KMA – ‘Flock’ in Liverpool

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‘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.

Morrisa Maltz – MoFone commercial

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MoFone commercial (2011, 8MB, 1:31 min)

First of two pieces this week from the very talented Morrisa Maltz,
this one is a commercial for some kind of art-phone venture she seems
to be involved in.
Whilst I might pass on the product, I’m stuck dumb by the glorious
verve and insouciance of the ad.
It’s interesting – her personal work is very identifiable ( in a good way, I
hasten to add, and, as you’ll see later this week it moves onwards).
This is utterly different but also a really really neat bit of film-making,
suggesting deep reserves of skill and smarts as well as vision.

Omer Fast – The Casting

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Omer Fast – The Casting (2008, 38 MB, 3:29 min)

Omer Fast, discusses his 2008 Whitney Biennial work, The Casting (2007),
a four-channel video featuring a young American army sergeant who recounts
two stories

Henrik Capetillo: Moments – Illusions

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Moments-Illusions (2003, 44MB, 8:35 min)
Recommended to us by the estimable Sam Renseiw here’s work
by his fellow Copenhagen based artist Henrik Capetillo.
I’m assuming that since at one point this file flashes up
“PREVIEW VERSION” the actual piece is considerably higher res.
I’d love to see that version because what we get from this is
a bit of a tease – I think for this kind of digital drawing intervention
into real world footage to really work everything has to be nice and
crisp and seamless ( Rick Silva, for example, is a master at this). That said, it’s
still a haunting bit of work which lingers in the memory and makes one want more.

Studio Banana TV Interviews Shirin Neshat

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Interview with Shirin Neshat (2010, 123 MB, 3:54 min)

Studio Banana TV interviews video artist, moviemaker
and photographer Shirin Neshat.

Bernhard Lang – I Hate Mozart

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I Hate Mozart [excerpt] (2006, 11MB, 4:03 min)

Excerpt from the 2006 production of Bernhard Lang’s opera
I Hate Mozart written for the Viennese Mozart Year festivities
of that year.
It’s interesting in a number of ways. Lang’s musical language is based upon the
loop, but loops treated within a fairly hardcore art music environment.
Sounds like a recipe for pretension or disaster. Strangely it’s neither,
but most compelling.
Secondly, the piece is that rare beast, too often promised and so rarely
delivered, a genuinely comic opera and all the more impressive for being
cast in an apparently recalcitrant & unforgiving musical language
for such a purpose.
Hats off, Mr Lang, hats off.

Omer Golan – Religion

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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.

Brian Bress – undercover

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undercover (2007, 59 MB, 13:21 min.)

by Brian Bress.

Edward Picot: Dr Hairy in Frank Talking #3

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Frank Talking #3 (2010, 278MB, 10:01 min)

Latest instalment in Edward Picot’s Dr Hairy saga which feels like
a weird amalgam of Oliver Postgate, soap and Carry On.
It’s interesting to observe how bold, deft & convincing Picot has become with the lo-fi
techniques he deploys in these and, furthermore, how engaging the actual
narrative is.
Great stuff!

“Toe Jam” by Keith Schofield

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Toe Jam (2009, 23MB, 3:27 min.)

A number of people get naked in “Toe Jam”, The BPA featuring
David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal. Directed by Keith Schofield.

Oliver Laric – 2010 Clip Arts

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2010 Clip Arts (2010, 20MB, 3:21 min)

Stunningly executed, but, for me at least, somewhat vacuous
sequel to his 787 Clip Arts of 2006.
From oliverlaric.com

Array – United Visual Artists

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Array (2008, 13MB, 2 min.)

“Array is a field of columns set in the courtyard of the Chuya Nakahara
Memorial Museum in Southern Japan. The columns create a field of
light and sound which gently shifts in response to the viewers

Alan Sondheim – Over The Edge

mathematics
Over The Edge (2010, 49MB, 1:37 min)

Alan Dojoji Pushes Fau Ferdinand in the Water because
She’s not Paying Him any ATTENTION!


so the story will be about I’m trying DESPERATELY TO GET YOUR ATTENTION,
but you’re ignoring me because you’re away or sleeping or not watching the
terrific goings-on in OpenSim so I sneak up on you (because you’re not
looking) and push you into the water which is very difficult because
pushing avatars requires the greatest skill, making sure that the pusher
is right behind the pushee, otherwise the pushee escapes, so you’re pushed
into the water and just as you’re falling you wake up and type “UOY” which
can only mean it’s a backwards world, and then we’re both in the water and
I’m dancing furiously and AGAIN YOU’RE PAYING NO ATTENTION!

Alan Sondheim

Diez – Architectural Mapping Preview – Metz Station

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Architecturale Mapping Preview Station Metz (2010, 53 MB, 4:14 min.)

Cette preview a

The Summer of Van Torre – Human Dog

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European Vacation (2005, 25.6 MB, 2:18 min.)

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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.

Curt Cloninger –TOM#2

touch me
Touch Me (2011, 562KB , 2:00 min)

see me
Hear Me (2011, 12MB, 1:11 min)

Second two parts of TOM (an instrumental rock opera remix in four parts)
by Curt Cloninger, of which we posted the first two last week.

Tony Oursler – Studio: 7 Months of My Aesthetic Education (Plus Some)

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7 Months of My Aesthetic Education (2005, 14 MB, 1:45 min.)

Speed up documentation from Tony Oursler‘s installation, “Studio: Seven Months of My
Aesthetic Education (Plus Some)” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2005.
It combined video, sound, music and poetry to create environments that truly reflect the dissolving
boundaries of twenty-first-century culture. The work is inspired by Courbet

Thomas Bayrle – (b)alt

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(b)alt (1997, 2 MB, 22 sec.)

Thomas Bayrle has been pursuing the concept of developing ‘superstructures’
from encapsulated image patterns since the 1960s. He uses it for drawings,
photocopy-montages or film animations, at first needing to work painstakingly
by hand. It is now possible to process images like this more or less automatically
by computer. Thomas Bayrle meets his grandson in the computer-animated video
‘(b)alt’ and uses interconnecting, superimposed image patters to address the
sequence of human generations sensually as well as metaphorica”
From Media Art Net.

Chris Caines – Mathematics

mathematics
Mathematics (2010, 163MB, 10:40 min)

There’s a wonderful deadpan quality to this piece from Chris Caines,
which captures dream logic perfectly (and satisfyingly –
I was worried about bathos and I needn’t have.)
It looks and sounds rather sumptuous too.
I do wonder if it couldn’t have moved just a tad quicker…

Annie Abrahams

mathematics
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.

Derek Larson – Measurement: Burn

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Measurement: Burn (2010, 50MB,1:52 min.)

“Part I of the Measurement series; displaying approximate measurements in
video space in reference to Mel Bochner‘s 1969 piece, Measurement: Shadow.”

Ethernet Orchestra Networked Improvisation Live on FBi Radio, Sydney

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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.

Curt Cloninger –TOM

see me
See Me (2011, 57MB, 6:11 min)

feel me
Feel Me (2011, 11MB, 1:03 min)

Two parts of a rather good new work –
TOM (an instrumental rock opera remix in four parts)
by Curt Cloninger, of whom we are fans.
He remixes the 1975 film of the Who’s rock opera Tommy to striking effect.
I can’t imagine crossing the road to see the original, even for free, but
here Curt’s sense of beauty, drama and balance – which have served him
well in a number of works and projects involving remix/appropriation, notably
his fantastic playdamage project –
redeem banality to something genuinely affecting.
More next week.

Brian Bress – rock your body

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rock your body (2007, 31 MB, 4:45 min.)

by Brian Bress.

Chris Laxton/Yell at Birds – Curse Her Black Heart

the mouse escapes
Curse Her Black Heart (2010, 137MB, 4:24 min)

Chris Laxton’s creative deployment of a turntable & nice fractal images…

Omer Golan – Non-Linear Creation

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Non-Linear Creation (2010, 58 MB, 3:16 min.)

Installation at ‘Fresh Paint 3‘ in Old Jaffa Port, Israel. the project is based on a live
camera input where the video camera is mounted above a the projection screen.
“The thought behind “Non-Linear Creation” is to think about video as some sort
of a “streaming deck of cards” which I shuffled again and again in real time using
Cycling74’s Max. I collected in a memory buffer the latest 60 cards/video frames,
shuffled them and played the outcome in 30 frames per second. The result is a video in
which the viewer is in constant, unnatural, flickering present, as it is reflected in the video.”
By Omer Golan.

Nuit blanches 2010 Metz, France with DIEZ and paradigme

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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.

Marc Garrett & Ruth Catlow – At Winter Equinox We Burn the Sun

the mouse escapes
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.

Run DMC – Christmas in Hollis

Christmas in Hollis
Christmas in Hollis (1987, 32MB, 4:02 min)

This vid is probably old news to a lot of you but it
passed me by completely in 87 (and the many times
too, apparently, it has since re-emerged on soundtracks &c.
I should get out more).
I love it. It makes me grin so wide I’m afraid my
head will fall off. Plus it’s seasonal.
This is our last post for 2010 so we’ll wish all of
you the happiest of holiday seasons & we’ll resume
posting on Jan 3rd.

Mapping Festival – Motomichi and Otto

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Mapping Festival – Motomichi and Otto (2010, 100 MB, 5:25 min.)

Mapping Festival is organized by Modul8, the most popular VJ software in the
market and the venue “Usine / le Zo” is their primary space.
Here is a great collaboration at the event. Video mixing by Motomichi and
music performance by Otto von Schirach.