful. Beautiful & elegant & telling.
Protest Films
Alex Pearl – Protest Film Nottingham (2006, 7.6MB, 1:36)
Protest films…usually films about people protesting
something unjust in the world.
Or, perhaps you meant Protest Films, the conceptual
robot-banner-waving collection of videos wherein
little machines “protest,” more generally speaking.
This is the first from the long-running,
Arts Council-supported series from artist
and renaissance man Alex Pearl.
If you’d like to participate or create your own
Clockwork Protest, visit the blog and email Alex
for a protest kit.
Recombinant Rain from Millie Niss
Recombinant Rain (2008, 7MB, 32 secs)
Source Video #1 (2008, 1.3MB, 10 secs silent)
Source Video #2 (2008, 2.2MB, 12 secs silent)
Source Video #3 (2008, 1.2MB, 14 secs silent)
Source Video #4 (2008, 2MB, 13 secs silent)
Millie Niss is one half of the daughter & mother team behind
the original & indispensable Sporkworld Microblog.
(And if you look at it for ten minutes & you don’t agree
it’s that, please check you have a pulse).
I’m not sure Millie felt that this piece was entirely successful.
(See her comments on the blog, linked above)
I’m posting it because even a borderline success from Millie
is something one can learn from. She has a formidable intellect
combined with a total & fierce independence & a complete
lack of bullshit.( Indeed I’m convinced that she wouldn’t
know how to bullshit, even if she wanted to.)
The last four pieces are tiny little studies of the rain
(delicate & lovely in their own right),
& the first is constructed from frames lifted from these
& worked over in various ways.
This piece (or actually the set of pieces, sources & first pass
at an end product alike) does it for me in a way that a lot of work doesn’t.
Simply, there’s a profound humanity to it.
Sure, it’s about the rain but it’s also about what it is
to be a human being in the world.
John Baldessari – I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art
John Baldessari – I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art (1971, 135.3MB, 13:13)
One of my favorite older pieces from legendary artist
John Baldessari. Commissioned in ’71 to make an
installation piece, Baldessari couldn’t make the trip
and instructed students to write on the walls in his
place. Inspired by their results – that they covered
the gallery with this phrase – he made this video,
following his usual path of pointing out irony in art.
Look for follow-up pieces like “Teaching A Plant The
Alphabet” if you have the time. Classic.
Via the indispensable UbuWeb
Rebecca Bray & Britta Riley – Feedback Interview
submersibledesign (2008, 6.6MB, 3:04 min.)
What happens when we think of our bodies as their own ecosystems?
Interview with Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray, artists and collaborators who also
own a company called submersible design.
From eyebeam.
Always on Time
Random Show – Always on Time (2005, 4.4MB, 2:22)
Oh, how I loved this video. And how I still do.
If you don’t get it, look up the Ja Rule/Ashanti version.
From the now defunct Random Show.
Brian Gibson – Lincoln
Lincoln (2008, 69MB, 7:36 min)
Typically exquisite bit of work from poet of the video
& occasional contributor here, Brian Gibson.
The Blackest Spot by Jody Zellen
Blackest Spot (2008, 18MB, 2:17 min.)
A new installation by Jody Zellen at LA’s Fringe gallery.
The Blackest Spot is an interactive installation that uses Elias Canetti’s
seminal text “Crowds and Power” as its point of departure. Viewers step
on floor mounted triggers to change images and sounds within the space.
3 from Kinetocast
Kinetocast – To Watch While Smelling Summer (2007, 8.2MB, 1:30)
Kinetocast – To Watch With Any Spectacle (2007, 8MB, 1:21)
Kinetocast – To Watch Feeling Betrayed (2006, 2.7MB, 0:35)
Three from the wildly amusing, all too infrequently updated kinetocast.
All based on the idea that these short videos can be watched as they
are labeled appropriate to time or event, this entire videoblog is fairly
genius conceptual work. Also worth checking out from Mack McFarland,
The Portland That Was….
More of these to come…
Daniel Swan – Interlords II
Interlords II (2008, 70MB, 5:09 min.)
Deft & compelling bit of After Effects powered You Tube
mashing from Daniel Swan, frighteningly, still a
student at Camberwell.
One to watch.