i might watch this in the near future /the-story-of-film-an-odyssey/

Hexed by Haggarded Hoolars

Vimeo lookin' soul vid searching'

a very high energy short film that displays the relationship between two people, good and bad. emotion provoking, exciting locations.



bizarre. in a old house, scenes are made in different rooms that contrast with the interior. good costume design, which is very fitting and causes me a very awkward and uncomfortable feeling.



i'm not sure what software was used to create this... maybe after effects? there isn't an obvious narrative. but just a display of a band plying in a forest with different effects. the situation projects isolation and the flying pixels reminds me of fairy dust so it is very other worldly. aesthetically good.



using after effects. a short which has imagery that relates to outer space, constilation diagrams, planets etc. the movement of the shapes is directly related to the music, it looks like the music has control over the way the colours and shapes move. visually interesting. no obvious narrative.



After effects. morphing images using correlations between colour and shapes of objects. very surrel and exciting,

Todays Sparkle shoot with sarah

sarah roberts

Laser cut oak

Here i have laser cut a design in jpeg format into a piece of oak (wood 3mm). i had to repeat laser cut about 4 times. it set on fire slightly on the last go so i had to press the emergency stop. i blended a mixture of natural yogurt and moss found in the city. i then painted it into the grooves, and put the oak into a shaded sheltered cold place outside. i hope for the moss to grow in the grooves.

Hexed- Final cut screen shots

everyone is here already

http://everyoneisherealready.blogspot.com

Edwin Deen

Edwin Deen

Saturday, 12 November 2011

Edwin Deen

Work from his oeuvre

“Edwin Deen is an artist of comic relief in daily life. Displaying remarkable collections of combined natural and cultural objects which at first sight seem quite trivial, however with a closer look uncover a web of cross associations in shape, color, function and meaning. Using existing objects as mind triggers. Whether the objects are empty shampoo bottles, a juicer, a pressure cooker, parts of a freezer, Deen sorts, organizes and converts the objects stimulating a broad range of associations triggered by his manipulation. Because many of the objects have been stripped of their every day identity their definition becomes undetermined, hereby opening their reading to be interpreted anew.
Edwin Deen’s work and practice is very close to that of a scientific laboratory, with projects like Terra Incognita (2009) showing water and plastic’s ability to transform from solid to liquid to gas undergoing phases of melting and evaporation, his endeavors are of utmost focus however he deconstructs what we “know” as opposed to building on it. In science things are proven based on previously proven facts. Science needs imagination and intuition other wise there would be no progress just as in Edwin Deen’s homespun laboratory the search is into the unknown. In Deen’s work the facts are disappearing and the imagination is physical.” – TAG

Evan Engstrom

Evan Engstrom

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

Evan Engstrom

Work from his oeuvre.

“I make objects that serve both as investigations of and bad jokes about the difference between what we believe and what we know about reality. For all the effort that scientists and philosophers have made trying to define and understand the true nature of being, an acceptance of unreality pervades contemporary life, as, among other things, hyperreality, the precession of simulacra, and “truthiness.”  Despite the unavoidable, crushing banalities of existence, utopian ideals abound, and in the face of empirical proof that the universe is by and large a cold, random, and unforgiving void, we necessarily seek and expect to find meaningful order.  As bleak as this all sounds, it’s not as though contemporary society is blind to these unrealities. It is, after all, a willful suspension of disbelief that makes narrative (and really all social functioning) possible. Still, there is something both sad and hilarious in acknowledging the apparent fallacies inherent in our experience of reality, and my work plays with these absurdities and contradictions without critiquing theories of ontology. Rather than fret about if and why society in late capitalism has adopted a set of symbols that have usurped and replaced some true reality, I’m interested in how such signs affect perceived reality and how altering them in turn affects one’s conscious perception.

As such, geometry is a common theme in my work, as it presents a fundamental example of a gap between what is perceived as real and the “true” reality represented. We tend to think of geometry as the most “physical” or material branch of mathematics, focusing on the visual representation of mathematical axioms, not the axioms themselves. Yet, of course the idea of a heptagon is a pure abstraction, and the visual depiction of the seven-sided object typically evoked by the word “heptagon” is incorrect both as a crude representation of an immaterial concept and as a mere approximation (in that heptagons cannot be precisely constructed with classical methods). Additionally, geometry serves a fundamentally opposite, though equally unreal, secondary symbolic purpose associated with mysticism and the occult. Playing on these symbolic associations, I make large scale wall sculptures using neon or electroluminescent wire that evoke spiritual icons and/or mathematical proofs. Some of the pieces are programmed such that the lights turn on and off rapidly to generate an overwhelming pattern of shapes and light. Though the sequence is based on pseudo random numbers, the rigid symmetry of the symbols imply intentionality and order. Similar pieces are mounted on faux-stone plastic laminate, highlighting the unreality of the material. I’m interested in whether it is possible to generate a sense of sublime experience through the manipulation of quasi-mystical symbols while challenging any subconscious suspension of disbelief by calling attention to the obvious falsity of the construction.

Other works approach such perceptual biases in more ridiculous ways. In Endless Summer, a modified slide projector quickly cycles through images culled from a web search for photos tagged as “paradise,” while the mechanical grind of the projector is amplified in the space. In this piece, and in much of my work, I employ techniques of sensory overload and visual aggression both to emphasize the cognitive dissonance generated by the way the symbols and their associations are manipulated and to create a space of immersion that distorts the viewer’s perceptual capacity in the presence of the object and consequently focuses and delimits the viewer’s perception when the encounter is over.  Ultimately, recognizing that any sculptural exploration into the nature of perceived reality is a rather silly, self-defeating activity, my work hews as closely to the comic as possible. There are no mystic truths to reveal but plenty of mundane limitations to laugh at.” – Evan Engstrom

Bruce Conner

Bruce Conner

Thursday, 24 November 2011

Bruce Conner

Work from Mea Culpa.

“Bruce Conner, legendary avant-garde films are well known for their pioneering use of found footage: mixing old newsreels, training, educational, and science films, cartoons, 16-mm condensed versions of Hollywood westerns and other kinds of B movies that were sold for home entertainment, he transformed and rearranged these images, pixelating some, lingering over others in slow motion with new music, creating dark and sometimes hilarious moods and visual commentaries.

“I‘ve always known that I was outside the main, mercantile stream. I have been placed in an environment that would have its name changed now and again: avant-garde film, experimental film, independent film etc. I have tried to create film work so that it is capable of communicating to people outside of a limited dialogue within an esoteric, avant-garde or a cultish social form. Jargon I don‘t like.” - Bruce Conner in an interview with William C.Wees

Mea Culpa by Bruce Conner, 1981, 16mm film

Music : My life in the bush of ghosts by David Byrne / Brian Eno

Martin Kohout

New Media Lecture Series – Martin Kohout

Monday, 28 November 2011

Martin Kohout 1984, Prague (Czech Republic). Based in Berlin and Frankfurt am Main (Germany). Represented by Exile, Berlin.

The works below are from Watching Martin Kohout (2010-2011) with a really solid essay by Gene McHugh from Post Internet.

“Watching Martin Kohout, a work by Martin Kohout recently exhibited on jstchillin.org’s year-long “Serial Chillers in Paradise” online exhibition space, is a YouTube channel consisting of (as of the current date) four hundred and thirty uploaded videos.

Kohout began uploading videos to this channel in April 2010 and is still actively doing so.

The content of each of the videos on the channel consists of (in all but a few cases) a webcam capture of Kohout as he himself views another video on YouTube (some of which are his own earlier videos from this very series).

Each video acts as a sort of loop from YouTube to Kohout back into YouTube (and sometimes looping back out to Kohout again if, as just mentioned, he chooses to watch one of the videos of himself watching another video).

In a gallery setting, the playlist would presumably be run through chronologically (although not necessarily); however, for the viewer of the work on a personal computer, there are any number of ways to engage with it.

I, personally, began by viewing the most recent video–Watching Liam Crockard – Hugh Scott-Douglas – ABSOLUTELY @ CLINT ROENISCH.

In this particular video, one views Kohout–whose distinctive physiognomy is anchored by a pair of glasses with large, rounded frames–looking down towards the webcam and the computer screen which displays the video he’s watching.

Because he’s looking down to the webcam, a source of tension in each of these videos is the way in which Kohout’s gaze almost meets the viewer’s own.

It’s sort of like being on the side of a one-way mirror which allows one person the ability to look directly at the other without the other’s ability to look directly back.

As the video goes on, Kohout’s eyes scan over different parts of the screen with a dead-pan expression; at one point, he fidgets and, then, smirks; a bit later, something catches his eye out the window; and near the end, he gives a little smile before again returning to his default dead-pan.

Generally, though, there is only very little variation in Kohout’s performance (he’s just watching the videos) and this minimal, vaguely uncanny fascination persists through the playlist (or at least through the eight videos I personally viewed in full and the four videos I viewed in part).

As one views through multiple videos, the lack of variation in action nudges one towards elements outside of the central action documented in the videos including a heightened awareness of the shifting architectural scenarios, slight changes in Kohout’s hair style and clothing, and, finally, reflective thought regarding the conceptual apparatus of the work.

His seemingly unaffected performance brings up a source of tension in the work regarding the degree to which what one views here is, in fact, an unfiltered view on Kohout as he naturally watches the video or else if it’s a performance of someone as if he was naturally watching the videos.

Kohout knows that his watching is being recorded and is destined to be uploaded to YouTube as part of an art project—does this fact preclude one from saying for sure that he’s naturally watching the videos, and, furthermore, is there a normalizing process in which Kohout’s awareness of the recording process diminishes as the actual naturalness of the performance increases?

Additionally, as one views Kohout responding to the videos, to what degree does the viewer participate in the viewing of the videos he watches (particularly if the viewer is familiar with the content of the video)?

Is one just watching Kohout or is one to some extent watching a version of the video viewed, as well?

To the work’s credit, there aren’t any concrete answers to any of these questions.

What one views here, then, is perhaps a self-portrait demonstrating the ways in which the lines between being and being watched are increasingly blurred.” – Gene McHugh

Plant Jewelry

i like this blog

http://ilikethisart.net/

Stuart Williams

Stuart Williams

Wednesday, 30 November 2011

Stuart Williams

Work from Luminous Earth Grid.

“Luminous Earth Grid, an array of 1,680 energy-efficient fluorescent lamps, swept over 10 acres of undulating landscape, 50 miles north of San Francisco. Said the artist, “I see the project as a poetic statement on the potential harmony between technology and nature.” Over a five year period, Williams launched a rigorous fund raising campaign throughout Northern California, and raised nearly half a million dollars to realize the massive project. It was widely acclaimed by critics around the globe and drew tens of thousands of visitors.” –Behance Network

“The glowing green grid can be seen as an icon of computer imaging technology, which in this ‘real life,’ incarnation, gently melds with the flowing shape of a lovely landscape… a dream-like vision of symbiotic unity.” – Stuart Williams

Ali Hossaini

Ali Hossaini

Wednesday, 7 December 2011

Ali Hossaini

Work from 4Monkeys

Blue room - (See animated GIF)
White room - (See animated GIF)
Red room - (See animated GIF)
Yellow room - (See animated GIF)

“The installation realizes Jorge Luis Borges’ utopian concept of the universal library, as it will eventually express every piece of knowledge, every work of literature and every mundane conversation – past, present and future – that can be imagined.

4Monkeys explores the intersection of art and philosophy, and it encourages direct participation. Visitors can enter strings of characters into the artwork, which generates new animations based on their input. The characters can be from any language that has a computer font. Letters swirl into complex patterns under the guidance of a mysterious logic.”

“The essence of this artwork is an enormous number of words – with 2 to the power of 26 possible combinations it will run until the end of time before repeating itself. It includes a sound environment built from coded spy messages found on short wave radio.

By guiding our awareness to the essential form of language, 4Monkeys creates an environment where all meaning is suspended yet every meaning is possible. It gives pure expression to the web of thought where the potential and the actual merge into a single stream of experience.”  - Ali Hossaini

Jim Sanborn

Jim Sanborn

Saturday, 10 December 2011

Jim Sanborn

Work from The Topographic Projections and Implied Geometries Series.

“These images were produced by direct, large format, light projection.  The projector, powered by a mobile generator, was moved from site to site.  All of the pieces were photographed at night using long exposures.  On moonless nights, the landscape was lit with searchlights.  The landforms themselves are quite large, requiring the projector and camera to be, on average, 1/2 mile away from the subject landscape.” – Jim Sanborn

Kyle McDonald

PEOPLE STARING AT COMPUTERS

People Staring at Computers is a project by Kyle McDonald consisting in a simple application he wrote which took one picture every minute. If it found a face, it uploaded the photo to Kyle's server. This app was installed around NY over three days, collecting more than a thousand photos. See more;

Tunnel by TWR72

This is an awesome music video directed by MRRK and Ine van den Elsen for the song Tunnel by TWR72. I also really liked its edition by Ine van den Elsen, who says "It was inspired by their minimalistic sound with a huge climax, we made a 21st century version of the liquid light shows from the late 60′s, which they also use in their live preformance. All visuals in this video were made by hand." The reaction is produced mixing ink and oil. See more;

RADIOACTIVE CONTROL BY LUZINTERRUPTUS

RADIOACTIVE CONTROL BY LUZINTERRUPTUS

“Radioactive Control” is the latest intervention by spanish light performance collective Luzinterruptus. It was created for the Dockville Festival in Hamburg which tried to demonstrate, in a humorous tone, the paranoia that we are suffering from since the escape of radioactive material in Japan, has brought into question the safety systems at the nuclear power plants.

"With our mysterious army of 100 illuminated radioactive figures, which advanced threateningly on the natural environment of the festival, we wanted to invite reflection regarding the use and abuse of nuclear energy, cheap in economic terms, but which can cause grave secondary effects for the environment and health, forever irreversible." - Luzinterruptus. See more;