Jon Rafman – Woods of Arcady

woods of arcady
Woods Of Arcady (2010, 44MB, 3:56 min)

The Song of the Happy Shepherd

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

The woods of Arcady are dead,
And over is their antique joy;
Of old the world on dreaming fed;
Grey Truth is now her painted toy;
Yet still she turns her restless head:
But O, sick children of the world,
Of all the many changing things
In dreary dancing past us whirled,
To the cracked tune that Chronos sings,
Words alone are certain good.
Where are now the warring kings,
Word be-mockers? — By the Rood,
Where are now the warring kings?
An idle word is now their glory,
By the stammering schoolboy said,
Reading some entangled story:
The kings of the old time are dead;
The wandering earth herself may be
Only a sudden flaming word,
In clanging space a moment heard,
Troubling the endless reverie.

Then nowise worship dusty deeds,
Nor seek, for this is also sooth,
To hunger fiercely after truth,
Lest all thy toiling only breeds
New dreams, new dreams; there is no truth
Saving in thine own heart. Seek, then,
No learning from the starry men,
Who follow with the optic glass
The whirling ways of stars that pass–
Seek, then, for this is also sooth,
No word of theirs–the cold star-bane
Has cloven and rent their hearts in twain,
And dead is all their human truth.
Go gather by the humming sea
Some twisted, echo-harbouring shell,
And to its lips thy story tell,
And they thy comforters will be,
Rewording in melodious guile
Thy fretful words a little while,
Till they shall singing fade in ruth
And die a pearly brotherhood;
For words alone are certain good:
Sing, then, for this is also sooth.

I must be gone: there is a grave
Where daffodil and lily wave,
And I would please the hapless faun,
Buried under the sleepy ground,
With mirthful songs before the dawn.
His shouting days with mirth were crowned;
And still I dream he treads the lawn,
Walking ghostly in the dew,
Pierced by my glad singing through,
My songs of old earth’s dreamy youth:
But ah! she dreams not now; dream thou!
For fair are poppies on the brow:
Dream, dream, for this is also sooth.

*******************************************

Extraordinary piece from Jon Rafman
(and William Butler Yeats).
It’s stumbling across things like this
that makes it all more than worthwhile.

“Eternal Return” by Jennifer and Kevin McCoy

eternal_return
Eternal Return (2006, 4 MB, 1:54 min.)

“Eternal Return” installed at the exhibition Stop Motion at the Edith Russ Haus,
is a remake of a scene from the musical movie The Gay Divorcee.
The piece was reworked to allow a large video projection for the exhibition.”
by – Jennifer and Kevin McCoy.

Ethernet Orchestra – Distant Presences

sam_r
Ethernet Orchestra -Distant Presences (2010, 43MB, 6:42 min)

Delicate but nonetheless ravishing beauty from the improvisation-across-the-net,
(Brazil/Sydney/Germany on this occasion) outfit Ethernet Orchestra
That our hats come off in the face of their technical achievement should go almost
without mention -this cannot have been easy to do; but to make something so devoid of
gimmickry and so entrancing too…well, I’m lost for wo

Konx-om-Pax –Twin Portal

shanno
Twin Portal (2010, 11MB, 2:00 min)

Biog:

Konx-om-Pax is 25 year old Glasgow based Director/Animator/Sound Designer
Tom Scholefield. In recent years worked with Warp Records, DFA Records,
No-Fun Productions, Universal Everything and Optimo Espacio.

Normally I find it an effort to care much for digitally constructed worlds
with a kind of sci-fi undercurrent; it all seems a bit easy (no matter, of course,
that it probably isn’t) and usually more than a bit banal.
However this guy does it with considerable style and I found myself
drawn in. It’s the level of detail, the care with which its put
together and the sheer verve and -yes- beauty of it.
The audio is great too & I like the bipartite stucture of the piece.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila – Consolation Service

consolation_service
Consolation Service (1999, 10 MB, 1:43 min.)

“Consolation Service” follows a young Finnish couple, Anni and J-P, as they
make public their decision to divorce. It is set in early spring in Helsinki, with
its frozen landscape on the cusp of thawing.
Consolation service (awarded at the Venice Biennial in 1999) Ahtila also
deconstructs the formation of the narrative and cinematic illusion: as though
in a straight documentary film (Cinéma vérité), both narrator and camera are
shown openly. The illusion of fiction is thus shattered, made visible. The use of
a hand-held shaking camera reminds the group Dogma 95 led by Lars Von Triers.

By Eija-Liisa Ahtila.