KBSC505 vs WWFT (clip) (2006, 27MB, 8:14 min.)
WeWorkForThem short was created as an extra for KNBSC505’s
Noise Driven Ambient Audio And Visuals DVD. Exploring the emotions, physical & mental
pain and illusions of bacteria this video follows 8 minutes from infection to cure.
Donald Trump on Citizen Kane (2004, 40.2MB, 3:22 min.)
by Errol Morris.
‘The last thing one would imagine Donald Trump talking about is Citizen Kane,
what many believe to the greatest film ever made, but here he is talking about
in one of the aborted projects by Errol Morris — like he has lived it, like he is a
reincarnation of Charles Foster Kane. The beauty is not just in the Errol Morris
meditative style or even what Trump has to say about Citizen Kane but what we
want to see. Mainly, that Trump’s life mirrors that of Kane and that this real life
epic character sees his own tragedy.
Talking about wealth, he says ‘In real life, wealth does in fact isolate you from other
people…it is a protective mechanism’. That quote speaks volumes. The salesman is
poking holes into his much marketed life. Asked on what advice he would give
Charles Foster Kane, Trump says boldly: ‘Get yourself a different woman!’.
Basketball (2007, 13.5MB, 1:57 min.)
Director Grant Orchard joined Studio aka in 1997, and soon gained attention
for his idiosyncratic design and his ability to approach projects from many
different angles. He has created TV commercials for clients as diverse as Compaq,
Virgin and Orange. Grant has won two prestigious D&AD awards and achieved recognition
for his first independent short film WELCOME TO GLARINGLY.
He subsequently created 10 mini-films for QOOBtv under the banner LOVESPORT.
– from the shining Lumen Eclipse.
jade – takethebus (2002, 3.6MB, 1:37)
jade – jet (2003, 2.4MB, 0:17)
Older experimental clips from Austria’s Michaela
Schwentner, also known as jade enterprises.
Business (2007, 67.9MB, 9:33 min)
I find it easier to admire this piece, to respect its clear integrity,
than to actually like it much – it’s a pretty hardcore glitch
assemblage & it doesn’t let up …oooooh noooo… not at all
(Strikes me as a bit of a video analog for something like Lou Reed’s (in)famous
)
It’ll be interesting to see where Junu Ahn goes next…
‘White Flood’ – clip 1 (1940-2, 1.1 MB, 30 sec.)
‘A Child Went Forth’ – clip (1940-2, 1.4 MB, 30 sec.)
‘White Flood’ – clip 2 (1940-2, 661 KB, 29 sec.)
Easily the most interesting of all Brecht’s composer collaborators
& in flat contradiction to the current myth spread by those
who dislike his politics, by far the better composer than the rather
dull Weill, Hanns Eisler’s keen intellect turned to questions of film in his
exile in the USA in the early forties.
Under the auspices of the New School & funded by the Rockefeller foundation
Eisler conducted an intensive investigation of the relationship between
film & music , often involving him writing new music to already existing footage.
You can see some of this footage here – but what you really need to do is to listen.
There is no-one who could not learn something from the amazing way Eisler
deploys music here.
After the project, Eisler went on to write, with Theodore Adorno,
himself no slouch intellectually (& also a practicing composer),
one of the key books on music & the movies –‘Composing for the Films’
These clips come from the website for a new edition of the book
released with a companion DVD documenting much of the Rockefeller experimentation.
Indispensable.
Clouds…Courts (2007, 10MB, 4:45 min.)
Clouds…Words (2007, 7.85MB, 3:35 min.)
John Murphy is an Irish artist living and working in Madrid Spain.
Clouds…Courts shows us the late afternoon sky and we hear
Craig Murray formerly UK’s Ambassador to Uzbekistan
speaking about torture and England’s role in the Iraq war.
In Clouds…Words we hear about ways to die in Iraq, according
to a BBC journalist while watching the early spring sky in Madrid.
Erection (1971, 180MB, 18:06 min.)
A nineteen-minute film by John and Yoko, which was made in London during
1970 and 1971. When John had heard that the London International Hotel was
to be built in Kensington, he sought permission to film its entire construction.
Once he’d obtained it he contacted the photographer Iain MacMillan and asked
him to take a series of photographs of the construction. MacMillan had a stills
camera and filmed the erection of the hotel from a fixed position for a period
of eighteen months.
The stills were presented in sequence in the film, which ended with a shot of the
completed hotel where all the lights were then turned off, leaving a black screen.
On the soundtrack Yoko sang two songs, ‘Airmale’ and ‘You’, using tapes of recordings
of Joe Jones Tone Deaf Music Co., which was, in fact, a number of toy percussion
instruments that played themselves, a squeaky style of sound devised by a former
associate of Yoke’s Fluxus days, Joe Jones. The hotel was situated at 147 Cromwell
Road and later became the London Swallow Hotel.
Towards a Common Understanding (excerpt) (2007, 9.4MB, 6:50min)
Douglas Fishbone is one of my favorite video art jokesters.
He leaves no stone unturned in his search for a common
understanding, which takes him to the furthest reaches
of the world wide web and back.
I have been trying to find a video of his online to
include here for a while now, then I just asked him and
he graciously sent me this video for the faithful DVBlog viewers.
Beware, there are many disturbing images in this video but none
of them on screen for more than a few seconds and all quite spectacular.
By Mica
British Beach Hut Miscellany(2006, 5.2MB, 1:36 min)
Made by Giles Perkins. Shot on Super 8 & digitally edited.
English pastoral loveliness with a conceptual/formalist twist,
which resolves to… English pastoral loveliness.
Lovely!
ninja tune (2006, 10.9MB, 5:06 min.)
distorted minds (2006, 6.9MB, 3:18 min.)
Brilliant, and in the case of the first piece, hilarious work from
Hexstatic out of London.
The second featuring Juice Aleem.
Now. Go practice.
Occupy DC Interviews 10/10/2011 (2011, 73MB, 58 sec)
Demonstrating what we all might have said rhetorically, but really demonstrating it –
that a smart seven year old (with a little tech help from her parents)
can do a better job than any of the official media, Celia Cooley interviews
Occupy DC participants in a piece that both delights and makes one fiercely
proud to be one of the 99%.
Great job.
La sortie des ouvriers de l’usine Lumière à Lyon (1895, 2MB, 46 sec.)
The year is 1895. The “Hangar” was the first set in the history of Cinematography and
can be seen here in “La Sortie de l’usine Lumière”, Lumière’s first film.
from the fantastic site – Institut Lumière.
Indian Movie [Declan Kilfeather] (2007, 3MB, 55 sec)
Punch [Kerry Baldry] (1994, 30MB, 1:14 min)
Land Gauge [Steven Ball] (1981/2008, 44MB, 1:21 min)
Upside Down World [Marty St.James] (2008, 19MB, 1:25 min)
A dual purpose for this post.
I wrote a review of Vols. 1 to 4 of Kerry Baldry’s excellent One Minutes
project for a new journal, the Moving Image Review and Journal, due out soonish
(although the first issue is dated January 2012, I understand it’ll be out late this month)
and I thought it would be nice to post the pieces I discuss in it here.
So, here, with one exception, they are.
The second thing follows – just to encourage you, especially if you
are in Academia somewhere, to get a sub to this (or order it from your
library &c) – it’s going to be an interesting and useful resource.
Happily Drowning [clip] (2011, 126MB, 58 sec)
Here’s a clip from a short film by Sebastian Sommer, based on stories by the seemingly ubiquitousTao Lin.
It’s very nicely made – here is someone who takes to (and to some extent, reforges)
film grammar like a fish in water.
I’m not entirely convinced that the narrative is clear enough ( it all
looks so great and having not read the original I was intially prepared
to accept any lack of understanding was mine) – it was only a one sentence precis on
Sommer’s site that really clued me into what was happening.
Clearly, though, someone to be watched…
See the whole thing here…
I Fell for You (2011, 216MB, 1:00 min)
Threshold (2011, 86MB, 3:29 min)
I Fell For You:
‘My early artistic ideas came from a 3-year experience as
a commercial fisherman in Alaska. At the time, my work
centered on ideas consistent with the locale: hermetic
fabulousness, escape, odyssey, and the sublime.
Todayperversities of the sublime continue to influence the
way I shape projects. A consensual explanation of the
contemporary sublime would acknowledge that there are
thresholds of human perception and a desire to explore these
thresholds connecting ourselves to a greater environment of
understanding and awareness. At the root of my work is
an interest in human experience.’
Threshold:
‘Borrowing from fluxus films Threshold is filmed in Iceland
and the Oregon Coast and made for a project with The
Archer Gallery.
The video takes place where land meets sea, where the
landscape moves from vertical to horizontal, and
associatively between life (verticality) and death (horizontality)’
I’m guessing the club formed by the intersection of the sets of
experimental video makers and of former commercial fishermen
in Alaska is a fairly exclusive one.
Jack Ryan upholds its honor in these two exhilarating
(but totally uningratiating, no puppy-dog-eyes here) pieces.
I especially love “I fell…”.
Very bracing.
Harddisko (2007, 29MB, 1:29 min.)
Harddisko is an installation piece by Valentina Vuksic dealing with raw
computer sounds. Rhythmic noises are evoked from sixteen
hard drives, orchestrated through simple power circuits.
By cutting each disk’s power in varying sequences and amplifying its
particular sound characteristics, an unpredictable acoustic
and visual interplay emerges.
Appraisal Part #3 (2011, 159MB, 9:47 min)
Appraisal Part #4 (2011, 143MB, 9:40 min)
Latest two in Edward Picot’s wonderful Dr Hairy series.
Change is Constant (2006, 6.5 MB, 3:02 min)
This is a short film I edited to one of the tunes recorded by
Amoeba Technology. I shot most of the footage use in the video,
the footage is a mixture of 16mm, Super 8 and Mini DV.
from Mark Reilly, at alienresident.
Grillin’ (2011, 4MB, 57 sec, silent, looped)
Dan Osborne has a fertile and restless creativity.
I can’t think of anything he’s made I haven’t enjoyed
a lot, and his range is formidable.
Here he turns his hand to a small but perfect animation.
