I experienced a fourty five minute three channel video installation by John Akomfrah called The Unfinised Conversation. The video focused on the life and work of a theorist named Stuart Hall. He was a cultural theorist. John Akomfrah used archival footage of international events and a set of Stuart Hall interviews and intwins them. It felt like mesh of two documentaries. It also focuses on Stuarts Hall concept of ‘becoming’.

The installation had three screens side by side. It was not used to complete one image, instead each screen had its own image or video. I found it most fascinating when a screen or two screens would go completely red to draw the viewers attention to one particular screen. Also the choice of red instead of just black. The red maybe was related to some of the difficulties and struggles Britain was facing and darkside of how some immigrants didn’t make it. Sometimes the side screens operated as if they were trying to help create the scenery of the environment. There would be nature or a cultural video of a city and its people. The video would have chuncks of Stuart Halls interviews but there wasn’t a consistant flow of when you heard his voice and you also saw him.

The video focused a lot on . The struggles of immigrants and feeling not apart of a culture although they are actively participating and learning about it. The issue of assimilation of immigrants is an important topic that many Americans think about weather or not they are immigrants. Stuart Hall speaks out and mentions no matter how much he studies or changes to assimilate he will never feel like a Britain citizen. The video would go from moments like these with Stuart voice and image to the archival footage of historical events taking place in around the world. The archival footage would have a different person narrating. It would shift back and forth. When the story would change there was a small moment of silence but it would start up very suddenly and end the same way. It felt like fragments of history and Stuart.

 

Trance film is where a protagonist or a supporting character is in a dream like state, in other words imagine what is shown in the film to the audience. Watching the movie, a few things strike the eye first. From limb close-ups in the opening sequence to shadow illusions to the then-assumed fact that the protagonist is stuck in some sort of a time loop –only to find out that it’s just another illusion– to a distorted and decaying reality, to recurring items such as a key, a knife, and a record player, this movie portrays the idea of dream state in a unique way for its time. In this short analysis, I will try to explain these things from a personal perspective.

The movie starts with an arm extending through the sky, and dropping a flower on the ground. The protagonist reaches for the flower, grabs it, and through the reflection of her shadow on the wall, we see her smelling the flower as she walks towards a building. She climbs up the stairs, as reaches for her purse, pulls her key out. The key with the dramatic soundtrack banging with its every contact with the ground, falls down the stairs. She then grabs the key again, and enters the building. She acknowledges three items: a knife, a phone, and when she makes her way upstairs to the bathroom, a record player. She then scans the room, and falls asleep on the couch. Up until this point, a somewhat formula in shooting and narrative can be made: The shadow illusion as she walks towards her house; little-to-none portraits, merely her feet and items are clearly shown; a closing barrel like show to demonstrate the audience that the protagonist is in fact falling asleep. All checking the boxes of theory of causality and continuity. After this point, however, the things get a little bit Inception, so to speak. As the protagonist’s eyes close, she catches a glimpse of a woman in a dark robe walking towards the horizon on the road. In that instance, the camera moves back to the woman’s shadow, clearly chasing the woman in the robe. Within one more iteration, the protagonist finds herself in a time loop where she chases the woman in the robe, decides to enter the house and follow the same path of actions. But in each time, her former self, or a piece of her, is left in the bedroom. Also, this dreamlike state in which a time loop is active seems to decay with each iteration of itself. In second iteration, the protagonist catches a glimpse of the lady in the robe inside her bedroom, but as if she’s forcing things against the natural order, the climb up the stairs becomes a dreadful reality that’s physically warped to keep her away from her room. Right before the final act, the protagonist and her two former selves play a game. Each character belonging to different times grab a key in hopes of revealing who the lady in the robe is, and as the last iteration grabs the key, the itself is revealed to be a knife — which was in fact what they hoped to reveal with the game. She then grabs the knife, and moves to her sleeping self. As the last iteration of her dream state kills her, she wakes up to her husband asking her to sleep in her bed. In a series of events, she realizes, once again through the existence of “the knife” that she’s in fact in a dream that encapsulated her odd iterative dream state. As she breaks the mirror, it’s discovered by her husband, who casually walks into their house with the same kinda flower that got her into this mess, that she was in fact dead the whole time.

Personally, the fact that Maya Deren decided to use the score by Teiji Ito made the whole movie all the more meaningful. The way music kicks in during scenes is established early in the film, and it never changes throughout the film. In my opinion, this is particularly important, especially in a non-narrative silent film; the traditional movie follows a brief conclusion after the climax, but in this case, the previously established sound set gives the idea that there’s more to come (ie. second and third iterations). On another note, four step sequence where her third iteration has to fight her consciousness and travel through beach, grass, pavement, and rug surfaces is particularly an indicator as to human minds strengths on subconscious level. Overall, I’m not surprised that this movie was received the way it did. It has behavioral aspects that are both challenging and breathtaking, both of which are welcome. I wonder if Christopher Nolan had taken notes from this movie as his movie, Inception, clearly has some elements taken straight out of this film.

I visited the Blum & Poe art gallery to which is holding an exhibit on Agnes Varda. The name sounded familiar and I realized that I have seen some of her work in previous classes so I was very interested to see an actual exhibit on her. The gallery had a screening room of a short piece she did called Le Triptyque de Noirmoutier. The film was projected using three projectors and displayed on the wooden paneled door. The individual images were all still camera and comprised of a beach shot, a kitchen shot, and a cupboard shot. often times when one person (the main cast considered of an elderly woman, a middle aged man and women, and a young boy) would walk off screen from either a left or right direction they would end up in the other room or the beach itself (the beach instantly however)

The film is a 9 minute loop. I walked in what I assumed was the beginning but as it looped again for me I’m now thinking it could have been the end, the transition happens so fluidly it’s hard to tell. The spacing of the the room and placement of the viewing area puts the viewer in a position that their whole eyesight is filled with the film, almost giving it a sense of difficulty of which frame to focus on, not wanting to miss any detail or action in the other frames. This kept my eyes moving at all times, waiting in suspense for an action that sometimes would never come. The film depicts daily life at a beach side home, with the women doing house work while the man reads the paper and the child plays outside.  The noises would mix together from the three visual spaces, the sound of waves are accompanied by the peeling of potatoes and the clanking of cups in the other two spaces.

I was told that I was able to touch the board and pull the hinges closed if I wanted too, I didn’t since I was a it unsure but I like the idea that it was an interactive aspect of viewing the film, that the viewer can open and close the doors like the woman were opening and closing the cupboards, putting the viewer inside the space if they so desire. I think that may have been the goal for Varda, as she grew up in the same area with her family that this film was shot and that she wanted to bring the viewer in to be a part of her world, a part of a family..

While at the Met Breuer, I screened many films and viewed many pieces by Brazilian artist Lygia Pape. The film that caught my attention the most was one titled Divisor (Divider). The piece featured a large group of people wearing one large white sheet with holes in it for their heads while they walked down a large street. The film itself was a recreation of Pape’s performance art piece of the same title that was a statement against the dictatorship in Brazil at the time. What interested me about the film was how the sheet created a large mass out of the individuals that wore it. It forced them to walk and march in a very uniform manner, which was highlighted by the blaring white of the “divider” itself.

The film also featured many close-ups of the people wearing the sheet. The camera would often pick one person out of the group and then follow them as they walked down the street. This allowed the viewer to closely gauge and watch the reactions of those participating in the film. At times, the participants would even pull out a camera to take a picture or film the spectacle around them. This made think of our culture today and our desire to capture video and pictures constantly. The film focused on some of these individuals as they looked through their cameras, walking along with everybody around them.

At various points in the film, the participants would duck out of the head hole of the sheet and disappear underneath. It was impossible to see them under the huge white fabric. Because the “divider” made the people walk and look like a uniform military or police, I wondered if the Pape was trying to suggest death at these points in the film. The other participants continued to march in the same order and fashion that they did before, but as the film continued more and more places where there were once people was now just a white blank space.

Even though I could not pinpoint exactly what Pape might have been trying to suggest in this piece, watching the massive shape of people and movement was quite mesmerizing  and beautiful. I noticed that much of her  work, including some of her other films, dealt much with geometric shapes moving in a space. The final image of the piece was the “divider” now void of people and just moving as it were a flag in the wind.

Yesterday, I got tickets to a small cineplex theater called the Metrograph in the Bowery, and they was screening a documentry from Istanbul. Istanbul is one of the oldest cites in Turkey where cats is seen to be sacred animals. The documentry is interveiw based and is told in Turkish but from the cats perspective so most of the camera angles are low to the ground. It’s a national custom to treat the cats with love and respect so the people in the street make room for them when they walk through the crowds. These cats are strays but they do not behave in a way you’d expect a stray animal would behave in America. The first cat we meet Sari is a golden cat who meows for food but we see whenever she gets a large piece of food we follow her to an apartment basement. In this apartment ground floor lobby is a group of kittens where we learned to be her children. I already mentioned that the documentry was an interview based film. They interviewed the humans who interact with the cats on daily basis. A shopkeeper who looks after Sari says her pesonailty changed after she had her children she used to be very carefree but now she is very serious and focused. Then we meet Bengu who unlike Sari who searches for food Bengu serches for affection. So we would see Bengu getting groomed from a stranger, or he would meet up with a friend who owns a boat and he take a boat ride with him. Then we meet an aggressor who pick fights with other cats, and cats being already territorial animals Psikopat is always in confrontation with other cats. So the documentary introduces them as Sari the Hustler, Bengu the lover, and Psikopat the psycho. All nicknames that reflect their different personalities. the film follow seven cats that live day by day and the way they interact with humans is interesting. It almost like they’re very self aware and independent. It’s a very interesting documentry and you should get tickets to the Metrograph and check it out.

Lygia Pape: A Multitude of Forms is the first monographic exhibition in the United States. A Multitude of Forms is an exhibition at The Met Breuer. She combined geometric abstraction with space and body in a unique way. When you enter the exhibition room, you will see lots of sculptures, prints, photography, and short films. There were lots of interesting works in her exhibition. However, there was one short film that caught my eyes. The film called “O OVE” which means “The Egg”. This film was performed at Barra da Tijuca beach in 1967. The film was a single-channel digital video, super 8 film, color and 1 minute 20 sec. “O OVE” designated actors activate symbolic geometric props to create the drama of this work. The film shows three large cube-shaped “egg” and three actors. Each actor was in the large cube-shaped “egg” and then they rip off the box. They came out from the box and played small instrument with a big smile. The final scene showed Pape sitting on the beach in front of the large cube-shaped boxes and three actors were standing on the back of the large cube-shaped boxes. Finally, the image freeze. Pape “represented a generation’s utopian desire to create a new society” through the large cube-shaped “egg”. Through the large cube-shaped “egg”, Pape wanted to show the symbolism of rebirth.

I really liked the video because I could understand what Pape wanted to say through this video clearly. When the three actors rip the box and came out from the large cube-shaped “egg”, audiences could see their feelings because they were smiling and then playing small instrument and dancing. This showed that not only their situation but also their emotion. Even though the video was very short, the video included the main idea clearly. However, I wanted to see more images about Pape. Pape just appeared at the ending scene like 5 seconds just sitting so I wanted to see her more. Overall it was really interesting piece.

The Maribor Uprisings is an interactive documentary about the protests in Maribor, Slovenia. The film was presented at Union Docs by directors Maple J. Razsa and Milton Guillen as a live participatory event wherein the whole audience participates with each other in the decision-making process of the interactive documentary.

The story itself is very simple. It’s a story of corruption in government ranging from exclusionary legislation to embezzlement countered by the people of Maribor demanding accountability. Their demands and their anger evolved into organized and guerilla protests against the Slovenian political elite. The protests spanned the sum of four months and amounted to 80 hours of footage for the directors to navigate. They explained their choice for an interactive documentary as the footage itself demanding a voyeuristic experience. They wanted to create an experience which echoed global uprisings and our insurgent generation.

Before the film began, the directors explained the decision-making process. Throughout the story we were given checkpoints with two choices on how the story would unfold. We had to democratically and collectively decide which choice to make. The legitimacy of the democratic process can be argued since the directors still had the primary power over the process and made the executive decisions over the progression of choices. This point, however, supports the primary thesis of the film: the interactions between the audience and the directors, the roles each audience member inferentially plays, and the debates between audience members reflect the same social dynamics which take place during actual protests. One definitive choice the directors made to counter the reality of an apparent power hierarchy within protests was to give priority to femmes and people of color during discussions. The directors also explained if people feel they can easily speak up in crowds, they should give room to people who find it difficult to speak. Concurrently, people who find it difficult to speak in large crowds should challenge themselves and make choices for the audience. Once the rules were set, the directors prefaced the start of the film and said there is “no way back from the chaos.” Then the film began.

Continue reading “The Maribor Uprisings: a Live Participatory Event by Maple J. Razsa and Milton Guillen” →

This week, I visited BRIC Art / Media House and the Public Access / Open Networks Exhibition it was holding. BRIC isn’t necessarily known to a lot of students because of its small title, but the exhibition was beyond amazing. It was very much “experimental” and I wished the whole class could have been there to see and experience the displays they had to offer. Plus, it was free. (This exhibition is still going on through May 7). The exhibition was on Public Access / Open Networks. I’m not going to lie. Initially, I was so confused to what this exhibition was all about. All I knew was that it had to do with more contemporary art.

On thing I realized was that because the BRIC Art / Media House was such a small area for multiple events, it really emphasized one or two exhibitions at a time. The main one being, Public Access / Open Networks. They utilized the whole space including the walls. Let me tell you, it was definitely aesthetically pleasing and beautifully set. Also, I went at a time when it was empty so I literally went all over the place several times.

The exhibition was all about the history of Public Access Television (1970s) as well as using technology in media to raise movements and encourage activists to have a voice. Because in the 1970s, cable started to open opportunities for this “alternate television” of free speech and free form art. Many artists rose in this era and they are recognized and remembered today for their sense of bravery to pull through with such new and unique styles of expression through art. Just like the quote in the exhibition display, “we look on cable as a way of encouraging public action, not just access”. This change in technology and media opened doors to take action and make a move, not just know that there is access and not do anything. Another quote that hit me was, “[the artist] must seek the truth and make it visible regardless of the consequences”. These people were desperate to create content that will get the world stirring and hungry for freedom. Freedom to be whoever they want to be. Queer, gay, happy, sad, expressive, angry, etc.. These artists desired to be open and out there. 

There were many things that fascinated me. One was the display on Ann Hirsch. She is a video artist who “deconstructs female sexuality and the male gaze to explore how technology and social media shape perceptions of gender and identity”. She used YouTube and created this character where she would try to portray herself as a who who is both sexual and human. This was provoking and interesting because many the Internet rarely mentioned this combination of whether woman can be both sexual and human. It definitely had a feminist undertone, which is very much more expressive and accepted today.

One interesting one was Static.  It really didn’t have much description except that it loops every two minutes, but I liked this display. It was literally a static screen, but I could watch it for a long time without being bored because even though it can be “just static”, it also seemed so expressive, chaotic, and noisy. Almost as if it was trying to tell me something.

Lastly, I enjoyed a video display of Nam June Paik’s Good Morning Mr. Orwell (1984). I loved the crazy editing as well as the use of colors. No to mention, the way the sound flowed beautifully with the visuals was beautiful. Paik’s videos “explore the intersection of the art world, pop culture, media, philosophy, and technology. Good Morning Mr. Orwell (1984) was in particularly so amazing because it showcased “his vision for this globalized new media in a live international satellite installation”. He desired international potential in television, which is very common and well used today. (Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of this.)

One last quote is: “Public Access is the mother of all social media, the original uncurated social art”. While I was watching these different type of videos, hearing so many voices, and reading so many hopes and dreams, I realized that Public Access really began this journey of expression through Media. It’s because of those artists who initiated and started their artwork… that we are here today, strong and bold, bonded and united, when social issues and movements are created for the better of today.

*If ya’ll are interested in the history of Public Access and the experimental pieces artists used to express their voices, GO TO THE EXHIBITION!!!

Lucas Chang

Experimental Video Production

This Sporting Life
I went to go see the the film “This Sporting Life” at the Film Forum on Thursday night. There was a solid amount of people in attendance to watch the film which was around at least 30-40. The film “This Sporting Life” is about the life of a man named Frank Machin. Machin was an unsuccessful coal miner who then became a star rugby player for one of the city’s best rugby league teams in all of Wakefield. The club owner named Gerald Weaver recruits and signs Machin after seeing him play in a trial game and liked his angry and aggressive style of play.

I found this film very interesting because in my opinion, I felt like it had addressed some issues that can be related to real life. For example, when we think of the results of aggressive behavior and actions, we often think of negative repercussions and responses. Whether people have to pay a certain fine, or are arrested, we often pair aggression with negativity. However in the film “This Sporting Life” we get to see examples of how aggressive and anger can lead to both positive and negative results.

One of the examples of aggression being a positive thing is when Machin is when he defends himself at the night club while beating up some of the locals at the club after he was threatened by one of the captains of the rugby team, which ultimately got him a trial game for the rugby league team. One other example, is throughout the rugby game when Machin punches and elbows his own teammate for not passing the ball and the referees mistake the opposing player for the violation instead of Machin. However, Gerald Weaver, the manager of the rugby team likes the aggressive style of play displayed by Machin and views him as an asset to the league team as a way of making a profit. As a result, Weaver and the rest of management signs Machin to a contract to play rugby for the city league team. In this analysis we see that because of Machin’s brutality, he is rewarded with a new job with great pay as well.

One example of the negative aspect of Machin’s aggression is when he eventually starts to have romantic feelings towards a widow named Margaret. Unfortunately for Machin, Margaret cannot reciprocate his feelings because she is still grieving her late husband who died from a suicide. This causes Machin to behave aggressively towards her, angry at the fact that she has rejected him. As a result he leaves the house and stays at a homeless men’s shelter. Later on in the film, Machin looks to reconcile with Margaret only to find out that she is unconscious in the hospital not too long after he left. She sadly dies from being unable to regain consciousness, leaving Machin all alone with her two children. We can see that Machin’s aggressive behavior as a negative factor because if he wasn’t occasionally violent towards Margaret he wouldn’t have had to leave the house and Margaret would never have become unconscious and would still be alive.

In conclusion we can see that aggression can have both positive and negative repercussions in life, depending on certain situations. I found this interesting because I believe that aggressive behavior shouldn’t be viewed as a negative factor if it used the correct way. “This Sporting Life” helped me see that aggressive behavior can have its benefits also.

Since the Haeler Echo Earthly Impressions screening was at full capacity I chose to see O Peixe by Jonathas de Andrade at the New Museum. The film was being screened in the backroom on the first floor in a room with 6 seats and a tinted glass wall on one side. I really liked that they had four speakers set up because the sound was really amazing, just the sound of the ambient waters and nature was super calming and Zen- feeling. I felt the film worked really well without any dialogue, and the sounds of the water and the fish made the piece even better. I really connected to this film, as I grew up in a beach town on Long Island and have been fishing my whole life. I found it so interesting the way these men soothed these fish to their deaths, and how the fish kind of just slowly died. Its such a different culture than what I was used to seeing, people tossing fish over the side of the boat and letting them flop and bleed all over the floor until they finally die. It was strange to see someone who was killing a creature for most likely to sell or to eat treating them with almost respect to take the time to sit there and wait for the fish to die. Each man had a slightly different fishing technique, like all fishermen do. Whether it was using a net, a sphere, or spool. They all also has their slightly different techniques while waiting for the fish to die. The man with the chain flipped the fish over and over again and one of the men even kissed the fish. I also really enjoyed when the focus was on the men’s body movements while fishing, it was very visually pleasing to see the muscle in the body being worked and used and only being able to see the mid section on the body left the eye drawn to nothing else. It was also nice when they focused on each fishermen’s eyes which made the experience more intimate.