http://vimeo.com/jonsatrom/qtzrk

Readings. Stephen.

Kulbeka

Kubelka, brings up the idea that film has a rhythm, which i couldn't agree more with. Like music harmonizing these flashing bits of light in a rhythmic pattern can make the film more appeasing to the viewer. Though I feel to do such a thing you would need some knowledge of musical composition to achieve such a rhythmic film. And that when it comes to language in cinema, it is not the single words that lend themselves to the concept or rhythm of the film, but it is what is between each of the words and their connection with what you read in between the other words. He then proceeds to discuss the idea of the realities of the film and that we interpret the quick flashes of still images as motion, but it is in fact thousands of still pictures that give the viewer the illusion of an elapsed time.

Brakhage

Brakhage claims that an artist or film maker cannot just look at the physical objects of the world, but most look deeper into them to find true meaning and by doing so we use our imagination to create our own images. Brakhage, like Kubelka mentions the rhythm of the film but more so in the way of how the image is flipped and then the next slide is presented, and how by slowing this process down, it removes each images from the perception of a time elapsed documentation and instead shows the viewer that they are just still images, taking away the magic of cinema, and if too fast, then the viewer is bombarded with unnecessary lines and can't make out an image, but I think in that case it promotes his first argument for the viewer to create their own imagery in their head.

Wolshen

Wolshen uses the idea of degradation in his films by physically destroying them. This process is something that I have dealt with passively through a few of my own works, because as a new technology is created and seen by the populous as "better" the previous is set aside to dismantle and degrade. And though it is a symbol of life, because everything is slowly degrading as new things are being created. And this degradation creates a beautiful destructive aesthetic. It also takes these mediums to another realm where the visuals that are actually on the film are not the main thing that he is displaying, but the destruction of it as well.

5 Responses... 1 Post

John Cage's "Silence"

Having read about Cage but not having read his own material, I was pleasantly taken by certain works he put together and also by how the excerpt was formatted. Cage made several points about the process of music and how it translates visually on sheet music, on magnetic strips, and so forth. I found it interesting that there was a visual aspect added to the reading. In terms of the subject of silence, I myself have contemplated the impossibility of "hearing" silence. Because noise/sound is all-encompassing, because we can even feel it in space, it's true that silence will only be "attained" once one has passed. But even then, we lose sentience (as far as we know) and therefore, cannot process silence. This reading led me to remember an experience I had when visiting my father in the woods of N. Florida. We had walked deep into a wood where there were not yet homes built or any signs of human civilization besides the tape that marked the lots others had purchased. I remember standing there and my ears adjusting. I could hear beyond the sounds of the palms, to the light traffic on the state highway about a mile off, to my own breathing, and eventually my own heartbeat. In that situation, I told myself that I was in a situation as close to silence I could possibly be, and everything was still so loud.

Karl Marx "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts"

Honestly, Marx's writing style, though straightforward is rather redundant and eventually loses meaning to me. He made some points I couldn't agree with. Regarding the separation of a worker and his product, I could only see that if the product is based off someone else's formula. For instance, I sell video games and I am not part of that product, its creative process, or the physical piece I hand off. So Marx is correct in the most basic of approaches. Now for someone who sells crafts, an artisan or an artist, they are very much present in the product. I can't at all say I'm absent from any of my student work (which I would sell if I could manufacture my pieces). Because all of my work is autobiographical and I am literally presented in each of them be it in portrait form, a representative sculpture, or by adding my voice, It's impossible for me to be separate from my product. I feel like this is present in other artists' works like Michel Gondry's "The Science of Sleep," and Matthew Barney's "Cremaster Cycle."

Stan Brakhage's "Metaphors on Vision"

Brakhage's approach to vision was compelling to me. His explanation on how deeming concepts and objects corrupts our approach to seeing. We turn trees into an object rather than simply observing something before us. We see depth, mass, and space rather than just a mixture of colors (it feels wrong even calling them colors). We would have to distort our vision somehow, possibly by blurring, zooming, or even spinning to see the world as it is instead of how we labeled it.

Sean Martin's "Alechemy and Alchemists"

Martin's writing hit me closely, especially when he introduced Hermeticism in alchemy. Being a Virgo, ruled by the planet Mercury and having Hermes as my representative, I could really appreciate how alchemy was standardized and eventually broadened. I feel like art making is a very alchemical process, especially for myself. I personally do my very best to keep my product uninfluenced and made on my own terms/independently. I have a hard time with accepting my own pieces if they are derivative or made of found objects/footage. I can also appreciate the sections about Nigredo and Rubedo. I feel like when I'm starting any project, when I'm plotting, I'm in the Nigredo phase. This occurs not only in my art making, but also in my performance as an emotional human being. When I've finished a project (in any context), I feel the union of the apprehension of beginning and the relief of finishing being married into the Rubedo phase. This is also a Mutable symptom featured in four of the astrological signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) through which each encounters an inevitable internal conflict (Virgos mainly struggling with innocence and corruption).

Malcom LaGrice's "Digital Cinema and Experimental Film"

LaGrice's writings describing the ever-changing/expanding/advancing/evolving computer-based industries explain the reasons why I have ever had any conflicts with New Media. Because computers themselves are so fickle, because the ease of access to information (whether it be true, false, or modified), because technology is overdeveloped, audiences have developed a shorter attention span. So short, in fact, sites like Twitter have become hits (for one only has to read an excerpt of one's thought process in the length of 400 characters or less), vloggers have found success in promoting ideas (because viewers have become too lazy even to read essays or journal entries), and often (the appearance of, at least) little thought goes into one's product. This is a result of the postmodern idea, that because of technological expansion, is difficult to keep up with, and therefore, master. My favorite representation of this is postmodernism in high fashion. The Comme des Garçons fall collection shows how this is true (in an almost ironic way, seeing as how Zoolander the collection is) by how the pieces look randomized and not exactly put together, and even (dare I say) derelict. But even so, there can be such a process that goes into making one look as though he/she just threw something (my favorite part of postmodern fashion and a guilty pleasure of mine).

Queer Theory

Here are some links for really good LGBT Film/Queer Theory analysis resources.

Harry Benshoff's "Queer Images," which documents the history of LGBT influences on film, TV, and popular culture:
http://www.amazon.com/Queer-Images-History-Lesbian-America/dp/0742519724
It's a little cheaper here:
http://product.half.ebay.com/Queer-Images-A-History-of-Gay-And-Lesbian-Film-in-America-by-Sean-Griffin-and-Harry-M-Benshoff-2005-Paperback/46605302&tg=info

And here's a film based on a book of the same name by Vito Russo, an LGBT activist, that gives a very broad account of Queer Theory but is a really entertaining introduction to the subject and has Susan Sarandon in it so obviously it's great:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL_vrb4-6_0

And a few other books that are helpful and I own 'em so if you wanna borrow them shoot me an email:
http://books.google.com/books?id=MHq7AAAAIAAJ&source=gbs_similarbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Queer-Cinema-Film-Reader-Focus/dp/0415319870/ref=pd_sim_b_3

Glitch 2011 Chicago (GLI.TC/H 20111)

A short trailer from the Glitch festival in Chicago, Nov 3-6, 2011.

Gene Youngblood describes the internet as being "the utopian machine" and an impact on public relations. In the video link below Youngblood provides examples of these statements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E95Sz96FXvQ

Karl Marx defines what communism and socialism “positive” impact might be on society. He argues what the outcome of a changed society could mean, leaving open-ended conjectures. Marx provides the statement “communism is the necessary pattern and the dynamic principle of the immediate future” then counter argues with “communism as such is not the goal of human development, the structure of human society”. Marx writing is more prominent towards a developing philosophical theory that has persuaded nations leaders to conduct their government in certain ways.

expanded cinema

an interesting topic i stumbled upon while reading this article was in the part in part one when youngblood discusses the subjective reality of viewing anything through video. The subject instantly becomes split into two realities without anyone stopping to analyze or question them. There is the film or video, the projected reality of the image. Then there is the simulation of the actual image, whether it be film or perhaps a broadway show. We receive and accept both in their perspective context, without questioning the form they have taken. An audience sits at a live show and watches a performance. I person sitting at home receives the exact same show via a different form, i.e the internet or tv. Although the exact experience is not completely duplicated it is accepted as the reality in that instant in time and becomes unquestioned.

peters time...

Tuesday 10am.

Project 2 Crit Schedule so far

Project 2 schedule

Tuesday

8:00 –
8:20 -
8:40 -
9:00 – Andrew Bowling
9:20 -
9:40 -
10:00 -
10:20 -

Thursday

8:00 – Betty
8:20 - Kristen
8:40 - Morehshin
9:00 - Stephen
9:20 - Jamar
9:40 - Cameron
10:00 - Lij
10:20 - Julie

time

Thurs 9:00

Thursday, 8:20

Kubelka, late

Kubelka touched on Eisenstein but I'm not sure if he mentioned the Kuleshov effect - a film that shows a man's face in a neutral expression intercut by images of soup, a dead child, and a girl. The result is that the audience believes the man's expression changes in response to the other images, but he in fact remains the same.


Here's a link to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gGl3LJ7vHc

betty will present...

Thursday the 8th at 8am for me please. Bright 'n early.

Thursday the 8th at 10:00am

project 2 critiques

December 8, 2011 Thursday
10:20am
-Julie Mckendrick

Tuesday presentation

Tuesday 9am

Presentation times

Stephen Perkins 9:00am Thursday Dec. 8th

Marxy Marx

Because Estranged Labour is referencing a hierarchy and the nature of the individuals at the bottom, I think it parallels a lot of students experience within the academic environment. And the fact that it deals with the act of making makes it that much more apropos to studio art majors.... which is probably why Michael assigned it. I think it gets to be pretty difficult to be creative and expressive within a system where you become, to an extent, detached from the work. The work becomes for a class, or a teacher, or deadline, and the process becomes forced and really unnatural because at some point you just dont feel like doing it. I think the importance of the essay is a testament to just how serious this issue is as an art major, and how utterly necessary it is to always be able to find yourself within the work you make and within the labour of making. Beyond art majors at a college though, I think it generally takes a serious effort to remind yourself of why you make art and continually recognize that relationship so that you don't become entirely estranged. Yeah, there's too many estranged artworks out there as it is.

Kubelka shtuff

I think it's notable that this particular reading opened with a conversation regarding the relativity of reality. To each his or her own, essentially. Additionally, as Kubelka suggests, our descriptions of our reality perceived are as skewed and unique to ourselves as the perceptions themselves…. On that note, I was struck by Kubelka's claim that his own bit of film had "more energy in it than anything (he) had ever seen - and, comparing that same bit of film, "indivisibly'", to a greek temple…. I have yet to see this particular film, bit I suspect that his interpretation of it comes very much from within the walls of his own reality… Other odd moments, were when he receives the film back from the beer commercial…"…I saw this incredible mess. It was absolutely nothing. I said, I will make the greatest film ever made". …it's like his investigation into film began with the intention to make something groundbreaking, and in trying to figure out how to do that in a really aggressive and demanding way, he reduced the medium into numbers - casting aside the mystery and illusion that so many other makers base their practice on… But I've never seen the work so I don't know what I'm commenting on really. Regardless, I found many of his ideas really neat and insightful. In particular, I like the part about seeing a single element and multiplications of it…"Why this is so remains beyond us". Its kind of an interesting thought- why isn't every object, thing, and entity wholly different - that would be a trip. Also at some point in the midst of all the talk about speed and rhythm, I started wondering if the filmic rhythm itself is what makes it so attractive and if 24fps has an inherent aura that makes us feel a certain way. Maybe it's because it gives the synapses in our brain just a little more time to work out each image before it shifts as opposed the faster rate at which our own eyes interpret the world…it would seem that this could be soothing somehow. Still wondering how his film "Arnulf Rainer" will never decay - I understand that its because theres a script involved that can be replicated, but I think in any case we wouldn't assume that the idea is the film as opposed to the object itself - and it seems a little awkward for him to say this too after talking so much about the material and process….

Peter Kubelka’s work encompasses filmmaking, music and theories of philosophy. He aims to combine these elements to achieve “cinematographic ecstasy”. It is a way to escape the reality of “obeying the laws of nature”. This is a reality of life that everyone must face as they grow older. Kubelka explains how to convey this through cinema by capturing “a rhythmic building between light and sound”. In other words, he attempts to harvest harmonious vibes between the film and the sound.

http://www.offscreen.com/index.php/phile/essays/interview_kubelka/

marx response

the marx article brings up the classic argument for the pro-socialist argument that has existed for a very long time. when viewed from an art context though the idea of production for direct use becomes even more interesting. what if instead of for profit studio and film artists created art that was intended to be used for direct consumption, or use? what would happen then? when u remove the monetary aspect that is ever present in art making and selling, what are you then left with? would the consumers, who were previously customers, and museum goers become artists themselves? if viewed from this economic standpoint the artworld itself would become a mealstrom of artists/consumers who would continuously consume/produce/reproduce/consume art works in an endless cycle.

Gene Youngblood + George Lucas

This extremely rare one hour interview with George Lucas was conducted by film journalist Gene Youngblood on on Los Angeles Public Television Station KCET. This in-depth interview is notable because it was conducted before American Graffiti or Star Wars, while a then-27-year-old Lucas was promoting his first feature, THX 1138.
http://www.slashfilm.com/votd-interview-with-27-year-old-george-lucas/

Kubelka Response

The theory of metrical film comments on issues of perception and reality in analog cinema. the first comment that was made that i found interesting was the illusion of movement within cinema. when we see these still played back at various film speeds, we see the various still images and interpret them as movement, never really stopping to appreciate the fact that in actuality we have just been bombarded with thousands of still images within in a manner of minutes. this is an example of the various "realities" analog, and all other forms of cinema present to us. there is the physical reality of the film or digital file. then there is the playback or performed reality of the image, and finally there is the percieved reality of the film; what the viewer actually receives from it.

Glitch Studies Response

http://youtu.be/lbvwZ4LWeEc ........This is the closest example to the opening statement in the manifesto about our upgrade culture as it is today. We continually seek the update, the upgrade to fix the problem.

In the whole manifesto, I can't help but want to ask the question never asked, "How do we know it is a glitch?". Is it just our Western exposure to technology or is it obvious because the visual and acoustic mediums have been used as vehicles for perfect representations of what already exists?

I grew up with an old Samsung TV that had actual knobs on it, and its static noise became familiar to me. It had a positive purpose....with the noise I knew how loud the TV was and I could tell when the signal was clear by how much the static went away. So like the manifesto stated, noise while often negative by default...it can also be a positive way to redefine something else.

Music has had the best embrace with noise in my opinion. I can hear really nicely "played" noise thanks to inventions like the electric guitar and amp. That noise has become a sound we recognize. Think about that. Is that to say that in the future these glitches, the noise in our video transmissions will be recognized as a good bit of visual artistry on behalf of the video's creator?

Glitch Studies response

Glitches entail the loss or deconstruction of data. When used in artwork there is often a perceived sense of open ended responses to what the artist could be showing or trying to convey. A certain amount of filling in the blanks is left to the viewer which can be a type of interactive medium due to it causes the viewer to come up with different scenarios. The artist can depict the effects of the saying that all good things come to an end or all things break down over time.

I feel like a lot of art practices, when it appears that the practice itself is against the grain of what is considered traditional or appropriate, write a manifesto. It's like in a strange way, there is some need to validate or substantiate new undefined subversive art forms. I'm not saying I disagree but I think it's interesting how strange and new artforms generate new ways of thinking about art in general to the degree that poetry is written about the new movements nature... Also though, as a far as a lot of manifesto necessitating artforms go I'm taken by how much they stress the fact the medium or material is somehow not being used for what it was intended for. I think its worthwhile asking whether or not glitch is just an innate aspect of the medium that had largely been untapped until recently. It's new discovery makes it seem alien and out of sorts, but really, it's just what the medium does under certain conditions. surely theres a million different techniques and ways to work with paint that we wouldn't necessarily consider outside of paint's intended use, because they don't incorporate the use of a brush or turpentine.

but, I love this line "... to act against something does not mean to move away from it completely (p.8)" - and maybe this is making the connection that while glitch is separate it's still very much a part of the video whole. I also think this has really amazing ramifications outside of art. This could very well be discussed in context of all sorts of conflicts, and ideas of protest, or even non-violent resistance....yeah, I'm gonna remember this one.

http://beadcircle.com/a-beaders-manifesto/

on glitch......

It is interesting to think that the idea of glitch is has become this aesthetically pleasing genre of art. What originated as errors or misreading s in data has become a new wave of style. I think the vernacular article used a very good example in commercial glitch in the Kanye West Welcome to Heartbreak music video. It is proof that the breakdown of this system of variables has become an acceptable means of communication in an art context. Im not sure what it is about glitch that is so captivating when it is performed “correctly”, if such a term can exist in such an unpredictable form of medium. The digital artifact has ushered in a fresh new and exciting form of expression that can never be completely controlled, which is very uncommon in most artist medium.

16mm and animated GIFs?!

16mm and animated gifs?!

John Cage Response

John Cage provides many different analyses under the subject of music. Music is composed of harmonious structured sounds, rhythms and orchestrated rest notes. Cage discusses that this does not always entail traditional instruments like the woodwinds and brass sections we would see in a band. It encompasses the everyday sounds around us from city noises to common house products. There are many musicians and other artists who have found creative ways to display these ideas in their work. For example, there is a group of musicians who call themselves Stomp who demonstrate some of these ideas well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYXUm8GgPjE&feature=related

ASCII explained

http://everything.explained.at/ASCII/

jon cates

experimental, new media, digital media: http://vimeo.com/7767391

Grice

Some of what Grice states in this reading is similar to the BBC program Ways of Seeing. Ways of Seeing covered a good portion of Walter Benjamin's ideas regarding mechanical reproduction of art. There is a part of the program, where the host is standing in front of an original painting. He then states that here is an original and I am standing in front of it, only what you are seeing is not the original as it is beamed to your living room via TV. Grice gets into a similar realm of thought as he covers our loss of the physical as we interact with digital representations of most everything. I often notice people in agony as they use their tiny cell phone to tap out communiques to their comrades also in the daily struggle. I like to think I don't look so uncomfortable, but I probably do. Relying on a phone isn't natural, but what the phone represents is natural. The phone represents our support network of friends and family which we would have called with our limited vocals in the past, but now we can send an electronic SOS to them at any time.

Legrice shtuff

I think Jamar brings up an interesting point that I don't think Legrice maybe stressed enough. The new medias are not only incorporated into our artistic practice, but into the very framework of our lives. While we can talk about the similarities interms of concept and treatment of the medium in relation to other art movements and modes of thought, I think the actual artistic practice of using new media vs old media has been a total game changer. What we perceive as art has changed and thusly the modes and intent we use to make it have changed. I think an artist's relationship to the materials he or she chooses to make art are a huge
part of what the art is or becomes. So in describing the evolution or foundations of something like new media or tech art, I think it's good to address this new relationship we have with materials. To what degree do we have to be invested in the work we make if it's simply a reproduction? What if our artistic practice stemmed from playing video games instead of apprenticeship? How does this change the way we make the art and what bearing does it have on it's honesty? I know these are vague questions, but I feel like, of couse there's a traceable reasonable evolution that brought us to media art in terms of art history and practice. At the same time I'm not sure to what degree that inform it's practitioners I guess - and thats why I get frustrated with it's relevance sometimes - so, it seems maybe more worthwhile to investigate the actual artistic process of making, rather than talking about how technology functions.

"It is impossible for data to have a coherent form or relationship to the information
it represents without analysis" (legrice)

What type of analysis? Technical? computer-based? I think that's what a very large group of people are attempting to do through computer visualization of data; to make data have a relationship to the material without certain types of analysis... maybe one day we will look at a massive grid of 1s and 0s and see within it something calm, or abrasive based on its varying degrees of contrast.... This is to say that the medium will continue to become instilled in our every process until it doesn't need to be analyzed because it will be our first language, and if our artwork is this same language, what makes it other than same ol same ol communication - it'll just be made mysterious for the sake of considering it art.

LeGrice Response

The LeGrice article brings up questions about the idea that in our current digital age, history space, time, fact and fiction have been compressed into one easy to use digitally reproduced media. We use computers and transmit information across thousands of miles in physical space, we face chat and skype with images of people who are in actuality very large distances from us. We accept this false representation of that person, this sub image or avatar, for the actual person we are in contact with. The age of digital reproduction has silently programmed us in mass to accept false realities and digital pixels as the acceptable form of life, its almost like the Matrix movies; just not on the same grand scale. We have revolve our lives around these device; cell phones, pcs and laptops, gps nav systems, and we use their digital interfaces to interact with our physical realm.

PDF version of Nic Collins' Handmade Electronic Music

This is a PDF of an early version of a book we'll be doing some projects out of. It's not as nice as the version you can get on amazon for $25, but it's got most of the same info and it's free! The book comes with a dvd and nice pictures, which in my case as kind of a dummy are worth it, but you might have all you need here for making oscillators and other hardware hacking needs:

http://www.nicolascollins.com/texts/originalhackingmanual.pdf

Exposure Calculating for Filmo 70DR

Filmo 70DR pdf

I found a pdf detailing how to get an exposure for the Filmos we're using. If you want to know how to set an exposure, this will be necessary without a light meter.

Nirvana Alchemy Film by Jennifer West

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr4rR292yBQ

Nirvana Alchemy Film (16mm black & white film soaked in lithium mineral hot springs, pennyroyal tea, doused in mud, sopped in bleach, cherry antacid and laxatives - jumping by Finn West & Jwest), 2007 , 2 minutes 51 seconds

John Cage Response

Silence brings up thoughts of mans ability and inability to listen to, emulate, compose, and arrange music. It seems that as humans we are slaves to the phenomenon of sound in a variety of ways, we subconsciously filter out or ignore sounds we find annoying, while we amplify or surround ourselves with the sounds we do enjoy. This brings up thoughts of the ethnomusicology subject the soundscape, or the surrounding sounds of any specific area. It also reminds me of the human need to arrange or organize this thing we call sound. It seems almost primal in our nature as humans that we have this urge to rearrange the sounds that we hear in an audibly satisfying way.

Brakhage Response

Stan brings up some interesting views on the perception of our inner eye. I think what he is trying to get at is the fact that maybe the physical act of seeing what is around us waters down our minds potential to create our own images within ourselves; that perhaps the few colors we actually see when we open our eyes are miniscule when compared to the multitude of things our eyes are capable of seeing inside our own heads. This brings up thoughts of altered perception, it even makes me think of artists who use recreational drugs in order to gleam inspiration from “the higher plane” of their transcended thoughts. I also found it interesting that Brakhage argues that our eyes ultimate purpose is to search for God, whatever that may be for a particular person.

Response to Wolshen

I found this film while reading Wolshen's techniques on how to destroy and decay film. He made mats of liquid latex onto the film's emulsion, then bleached off the excess and rephotographed it with an optical printer. I like that the original image still shows thorough at certain points, so the film is still documenting its surroundings.

http://vimeo.com/7352980

Metaphors on Vision Response

The loss of innocence and naivety becomes evident as we grow older and gain new experiences. It is because of this acquired knowledge we gain further questions and aspire to attain answers. Sometimes these experiences and questions are expressed through cinema as a way to further perceive or evaluate them.

Wolshen

I enjoyed Wolshens  Zero Visibility the most out of all of his films we watched.  I got the most out of this film because it felt familiar, going on road trips, daydreaming and looking at the world through the car window at a faster speed.  The reading helps the viewer understand the reasoning behind his process.  I think it works on two levels.  The viewer gets the feeling of apprehension that comes with driving unable to see whats ahead.  The decay of the film brings the viewer into a dreamy realm, like a fading or pieced together memory.  The idea of speeding up the decaying process of film as to see into the future is an interesting connection Wolchen makes for this aesthetic.

Metaphors on Vision

Brakhage describes the desire artists have to look deeper into the physical objects found in the world.   Artists are able to look at the world through new eyes and find ethereal meaning in everyday objects.  Film is a great medium to communicate to viewers the world of dreams, new ideas, and invoke the emotions that come with nostalgia.  I really enjoyed this reading because it's a reminder of how art making should be approached. 

wolshen response

the Wolshen article made me think about how artists often draw from personal experiences for inspiration. In this instance it is interesting to me that he chose to turn a traumatic experience into an art project. I also admire his overall process of film degradation. Prior to this class i had never ever thought of the process of film degradation as a artistic medium, it itself unlocks an entire new world of aesthetic possibilities in handmade film.

Wolshen Dirt

reading "reproducing decay and damage" made me think a lot about our efforts as artists, and alchemists, to recreate the natural world around us - normally it seems people tend to move towards lifestyles that offer some stability, predictability, routine.... and I think as artists, we often try to allow for our creative practice to move us into realms unknown.... allowing the whimsical, demanding, crushing, powerful, subtle, unpredictability that nature embodies to determine our next piece of 'art' seems like it's right in line with our tendency to create this alter existence through art-making.... at the same time, in a way wolshen's whole process could also be seen as an attempt to tame nature, to make those processes his own... is the intention to make those foreign processes predictable and routine also?

Dorsky thoughts

I was expecting the essay to be more concerned with the similarities between something like faith, or belief in the unseen, and the manner in which one experiences or creates cinema. It seemed to me that this was only briefly addressed in the beginning of the essay, and it kept me wondering how a very strong word like "devotion" was pertinent.
Within Dorsky's writing there is a lot of talk about the materiality of film; it's relationship with light, intermittence, space, and time. I noticed allusions to a lot of other literature on the subject - mainly while he was speaking about film-craft as "alchemy", and discussing "the act of seeing" in terms of it's presence in film- the former being a topic we've been given another specific reading on, and the latter, very brakhage-esque. I also enjoyed his uses of the term single-mindedness, though I can't say for certain to what degree Keirkegaard was an influence. I would like to know more about how he sees film as "the spirit or experience of religion". I often wonder about peoples devotion to cinema/art and the creative process, and where that comes from. There can be something fulfilling or rewarding about it that goes beyond almost any type of experience and that's what I imagine a close relationship with God is similar to. ….. In a way I suppose a lot of art is doing what something like religion does in the sense that its giving form to the unseen, in an attempt to understand it on a deeper level, or make a certain meaning more apparent. Why is that so important to us - to give face or explanation, or symbol to something ethereal and elusive? I'm not sure I have any sort of answer but I think Mr. Dorsky has probably spent quite a bit of time with that question, and I'd like to know his thoughts on the matter.

Metaphors on Vision: Man with a movie camera

"This experimental film is really three in one: a documentary of a day in the life of the Soviet Union, a documentary of the filming of that documentary and a depiction of an audience watching that documentary. We see the cameraman and the editing of the film, but what we don't see is any of the film itself. With English subtitles."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op2sOtF113M

Educational Store for Kodak

http://motion.kodak.com/motion/Education/US_Online_Store/index.htm

Surprisingly, UNT is in the list of participating schools

16mm developing tank

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/63619-REG/Yankee_YARFC15T_Clipper_II_Roll_Film.html

an artists life

The Artist's Life: Vito Acconci from NYFA on Vimeo.

Alchemy Reading_Bowling

What I gathered from the reading is that like alchemy, the process of videography and photography is an obscure, solitary practice. This is often a ritual for the practitioner. Like the alchemists, the practitioner of these arts is a bit of a mystic in search of an intangible and perhaps they are working against a societal norm too.

The closest thing to alchemy I can think of is the practice of liquid light show. http://vimeo.com/12074566

I'm pretty sure most of you have seen this movie, but just in case you haven't here is an excerpt of it.
Its called Decasia.  The movies consists of old damaged found footage.  If you have not seen it you must.  I found most of the movie on You Tube.

Bring STuff to class Thursday

Hey guys,

I should have mentioned this in class today, but for the demo we'll be doing Thursday, it would be useful if you would bring some things to lay on the film surface to make cinegrams. This is the same concept as making photograms, which is to say the shape and texture of what you lay on the film will be etched into the film surface as an image. So bring something with you that will look interesting or provide an interesting texture. Some nice things might include: old photo negatives, buttons, leaves, tinsel, loose fabric, string, other pieces of film, etc. This will help make Thursday a bit more interesting. Thanks! See you then.

Mike

A video called "We've Got Time" by Moray McLaren is an example of some of the points made in Dorsky's Article.

Exposure...

Found this cool stop motion animation short that plays with long exposure... pretty neat concept.

Yup here it is

Animation

Here is a very detailed tutorial from Terry Gilliam on how to make a stop motion film.

This is a commercial by Hans Fischerkoesen from 1933.  I thought of his work while reading Dorsky. 

Handmade Film Resources

Hey everyone, I want to share a couple of resources with you. There are a couple pdf documents available online that can help you with some handmade film techniques. Much of this will be covered in class, but you might want these for ideas or future reference.

The first is Helen Hill's Recipes for Disaster. This is an important zine-style resource that features lots of different people's techniques rolled into one little package. You definitely need to flip through this for some direct animation tips and other assorted fun stuff. We'll watch some of Helen Hill's animations later in class.

The other is from a website called http://www.filmlabs.org/. They are an online resource for people who might be setting up their own co-operative film lab (which you guys should totally do!) They have several different resources, many of which are in french, but one valuable one is this DIY lab guide. http://www.filmlabs.org/docs/toboldlygo.pdf

I enjoyed reading Dorsky's metaphor of cinema and it's association with illusion, alchemy, and materiality.
This video is a datamoshed version of Brakhage's "Window Water Moving Baby". What is the materiality of (digital) media and how is this film viewed differently from your desktop computer compared to a movie theater. I also found Dorksy's analysis of "post-film experience" to be correct with the transfigurative quality of the medium (regarding both the materiality of the film but also the metaphysical aspects of spectatorship (ontology of film viewing)


Window ater aby oving, 2010, Danny Snelson

Window ater aby oving [DATAMOSH, 2010, Danny Snelson] from danny snelson on Vimeo.

Recent Post Film Experience- which elements?

These two are some of my most + recent post film experiences. So much I've wondered and questioned after watching them. So many scenes from the two still stuck in my head. Parts I'm not sure what to think of yet. I think reading Dorsky's article made me re-think so many of the elements that exist in these two films/videos. Especially the ideas of "illuminated room" and representation of the world or in general life/ our perspectives/experience, etc. Since this is a "moving image" class I thought animation could be included? More to talk about tomorrow!

1. Dogtooth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLOy4_tzXHY


2. The External World

http://www.theexternalworld.com/

Dorsky_Andrew_Bowling

Reading this I hit a point where I read under all his embellishments to the underlying fascination. His underlying fascination is with the psychological effects of sensory deprivation and also over-stimulus. Religion uses this effect in its rituals and so do films, as he states. The effects of attending a film showing and emerging back into the real world has happened to me in many other situations like movies, and concerts. It is a unifying force when a group of people experience the same phenomena and realize they are not alone in their experience. In part this is a driving force in religious practices or cult rituals. By controlling what stimulus people received you can change the impact it has on them. A "persuasive" tactic like this is used in many ways in our entertainment forms by way of cinematic tropes, musical motifs for certain characters or situations and in the lighting used. It is recognizable, but often overlooked because it is nothing new to the audience after growing up seeing these methods over and over again.

The closest combo clip I have to illustrate my point is: http://youtu.be/IovKwhJ00GY

Bazin_PeterRand (...Late to the game)

I enjoyed how Bazin detailed the extent to which photography altered the plastic arts, while managing to find a place for it, as well as for painting. Often, especially in new media, we find ourselves confronted with the fact that our artistic mediums subsist off the reproducible image, and it becomes inevitable to question the degree to which we're neglecting what can be considered, "the genuine article" - this 'genuine article' nought be confused with the 'realism' that Bazin spoke to in the Ontology of the Photographic Image though, but to the materiality in art fashioned exclusively by the artist. Noting the "obsession" we have with realism, I like how Bazin points out that with the advent of photography it became no longer the job, or responsibility of the painter as artist, to create something "realistic" - allowing painting to be able to exist and be appreciated as it's own thing. At the same time, he has quite a respectful outlook on how photography treats this same role from which it is inseparable. Instead of, harbinger of the reproducible image, photography is the "embalmer of time", "rescuing it simply from it's proper corruption" (whoa dude.) - also noting that photography has an effect similar to nature, where the object is inseparable from it's beauty....

Again, I think it's impressive how well Bazin finds room for both mediums that are often put into ideological competition with one another. My personal feeling though, and i hope it to be correct someday, is that something else will come along exposing the falseness of even the photograph, and it too will become appreciated as it's own thing. I think if our awareness continues to grow and expand, than one day the photograph will have nothing to do with a singular, present, real moment - it will be an imitation of that, like the portrait painting is to it's model.

Response to Dorsky

Reading the Dorsky article I was constantly reminded of Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960). It's a silly Hitchcockian murder drama that tells the story of Mark, who kills women by stabbing them with a little blade the end of his tripod. He films the murders as they happen in order to document his victims' fear, giving the audience a voyeuristic view of his psychopathic tendencies. The clip below is near the end, when his blind neighbor approaches Mark in the darkness as he begins to review a strip of film.The neighbor is protected by her disability. She cannot see the film, so she cannot be afraid of it.
Dorsky says, "We sit in darkness and watch an illuminated world, the world of the screen. This situation is a metaphor for the nature of our own vision. In the very process of seeing, our own skull is like a dark theater, and the world we see in front of us is in a sense a screen."

Start at 2:42

On a slightly unrelated note, this film trashed Michael Powell's career because critics and audiences thought the content was atrocious. It's a pretty goofy movie that later got a decent cult following, but Powell had a hard time working in Hollywood again.

1. Andre Bazin

I agree with Bazin in that photography does in some way portray realism and satisfies a need in humans to capture history and preserve the reality of any given culture or time. It is true that photography captures what is set in front of the lens, but how true this is to the reality of the people taking the picture is relative. Photography and cinema can be manipulated and is manipulated in similar ways to painting. It may prefer the ideal as opposed to the gritty truth, particularly in today's world where photography and cinima are influenced by a larger market.

-- Lij

Link

Was just watching this video and I find it related to some of the points that were made here -on this blog-. This is more of a critique to Bazin's theories. Thought some of you might as well find it useful/interesting/challenging ----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAfteINYl2k

http://blog.art21.org/2011/06/27/a-better-ghost-interview-wevan-meaney/

Evan Meaney, a moving image artist associated with the development within/around new media known as glitch, has been exploring the metaphorical and conceptual possibilities of work being made with the process and aesthetics of data failure/hacking. One of the movements or chapters of his serial exploration of these ideas entitled "the ceibas cycle" has a lot of overlap with this weeks essay by Andre Bazin. In highlighting photography's psychological residue of ontological identification invested in images by ancient societies, Bazin proposes a way of thinking about how different image making technologies preserve or embalm a moment (or person) beyond the duration of their passing. Meaney, in his series of glitched video portraits entitled "To Hold a Future Body So Close to One's Own", brings this thinking about resistance to mortality into the digital age, drawing attention to its failures.

1st Response

The Ontology of the Photographic Image defines what photography has come to mean to us throughout time. It is a way to capture a moment but it can also be a way to show a replicated and sustained subject. In other words, "the image helps to preserve" the subject "from a second spiritual death" meaning, not to be forgotten. Photographs can help us build a remembrance, remind us of important people or past events. For example the use of mummification to describe photography was a way to explain the idea of preservation. In turn Cinema, being a relative or evolution of photography, is a medium that "mummifies change" as well.

--Kristin L.

Andre Bazin Reading_Andrew_Bowling

Somewhere about page 12, Bazin, got into realism and pseudo-realism. He prepares an argument that photography is what finally satisfies our insatiable need for realism and liberates painting from having to do so. I've heard this argument before and in some ways, it does seem true. But may I offer a thought that both mediums play more off the exploitation of realism, or our perception of it. For instance, advertising photography had a trend shortly after color became mainstream in the industry for "hyper-realism". Each photograph took realism to a hyperbolic state.

Flavorings of Walter Benjamin are also present. The statement on pg. 13 about the originality of a photograph relying on the objective nature of the lens, hints at the thoughts Benjamin had regarding an original works aura as it is reproduced. I do not feel that originality in photography is served by the objective nature of the lens because the originality is actually in the composition as the photographer chooses it, in addition to, how the photographer develops their film with the objective camera. It would be like saying the originality of digging a hole relies on the shovel when clearly there is a man operating the shovel and he has the choice to use it in a manner of his choosing. Either way you'll have a hole, but it will not be identical to another because the subject is temporal, just how photographs capture the temporal moments of life.

Which takes me back to the beginning of Bazin's essay, where he speaks of how the medium of art has been a way for man to preserve himself throughout time in lieu of death. He continues to state how traditional art forms are preserving life with a representation of it, but these days we are freed from that practice. He states now it is used to create an ideal version of the real. I do see how now, with the way which most of the world treats image making, primarily photography, that the practice has become flippant and at times, seeking the ideal. But in the early days of photography, the goal was not the ideal, but the preservation of someone's image for posterity in order to grant them importance because they have an image of themselves which may survive time.

His statement on pg 15 that cinema is an image of duration, and a mummificaiton of change is still valid even in the digital age. With video sites like Youtube have a cap on the duration of its videos at one time, the subjective choice of what to "mummify" was on the user's mind as they prepared to make a video. Sam Taylor Wood in her artwork, A Little Death, takes Bazin's idea inside out by "mummifying" an image of duration wherein a rabbit decomposes thereby keeping the temporal decay of the flesh stowed away in time. http://www.ubu.com/film/tw_death.html

Overall, he has some valid points. Clearly writing before the digital wash of all things having a camera, but still interesting in the way he forms his opinions and which ones still apply.

Readings Page Posted

Hey guys,

I'm still working on scanning and uploading (and in some cases, deciding on) the readings for the rest of this semester, but here is a beginning for that. From now on, when you are assigned a reading, you will go to this webpage to download the pdfs, which I will continue to upload: http://michaelalexandermorris.com/readings1.html

Welcome to the Course Blog.

Hello and welcome to the Moving Image course blog for Fall 2011. This site will serve as a forum to respond to readings and extend the conversations we will have in class. There will be readings assigned almost every week and you will be expected to post a substantive response before the following Monday. You should include some text that you write expressing your thoughts on the text, and you can also embed links, pictures, and videos to help illustrate your points. If you're not sure how to do this, you can find easy instructions here: How to embed images on Blogger.

Please make your response a new post rather than a comment to this or or other posts. You will be able to do this after you have accepted my invitation to join the course blog. Looking forward to your responses and our discussions!

Mike