my replies to the thread (I should edit these to be more readable one day, but oh well..)
reply #1
interesting Mark. I also read a lot about these topics. mostly to think about what it is that holds so many people's attentions - the different religions. I'm not religious, perhaps spiritual, but I respect other people's views. I think certainly the world would be a more peaceful place had religions not come to pass.
David Byrne performed in Auckland at ASB Theatre - Aotea Centre last night, 14th Feb 2009, as part of his "Songs of David Byrne & Brian Eno" world tour. I loved the show. The musicians, backup singers and David Byrne all wore white. The lighting was a series of subtle background colours changing for effect in different songs. Byrne chatted with the audience who shouted comments to him & showed their appreciation with loud applause. There were three dancers who acted out the songs - at times Byrne was the fourth dancer. The show was very theatrical as the story of the music, lyrics and movements of the dancers weaved together. The audience was generally an older crowd - mid 30s - 70s from my estimation. The show was sold out. They played a range of songs, from Talking Heads, his earlier collaboration with Brian Eno, "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", and the latest album "Everything that happens will happen today". Another favourite part of the show for me was watching the audience enjoy it so much! I watched one man in his 60s dancing in his seat, shoulders moving, fingers pointing in all directions to the percussive beats. Others were dancing in the aisles and along the edges of the rows of seats.
at scanz there was a paper called "Complexity and Cybernetics Redux" by Nina Czegledy and it mentioned Magic Squares. these cover topics such as mysticism, philosophy, mathematics. could the game/puzzle be to solve the magic square. the game leaders send out clues which reflect the numbers& people go out and find the item that has been uploaded to represent each square. eg, so people could film clues like numbers from different places, a quantity of subjects (eg if the number was 10, then film collections of 10 things in a single clip), or even make a video about a saying/piece of writing that might represent the numbers. whatever people can think of
I'm heading to New Plymouth this evening for SCANZ 2009 - Symposium being held over the weekend. so I've been reading about some of the participating artists and their projects. the intro for Brett Stalbaum gave me a few ideas for a * very simple * gps video project. below is the paragraph that triggered my thoughts - especially the phrase "letting voluminous GIS data and some algorithms we wrote tell us where to go"
steps
- in your local area, or a place where you can go to easily more than once (eg probably best to do in your own country not whilst overseas unless it's somewhere you can visit again)
- walk around the space once and collect the gps data
- then use (write first) a program - perhaps web based so you could use your mobile phone??? - that randomizes the data co-ordinates and selects a position for you to go to
Narghile is an AV performance project of Brisbane's video & sound artist Lloyd Barrett. Lloyd has also worked using the name Secret Killer of Names / SKON. I googled N4rgh1l3 and found some video works. absolutely amazing! he mentioned he uses Isadora. it's amazing what he gets the program to do - if only I could get it to do half as much I'd be happy!!
this is a video piece submitted for the surface mapping projection at the Queensland Library at the Opening of the "Game On" exhibition (early arcade games & consoles). I went to this exhibition during Christmas holidays - it was great. unfortunately I didn't attend the Opening night as I was interstate. plenty of fathers showing their sons the games they played when younger. visitors were allowed to play the games, and they could read a bit about the history & background of the games. the Japanese 'dating' games was a new one to me!
Narghile v0.01 part 1 : Part one of two. First performance of Narghile's new audio visual processing processy thing. Videos made from still images and DV footage taken by the artists and processed live by Isadora and extra audio processing by Audio mulch and a Chaos Pad.
I've been reading about Rothko's paintings this weekend and wanted to make a video painting similar to his works. it didn't quite work out as I expected (or like a Rothko painting). but I took videos around Auckland yesterday of different colours with the plan of using them as overlayed panels of colours. instead I ended up using a slit screen and shifting the entry points + having horizontal & vertical panels + changing between the different clips.
I don't think it turned out like the later Rothko paintings though. his paintings has large blocks of colour yet they weren't really about the colour. they were about the emotions - and the paintings showed emotions through the colours & induced emotions in the viewer. there were also glimpses of spirituality in the paintings - some had an inner light which shone through the works. also the size & scale of the paintings - often wall sized - caused the viewer to be enveloped in the emotions. the video I've made doesn't have the same emotions. it's more about the colours - the colours of Auckland city. the edges in the video work are too crisp and sharp. and there's no inner light. the motion relates more to Len Lye's use of motion in images & experimental films and sculptures. I've been reading about his work and his papers prior to making the video - in the book "Figures of Motion - Len Lye - Selected Writings". so I will have to try again - & maybe filter out or soften all the edges, or only keep the lines , like brush strokes, then build them up to panels of colour. many options to think about!
I don't really know much about film history or theory and I've forgotten most of my art theory, though I keep across net art and new media, I guess I haven't sorted out formerly in my own head what it is that I do when I try to make 'art'-like videos. I'm not sure I need a manifesto, but perhaps it would be a good exercise to think about it. I've looked back at videos that I've made over past years and they do seem to be similar so perhaps there is an unconscious 'manifesto' in play already.
so, last night & today I've been finding some from artists I either admire or have recently been finding out about. and of course, in using the internet, this has led me on some tangents so I've discovered some new artists too. collating snippets here for further thought.
podcasts that are available for download - start with the lectures titled "Light of the New Millenium - Chicago/Austin"...both are quite different and cover a good spectrum of his "take" on things.
news slices in the snow (85sec version) : I made this last feb, 06/02/2008 after I'd heard about the terrorist attack in Israel. I'd read many of the online stories about it, so in this video some screenshots of the news stories / websites are cut-up and sliced and rotated in 3D (to represent the multiple levels and perspectives wrt the region & it's problems) on the screen whilst in the background, snow is falling to cool things down whilst steam is rising. the soundtrack has the sample 'over & over' as I was wondering when it (conflict in this region) would ever end. part way through the news slices started looking like a folded paper bird - let's hope it's a bird that brings peace to da middle east!! (as my friend Angus used to say)
it seems it might be apt for this year too. I've been following the recent stories regarding Israel & Gaza listed @ www.aliak.com/content/summer-holidays
this isn't the original version - it's a new version of the first 1min 25sec so it'll play here on flickr (since they have a 90sec video limit)
