KontraKontrolle (2003, 8MB, 3:13 min.)
Performance during the Visual Power Show, Paradiso Amsterdam, October 2003
by Poly-Xelor (collaboration between Roel Wouters and Luna Maurer).
“KontraKontrolle is a performance concept where we literally stepped into the
computer-screen. By placing ourselves as icons (via bluescreen technique) on
top of the presenters screen we could interact live with the presenter’s actions.”
Pop Mantra #3 (2008, 103MB, 9:53 min.)
The third in a series of performances where Curt Cloninger continuously
performs a short excerpt from a single pop song for several hours,
blindfolded.
At OTO in Brooklyn, New York.
Excerpt: “tonight / wait, now” from The Ramones song “I Just Wanna Have Something To Do”
Duration: 6 Hours
Media: Electric Guitar, Voice, Black Felt Blindfold, Black Converse All Stars, Time
Read more here.
Earth to Earth (2005, 23MB, 3:22 min.)
“This film was made according to the hardcore rules of Straight8, which gives
filmmakers a single roll of Super8, forcing them to edit in camera and shoot
every shot as a first take. You submit the exposed cartridge plus a separately
recorded soundtrack and hope that the two match up. Luckily ours turned out
OK and it was selected one of the straight8 Cannes finalists in 2005.
The idea came from having a crappy DVD player which kept skipping and I was
overcome by an incredible desire to drive a garden fork through the front of it –
you can see the result in the background.
We had great fun shooting the film, during which time it snowed heavily
Justin Kemp – hard timez (2008, 35MB, 5:52)
Justin Kemp is a ridiculously funny video artist who,
among other things, remixes YouTube videos.
Almost nothing video related brings me as much joy
lately as this does.
Sally is a project by Poly-Xelor (collaboration between Roel Wouters
and Luna Maurer). Sally is a movie for the project ‘Grote kunst voor kleine mensen‘
and has been be presentend at cinekid 2005, @ the Stedelijk museum.
The movie shows marbles in a room. The gravitation of the room is variable
therefore the marbles will dance over the floor, walls and ceiling.
Vogels (2003, 3.5MB, 1:01 min)
Overdrive(2003, 4.5MB, 1:12 min)
Two 2003 pieces from Dutch artist Gerben Kruk.
I like the way the quite in-your-face soundtrack in both cases
sets the tone for & structures our response to the visuals.
There’s a curious contradiction between the bucolic content of Vogels
and the sheer noisiness and velocity of it.
(AND NB THOSE SENSITIVE TO FLICKER SHOULD PROBABLY NOT
ATTEMPT TO WATCH IT) .
Stephen Slappe – 3 out of 4 (2005, 1.6MB, 0:45)
Short, rather humorous piece from Stephen Slappe,
which simultaneously celebrates large, antiquated rotating
advertisements and laments the disappearance of the four
basic food groups.
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen in Tokyo – (2008, 5.1MB, 1:18)
Bear with me here: have you ever felt lost? I don’t
mean existentially. I mean alone in a place that was
not your own, a foreigner in a strange land, a stranger
in a foreign land. I have on several occasions – including
during a solo trip to Japan a few years ago – and when
this commercial came on my TV about a month back, I
couldn’t tear myself away. No, it isn’t net art or experimental
animation, but it’s beautiful and haunting and something I
certainly see far too little of on television. If you think a little
Lost in Translation, you wouldn’t be wrong for that. The guys
behind the this piece admitted in a recent interview that they
paid special attention to reproducing LiT details for fans of the film.
Other facts: this is a commercial for SAS featuring former
Danish Secretary of State, and two more similar follow-ups
are running/forthcoming (though not featuring Ellemann-Jensen or Japan,
sadly). The startlingly mournful music is appropriately from Babel.
The tagline reads, in English, “Almost home” or “As good as home.”
Erik Bunger – the Allens (2004, 23.3MB, 3:19)
Absolutely clever piece by Swedish artist Erik Bunger,
drawn from his experience moving from Sweden to
Germany, where many films on TV are dubbed. As
language can be so central to a character, Bunger
started thinking about people like Woody Allen, who
always play the same character but also one so
connected to his whiny, nervous New York accent.
For this installation piece, a computer program
continuously changed the dubbing of Allen between
his various vocal incarnations. Totally delightful.
Drumsticks (2008, 32.1MB, 2:43 min)
I know no more about Doomtree than you can glean, gentle viewer, from their site
& their my space but this video simply fills me with joy.
First off, nothing with massed bicycles in it can be all bad but, over & above,
it’s something to do with the combination of skillz & almost palpable & somehow
innocent sincerity that just makes a beeline for my heart. Lovely.
