Bonnie Prince Billy/Ben Berman –I See a Darkness

Posted on by

I See a Darkness
I See a Darkness (2012, 32MB, 2:40 min)

Bonnie Prince Billy/Will Oldham has a way of generating interesting things
around his core business of making extraordinary music.
In a similar way to that of Ornette Coleman, his album artwork always
contains many little explosions of visual pleasure and neither is it devoid of
food for thought.
This is also true of the videos he commissions to accompany his music.
We’ve posted some of these before , including a deliciously bizarre
one from Harmony Korine.
This is one of my favourites to date. Made by Ben Berman, it involves
Oldham lolloping around the streets of Glasgow in a way that in real
life would have me crossing the road toot sweet.
I’m an Oldham fan. If I had to put my finger on one of the things
that lifts him so far from the ordinary it would be a confidence in his
work so great (or maybe better, simply an integrity to it and to his art),
that he can encompass within it and place around it things of utter
ridiculousness without undermining it, indeed, whilst rendering it the more potent.
This is not to downplay the role of Berman in this. He is clearly a significant
talent and a fine co-conspirator for Oldham.

Curt Cloninger & A Bill Miller – sliveRider

Posted on by

sliveRider
sliveRider (2012, 316MB, 5:26 min)

From: Curt Cloninger
To: Michael Szpakowski
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 4:21 PM

A video collaboration between A. Bill Miller and Curt Cloninger.
Audio by Low. Bill and Curt swapped files back and forth until the
person receiving the file felt it was finished. Links to the video
files in progress are included.

I’ve been reading Deleuze on Leibniz about the Baroque fold, and
this project seems like we were folding video. Like cooking, folding
in ingredients. The trace of each iteration is discernible, baked
into the final fold. Not so much cutting, fading, layering, moshing,
or even remixing (although there is some “databending”).

Hope you are doing well over there,
Curt

On Sunday, May 20, 2012, Michael Szpakowski wrote:

This is quite, quite enchanting.
Do either of you have any objection to me doing a DVblog post on it?
thanks!
Michael

At 8:28 AM -0400 5/20/12,
a bill miller wrote:
Fine with me!
bill

Thanks Michael,
Yes, please do.
Best,
Curt

inside us all – Diesel-U-Music

Posted on by

iua_met_I
iua met I (2005, 60MB, 6:43 min.)

“inside us all” winners of the 2005 diesel music VJ competition.

Pleix – No Animals Were Harmed

Posted on by

birds
Birds (2006, 15.5MB, 3:04 min)

netlag
Netlag (2006, 15.8MB, 4:23 min)

Early 24 carat weirdness & ethereal beauty respectively from the
French Pleix group.

White Glove Tracking

Posted on by


White Glove Tracking (2007, 45.5MB, 7:34)

At a televised special in March 1983, Michael Jackson
debuted what would later become known as his
signature Moonwalk. He wore a shiny jacket,
cuffed pants, and a sparkling little white glove
while gyrating around the stage. It’s nearly
impossible to deny the brilliance of Billy Jean,
and there it was – in some kind of larger than
life, glittery manifestation of the zeitgeist.
All very exciting, no?
But tracking Jacko’s glove – this collection of videos
known under the umbrella White Glove Tracking –
is an unparalleled feat, as are the resulting
remixes. 10,060 frames were tracked, the
data was collectively gathered, and all of the
source code was made available online.
Coding ensued. Here are the highlights so far.

More from Diana Brighouse

Posted on by

Floating Green Leaves
5 Minute Measurement (2012, 279MB, 5:04 min)

original post

Put Your Hands Up For Detroit – Fedde Le Grand

Posted on by

put_your_hands_up
Put Your Hands Up For Detroit (2007, 13.6 MB, 2:25 min.)

Sexy remix action from 2007 , from Director S.MacKay-Smith using footage
from Till West & DJ Delicious, TV Rock, Dirty South and Claude Von Stroke.
By Fedde Le Grand.

Dawid Krępski & Jason Chiu – Fall into Light

Posted on by

Fall into Light
Fall into Light (2012, 209MB, 3:57 min)

For about the first twenty seconds I didn’t think I was going to like
this music video by Dawid Krępski & Jason Chiu, or at least that I
would remain easily indifferent and unmoved.

Then, ..well.. , it’s a slow burn but it gently explodes, if that’s not too
much of an oxymoron, into something fertile and strange that won’t let
go of you.
I don’t think there probably is a narrative but, as you watch, the piece
fools you into believing there is, one straight from a fever dream.
Great.

Credits:
Song: Beca – Fall into Light
Directed: Dawid Krępski & Jason Chiu

Actors: Kelsey Peterson, Fred Geyer
D.O.P: Dawid Krępski & Jason Chiu

Edit: Dawid Krępski
Special thanks: Magdalena Gaca, Michael McKeogh

Impactist – Nebraska

Posted on by


Impactist – Nebraska – in single frames (2004, 16.9MB, 3:29)

The simplicity of this piece resonates with me.
A 2004 piece from the enormously talented Impactist duo,
Kelly Meador & Daniel Elwing.

Diana Brighouse – Floating Green Leaves

Posted on by

Floating Green Leaves
Floating Green Leaves (2012, 212MB, 3:52 min)

Diana Brighouse is a doctor turned artist in a grand tradition.
She’s currently completing an MA at the University of Chichester in the UK.
Her work is intensely thoughtful and thought through and also often very beautiful.
I’m not always keen on artist commentaries on their own work but what she sent
me is a model of clarity so I’ll reproduce it in full here.

‘The underlying stimulus for my work is to challenge the reductive philosophy
that prevails in Western society today.
I believe that reductionism is manifest through a prioritising of scientific
or quantitative methodology. An unquestioning belief in the measurable is
found not only in science and technology, but also in education, medicine
and politics.
I believe that the supremacy of the measurable can be directly related not
only to the political and financial threats to the arts, but also to the
regressive attitudes towards women and the disabled.
Successive postgraduate university educations in medicine, spirituality,
psychotherapy and art have repeatedly challenged the certainties I have
been taught.
My use of digital video (a quantitative binary process) to produce images
that I believe to be non-reductive reflects the paradoxes created by my
chosen professions.
There are multiple possible interpretations of the videos depending on
the background of the viewer. This is deliberate and hopefully supports
my non-reductive thesis.
These videos are part of a series investigating reflections; a second
series that I am also currently working on investigates shadows.
My intention is that this series will be more politically orientated.
My videos are taken in my garden and edited with Sony Vegas Platinum 11.0HD.’

We’ll have another of these beautiful works next week.