Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Film Review: Next
Needing a final movie to review, I went to go see the new Nicholas Cage action film Next, this afternoon, as it was the only film playing in the area that dealt with the measure of time. The film follows Cris Johnson (Cage), and his special powers to see two minutes into the future. Through a ludicrous plot, Federal Agent Ferris, played by Julianne Moore, chases Johnson in order to use his power to stop a nuclear bomb from going off in southern California. The only interesting aspect of the film is the notion of fate and causality that arise from Johnson’s power. In seeing the future he is able to play out different possibilities, and then choose the optimal one changing the course of the future, whether that is hitting on Jessica Biel, or avoiding trains in car chases. Johnson’s visions of the future are depicted just as the “reality-based” scenes are. So, it becomes difficult for the viewer to discern which actions are really taking place in the present and which are merely in the future, and about to shift back. However, this notion of the duality of temporality and image is shattered by the twist at the end, from which we realize the last hour has been one long vision of the future…
Film/Event review: Frame by Frame
On April 24th I attended Frame by Frame, the Academy Film Archive’s presentation of recently restored avant-garde short films. Former UC Berkeley student Mark Toscano, who worked on restoring the 8 films shown, introduced the night. He didn’t go in to much detail about the films, or the processes of film restoration, but rather, he talked about the company he works for. The Academy Film Archive is a division of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science, the organization responsible for the Oscars. Toscano mentioned that as the Oscars was the sole means of procuring money for the Academy, so the film restoration division was only possible because of the award show. All of the films shown were relatively short, running from 5 minutes to 18 minutes. Two of the pieces I found particularly interesting were Film Exercise #5 by John and James Whitney, and Documentary Footage by LA avant-garde filmmaker Morgan Fisher.
Film Exercise #5 was a 5-minute film consisting only of different colored shapes morphing, growing, shrinking, and eventually disappearing to give way to the next morphing colors. This was all done to music, very beautifully. It reminded me a great deal of one of the vignettes in the Disney film fantasia, in which animated, colored strings vibrated and changed shape in a choreographed manner along with an accompanying piece of classical music.
Fisher’s 1970 film Documentary Footage was a single 11-minute shot in which a young woman sat naked on a stool and recorded a series of interview-type questions. Every question was asking the interviewee to describe a specific body part. She sat and read each question from a clipboard in a very serious manner, pausing for several seconds in between each. After she read all of the questions, she stopped the recorder, rewound it, and pressed play. She then stood up next to the stool facing the camera. As the recording of her questions began playing, she would answer each of them. The long pauses she gave between questions in her recording provided her with time to give detailed answers. It was very interesting to see the polar opposite emotional states of her as the interviewer, and her as the interviewee. As the interviewee she was extremely animated, and naturalistic as she shyly answered each question as if it were the first time she had heard it.
Film Exercise #5 was a 5-minute film consisting only of different colored shapes morphing, growing, shrinking, and eventually disappearing to give way to the next morphing colors. This was all done to music, very beautifully. It reminded me a great deal of one of the vignettes in the Disney film fantasia, in which animated, colored strings vibrated and changed shape in a choreographed manner along with an accompanying piece of classical music.
Fisher’s 1970 film Documentary Footage was a single 11-minute shot in which a young woman sat naked on a stool and recorded a series of interview-type questions. Every question was asking the interviewee to describe a specific body part. She sat and read each question from a clipboard in a very serious manner, pausing for several seconds in between each. After she read all of the questions, she stopped the recorder, rewound it, and pressed play. She then stood up next to the stool facing the camera. As the recording of her questions began playing, she would answer each of them. The long pauses she gave between questions in her recording provided her with time to give detailed answers. It was very interesting to see the polar opposite emotional states of her as the interviewer, and her as the interviewee. As the interviewee she was extremely animated, and naturalistic as she shyly answered each question as if it were the first time she had heard it.
Jim Cambell Talk
Jim Campbell talk:
The Jim Campbell talk was… interesting. A small detail that I thought to be funny was he said, “I don’t really want to be here but, here it goes…”, priceless. He spoke about his shadow piece that was off to the left of his presentation. It was a box that had a Budda figurine in the center with some type of scripture that cannot be seen. He built a mechanism that has a sensor, when you approach the object the glass fogs up so nobody can see it. He began his slide show which showed pixels of different ranges that showed blurs of images such as a boxing match that you cannot make out but if you look at it for awhile you begin to see the image in motion. He also did the same thing with a man stumbling while walking down the street that was along the same idea but it was the pixels turning off and on making the outline and filling the image of the man. He seemed brilliant but not very enthusiastic.
The Jim Campbell talk was… interesting. A small detail that I thought to be funny was he said, “I don’t really want to be here but, here it goes…”, priceless. He spoke about his shadow piece that was off to the left of his presentation. It was a box that had a Budda figurine in the center with some type of scripture that cannot be seen. He built a mechanism that has a sensor, when you approach the object the glass fogs up so nobody can see it. He began his slide show which showed pixels of different ranges that showed blurs of images such as a boxing match that you cannot make out but if you look at it for awhile you begin to see the image in motion. He also did the same thing with a man stumbling while walking down the street that was along the same idea but it was the pixels turning off and on making the outline and filling the image of the man. He seemed brilliant but not very enthusiastic.
film screening: Am I making art?
“Am I Making Art?”
At the PFA the film, “Am I Making Art” were four featured extremely awkward pieces of art. The film that first appeared was Thresa Cha’s “Mouth to Mouth”, which began with lots of fuzz or snow like in the old days when you would not get reception to your television. A mouth appears and it looks as if water is mixed in with the fuzz as the mouth opens and closes. The mouth makes “O” shapes and fades out as water continues to trickle about but with a blowing wind sound. As the film goes on the man and the mouth appears and re-appears displaying with loud sounds and disappearing with silence. At the end of the first film it looked like there were bats flying out of the “O” shape mouth, like a bat cave. The second film was by John Boldesary called “I Am Making Art,” it was the single most boring film I have ever scene. He starts in a standing position with his arms at his side and moves one part of his body at a time in one single motion and when he completes the movement says the words, “I am making art.” He looks as if he is doing the “Hokey Pokey” in slow motion, although he never does the same move twice in a row. I feel his movement could be related to Virilio’s character Trajectory because he begins in one place and through a series of robot like movements he ends up all over the screen as if he is painting something. The trajectory is with himself and the path he makes around the room along with the motions he makes. The third film was by Acconchi, called "Theme Song" and was as extremely odd like the others. The same guy made the film where he pointed at the screen for thirty minutes I noticed. He is laying on the ground and lights up a cigarette, throughout the film he smokes one after the other, and sings songs about a girl and that he is ready for her to come to him. What he would do for her by changing the music in the music box next to him and singing about her. The final film by Nancy Holt, “East Side West Side” takes place in a kitchen or dinning room. Two artists, Nancy Holt from New York and Robert Smithson from California converse about random topics and argue peacefully like we know they are acting. The two differ in many ways, the audience that was there laughed because of the drastic character difference. They each talk about different topics and have very obvious disagreements with one another. Holt has very easy going ideas while Robert thinks about what he is saying and says it in an intellectual manner.
At the PFA the film, “Am I Making Art” were four featured extremely awkward pieces of art. The film that first appeared was Thresa Cha’s “Mouth to Mouth”, which began with lots of fuzz or snow like in the old days when you would not get reception to your television. A mouth appears and it looks as if water is mixed in with the fuzz as the mouth opens and closes. The mouth makes “O” shapes and fades out as water continues to trickle about but with a blowing wind sound. As the film goes on the man and the mouth appears and re-appears displaying with loud sounds and disappearing with silence. At the end of the first film it looked like there were bats flying out of the “O” shape mouth, like a bat cave. The second film was by John Boldesary called “I Am Making Art,” it was the single most boring film I have ever scene. He starts in a standing position with his arms at his side and moves one part of his body at a time in one single motion and when he completes the movement says the words, “I am making art.” He looks as if he is doing the “Hokey Pokey” in slow motion, although he never does the same move twice in a row. I feel his movement could be related to Virilio’s character Trajectory because he begins in one place and through a series of robot like movements he ends up all over the screen as if he is painting something. The trajectory is with himself and the path he makes around the room along with the motions he makes. The third film was by Acconchi, called "Theme Song" and was as extremely odd like the others. The same guy made the film where he pointed at the screen for thirty minutes I noticed. He is laying on the ground and lights up a cigarette, throughout the film he smokes one after the other, and sings songs about a girl and that he is ready for her to come to him. What he would do for her by changing the music in the music box next to him and singing about her. The final film by Nancy Holt, “East Side West Side” takes place in a kitchen or dinning room. Two artists, Nancy Holt from New York and Robert Smithson from California converse about random topics and argue peacefully like we know they are acting. The two differ in many ways, the audience that was there laughed because of the drastic character difference. They each talk about different topics and have very obvious disagreements with one another. Holt has very easy going ideas while Robert thinks about what he is saying and says it in an intellectual manner.
Film Screening Response: Next (2007)
Next is a film directed by Lee Tamahori, and adapted from Philip K. Dick’s short story, “The Golden Man.” Overall I found the film a bit disappointing. I felt the movie was thirty minutes too short as it lacks an apparent satisfactory ending. It left me wondering if anything actually happened in the film as the end credits was rolling in reverse. The entire film was layered in different realities that could be the future or the present. In the beginning of the film the distinctions were clear as the color tone served as a marker; however, towards the end of the movie, viewers were informed that what we had actually seen thus far didn’t happen yet, and the plot abruptly ended when a closure was definitely expected. One phrase by Chris Johnson (Nicholas Cage) was particularly interesting, “here’s the thing about the future. Every time you look at it, it changes, and that changes everything else.” This reminded me of several authors we read so far this semester. Bergon’s Creative Evolution suggests that, “time is invention or it is nothing at all,” and in the case of Next the nature of form becomes questionable: is it still an instantaneous juxtaposition in space, or is it something that’s been predetermined? It seems that both arguments can be justified using Bergson’s time as an invention. If latter scenario is the case, then Virilio’s objective, subjective, and trajective frame work seems to be a useful tool in analyzing the relationships among past, future, and present. If form is predetermined then the trajective element would be permanently missing; however, in Virilio’s Open Sky, the trajective seems to refer to state of the present, as dromology pollutes the space, and time by bringing the future and the past instantaneously closer than ever. In Next, this trajectivity is no longer depicting the present; it is bringing future closer to a future that’s even further away.
Next
The movie Next, directed by Lee Tamahori and released this year, is about a man who can constantly see two minutes into the future. This man, played by Nicholas Cage, tries to live a normal life until a nuclear bomb goes missing and the FBI tries chasing him down in order to get his help for finding the bomb. He does not want to help because his ability will be exploited and the government will run experiments on him. The government knows he can see two minutes into the future but what they don’t know is that he can see even further into the future when it deals with the girl played by Jessica Biel.
There is one scene in the movie when Cage’s character first meets Biel’s character in a diner and he walks up to her and she tells him to go away. The same shot is then shown again and he tries a different approach but is again rejected. These shots are him seeing what would happen in the next two minutes if he takes these certain approaches. Finally he sees one that works out and he takes it, but had he been unable to see the future, things may not have worked out.
Another aspect of the movie that was like a huge twist was the end when the nuclear bomb explodes and the movie goes back to about the middle and we realize all that had happened was what Cage’s character was seeing in the future. Essentially, he was seeing the future within the future. The main way this relates to the class is that it shows how someone can change the future if they know what is going to happen. This is the whole point to the movie and Cage is constantly using his ability to see the future to change the future.
-Danny Ponticello
There is one scene in the movie when Cage’s character first meets Biel’s character in a diner and he walks up to her and she tells him to go away. The same shot is then shown again and he tries a different approach but is again rejected. These shots are him seeing what would happen in the next two minutes if he takes these certain approaches. Finally he sees one that works out and he takes it, but had he been unable to see the future, things may not have worked out.
Another aspect of the movie that was like a huge twist was the end when the nuclear bomb explodes and the movie goes back to about the middle and we realize all that had happened was what Cage’s character was seeing in the future. Essentially, he was seeing the future within the future. The main way this relates to the class is that it shows how someone can change the future if they know what is going to happen. This is the whole point to the movie and Cage is constantly using his ability to see the future to change the future.
-Danny Ponticello
Pine Flat
Pine Flat consisted of twelve ten-minute sequences, with an intermission half-way through. It started out with a still shot from above a grove of trees during the winter. It is hard to tell if there is any visible motion during this shot because no significant motion occurs, if any. In this scene, there is just the occasional yelling by children who apparently are playing in the grove. The film continues with more still shots, each of which consist of a little motion here and there. There is another shot of a child sitting on a grassy hill reading a book. She reads for a minute or two and then turns the page and continues with this for the whole ten minutes. The technique of using a still shot for all the sequences is a way to highlight the motion of the action that does occur on screen. Just like in La Jetée when the woman blinks in one shot, it is like that with the minimal motion that occurs in Pine Flat for some of the sequences. This lack of motion can become boring at times because it is the same scenery for ten minutes straight, making us rely on the motion of the children on screen. We are lucky that the film was filmed over multiple years, giving us scenery from all the seasons of the year.
-Danny Ponticello
-Danny Ponticello
Commissioned Works
A Tight Thirteen Minutes- A Commissioned Works consists of thirteen one-minute sequences and then fifteen four-minute sequences. One of the one-minute sequences was a film of the director talking to the audience for the whole minute, trying to get in as many words as he possibly can. I found that interesting because it made the minute seem like the shortest minute, even though the most seemed to happen in that one compared to all the other one minute videos. One of the four-minute sequences that I enjoyed was the dog and ball one where the maker of the film tries to get his dog to drop the ball in the bucket. It is really funny because the dog doesn’t know the goal, yet, in the end, the dog is able to accomplish it. These four minutes seemed so much shorter than the four minutes of the screen saying “Stand By” and the sequence with the guy tuning the two glasses by pouring water constantly from one to the other. I feel like the main point of this film, where each director gets four minutes to do anything on screen, is to show the difference in time from one sequence to the next. There is a clear difference in the sense of time in each sequence because when something is interesting, it seems to be shorter than if it is really boring.
-Danny Ponticello
-Danny Ponticello
Pine Flat
Pine Flat is a movie directed by Sharon Lockhart with a series of various long shots depicting scenes of youth interacting with nature. Each long shot was ten minutes long and filmed with a camera that did not move. Personally, I was very disappointed with the this film, thought it was a waste of my money, and left after the scene featuring the kids playing cops and robbers. As these scenes are all long shots, each scene represents real time and perhaps attempt to capture the experience which the children felt when they were filmed. However, while this may have been the intent (to capture the details of nature and the experience through long intense shots), the technique she chose was very inappropriate for a movie theatre audience. While Lockhart's use of the long shots does help to bring out the little details in nature which one might not usually pay attention to, I often found myself not noticing these things because I was so annoyed with the monotonousness of the film. This film is a perfect example of where the director has gone too far in terms of capturing and portraying real time. Much like how an artist who draws overly photorealistic ends up with a stiff and lifeless drawing, the same has happened here. By showing a perfect reflection of what she experienced, she has tainted the experience through the medium. Just a little creative license--perhaps some editing or even just a bit of music--would have given the experience more energy and vibrancy. Instead, however, Lockhart has created a film which some might appreciate, but most would deem as a waste of time.
Film Screening - Emma's Bliss
On Tuesday, May 1, I attended the screening of the film Emma's Bliss at the Pacific Film Archive. This film was about a man named Max who was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the pancreas. With not much time to live, he decides to steal a car and money from the car dealership where he works. While fleeing, he drives off the road, ending up the frontyard of a woman who lives by herself on a farm. We learn that this woman, named Emma, lives by herself. One peculiarity about her is that she has a habit of slaughtering pigs in a very loving manner. Emma takes care of Max, and as the story progresses, the two develop a relationship. However, their relationship is short lived, as Max's condition becomes worse and worse. At the end of the film, Emma chooses to end Max's life in the same loving way that she slaughters her pigs.
I found the movie to be very entertaining, especially after my first experience at the PFA. I found myself empathizing with the situation that Max and Emma were in. One thing I found particularly interesting was the movie's portrayal of assiting someone with dying. Having recently gone on interviews at medical schools, I realize that euthanasia is big issue in the medical community. This movie portrays euthanasia in a positive light. The ending with this movie will impact me as I am asked to evaluate whether euthanasia should be accepted or not in the U.S.
Philip Schmidt
I found the movie to be very entertaining, especially after my first experience at the PFA. I found myself empathizing with the situation that Max and Emma were in. One thing I found particularly interesting was the movie's portrayal of assiting someone with dying. Having recently gone on interviews at medical schools, I realize that euthanasia is big issue in the medical community. This movie portrays euthanasia in a positive light. The ending with this movie will impact me as I am asked to evaluate whether euthanasia should be accepted or not in the U.S.
Philip Schmidt
Am I Making Art
The PFA screening, “Am I Making Art”, showed four films, each one famous in it’s own right. The first film was Thresa Cha’s “Mouth to Mouth”. This film showed a screen filled with television static but it took shapes, such as that of a river, or a mouth. There were accompanying static sounds. The symbols and sounds faded in and out of focus leaving the viewer stuck trying to make sense of the compilation of the blurred pictures and distorted sound. One of the other films was, “I Am Making Art by John Boldesary. This film is possibly the most famous but also possibly the most boring and monotonous of all of the films. It consists of a fifteen minute long shot of Boldesary making different poses saying “I am making art” with each new pose. He progresses through motions and angles and eventually ends up on the floor and out of the view of the camera. The continual movement could be related to film, or Bergson’s cinematographic view because it is a series of stopped motions that come together to make motions. He represents the interval by moving from pose to pose and place to place but the stopped poses and places represent the frames. As a result, his film can be interpreted as a representation of the “art” he is supposedly making. The third film that was shown was Acconchi's "Theme Song". In this film he tries to seduce the camera, and thus the audience while playing music of the time. This seems to be a blatant criticism of the seductive medias of film and music. He acts as an embodiment of the media’s through his words and mimicking of the media’s themselves. For instance, he often refers to the lines of the song that is playing in order to seduce the audience. By doing this he not only displays the seductive quality of media but also breaks down the barier between the viewer and the viewed. By speaking directly to the audience he transforms the audience from spectator to interactive participants of his work. The last film was, “East Side, West Side” by Nancy Holt. The film portrays two artists, Nancy Holt from New York and Robert Smithson from California interacting. The difference in character between the two is almost comical at many points. Each person is trying to discus different topics and in different ways. Smithson is talking about intellectual ideas and Holt is acting in a hippie manner. There is a distinct conflict between the two throughout the film.
Next
Next is a movie about a man (Nicholas Cage) with the ability to see two minutes into the future. However, the movie makes clear that his ability to see the future changes what happens in the future itself. The way that the movie presents this effect, however, is very interesting. For example, there is a scene in a casino where he predicts the future--someone will rob the cashier. However, the movie is directed in such a way that his vision is portrayed as if it is actually happening Then when this alternative reality (the future) has been shown, the movie snaps back in time to the present. From here, he makes the decision of what to do next and "reality" plays out accordingly. By portraying his visions like this, the viewer becomes unsure of what might actually be reality and what is the future, the vision. Some could argue that even though this movie could be played out in a rational order, this movie is a very good representation of a time-image. The rational order could be argued because it is showing the vision which he is seeing spliced between the two moments of reality. Yet paradoxically, the fact that these visions are those of the future and are indistinguishable from actual reality (until the scene snaps back to reality and plays over again in a different way) begs for the film to be deemed a time-image. When this first happened, I was actually quite surprised and caught off guard because I thought the future vision was the reality. In this temporal sense, this movie manipulates the viewer really well, adding to the overall excitement of the experience.
doug aikten
Doug Aitken is an artist from the LA area who focuses on visual mediums. He uses still framed pictures as an art form with several interesting shots. During his presentation he showed a shot of a diamond sea from an aerial view. This generated a sense of immensity, showing the vast span of the desert area. I also liked his picture of the ghost town in Africa. There seemed to be an intangible emptiness of the town. It showed a long street, with dirt roads, and boarded windows. Almost every aspect in the frame seemed to state the emptiness of the town. Aitken also used film in his art. He combined several different and somewhat disorienting scenes throughout the film. Several sequences had frames within the frame with different actions going on in each frame. Each frame had a different person in it. This system made it seem like each person was equated with a different frame. Overall though, I was incredibly confused by the film. I had trouble figuring out what it’s point was. Obviously, it was supposed to be an art form but I felt like nothing inside the film had any real point or message. As the viewer I was frustrated by the lack of a real story or point but it is possible that that was the intended point: to conflict with the standard system of film.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Premonition
Premonition, which came out this year, combines the basic elements of a sci-fi film with those of a melodrama and action film. Sandra Bullock's character Linda is living out the seemingly perfect life with an attractive husband, two beautiful daughters and a big American home, when suddenly her life is turned upside down. She comes to learn that her husband has died in a fluke car accident. After Linda suffers from shock and disbelief, the following morning she is surprised to find her husband laying next to her in bed.
This non-linear film jumbles the days of the week, and inserts Linda's premonitions into her reality to make for a very confusing, yet somewhat suspenseful film. While the film overtly deals with time, the underlying theme is the question of predetermination or destiny. Without trying, Linda acts out the events that lead to the climax that she has already witnessed in her premonition. It becomes obvious that, even though she is aware of the situation, she cannot control what is destined to be.
I'm not sure that i can really decide if this movie fits into the 'good' or 'bad' category. I have heard so many negative reviews about the film (since it has been out in theaters for quite some time) that i was expecting it to be absolutely terrible. i have seen some terrible films, and i don't think this should be in the same category. I think i am biased because i like Sandra Bullock, and we are also talking so much about time that i found it interesting. I appreciated the film's originality and creativity with the manipulation of time, however, i would recommend to wait and rent it on DVD because $9.50 is expensive for a film that is just okay.
-chloe kloezeman
This non-linear film jumbles the days of the week, and inserts Linda's premonitions into her reality to make for a very confusing, yet somewhat suspenseful film. While the film overtly deals with time, the underlying theme is the question of predetermination or destiny. Without trying, Linda acts out the events that lead to the climax that she has already witnessed in her premonition. It becomes obvious that, even though she is aware of the situation, she cannot control what is destined to be.
I'm not sure that i can really decide if this movie fits into the 'good' or 'bad' category. I have heard so many negative reviews about the film (since it has been out in theaters for quite some time) that i was expecting it to be absolutely terrible. i have seen some terrible films, and i don't think this should be in the same category. I think i am biased because i like Sandra Bullock, and we are also talking so much about time that i found it interesting. I appreciated the film's originality and creativity with the manipulation of time, however, i would recommend to wait and rent it on DVD because $9.50 is expensive for a film that is just okay.
-chloe kloezeman
Premonition, 2007
Premonition is basically about a woman who knows her husband will die on a certain day before it happens. This movie is much like the recent movie Deja Vu or even Donnie Darko, where the character sees what's going to happen and then does it without realizing it. For example, Sandra Bullock puts pills down a drain just as she saw it in her vision, but realizes that she's just setting up fate. It's not until she puts the newspaper in the garbage that she realizes what she's doing. What's different about this movie is that there is no sequence to how the week is played out. In Donnie Darko, the audience sees a linear sequence of events, where it's Mon, then Tues, then Thurs, etc. In Premonition, it starts with Thursday, then jumps to Monday, then Saturday, Tuesday, Friday, Sunday, and finally Wednesday. There are a few errors in the film's sequences, such as the stickers on the glass door and when they show the cuts on the girl's face. The girl gets the cuts on Tuesday but when they show Thursday early on in the film, she doesn't have them, but has them later on Saturday.
A good idea that the film brought up was whether or not you can change events; you may try to change it but how do you know whether or not you trying to change it is actually what's needed to make the original event happen in the first place?
A good idea that the film brought up was whether or not you can change events; you may try to change it but how do you know whether or not you trying to change it is actually what's needed to make the original event happen in the first place?
pine flat
Pine flat by Sharon Lockhart was composed of roughly ten minute long fixed frame scenes. These scenes were split into several two parts with an intermission in between. The first series of scenes was composed of children by themselves while the second focused on group interaction. At first each scene seemed painfully long but as the viewer becomes accustomed to the drawn out, monotonous style they start to view the little things in the scene. For example, in a scene in the first half of the film, there is ten minutes of a girl sitting and reading. The viewer quickly looses interest in the girl reading because there is not much to interact with. However after several minutes of boredom the viewer begins to notice the sounds of birds, the waving of grass, the wind in the trees and other minor details. The viewers consciousness is drawn away from what its typically the center of the frame, or what would typically be considered the focal point of the action. This style forces the audience to notice the details that they would otherwise not notice. This is also illustrated in the scene that has a child sleeping in the center of the screen for its entirety. Because this scene is several scenes into the film the viewer already knows not to focus on the child for too long. As the viewer, I began to focus on the grass moving, the twitches of the child and its affects on his environment. The sounds of animals, wind and so on. The fixed frame style of pine flats brings out the details of a shot while conflicting with the typical perception of a film because there is no dominant action, theme or crisis.
The later portion of the film is more like a typical film because it has more action and conflict. Due to the interaction between people this portion of the film has more to entertain the viewers. In several scenes there are children running around, playing games and basically acting like kids. The viewer sees conflict with kids playing with airsoft guns, and sees extensive movement on the hike up through the screen or around the screen. However, the details are still a huge part of every scene. There are still prolonged moments with little to no action. The viewer has already become accustomed to these pauses and will focus on the minor details in the absence of more significant action. While the style of the film is not increadibly entertaining it forces the viewer to focus on things they otherwise would not have noticed.
The later portion of the film is more like a typical film because it has more action and conflict. Due to the interaction between people this portion of the film has more to entertain the viewers. In several scenes there are children running around, playing games and basically acting like kids. The viewer sees conflict with kids playing with airsoft guns, and sees extensive movement on the hike up through the screen or around the screen. However, the details are still a huge part of every scene. There are still prolonged moments with little to no action. The viewer has already become accustomed to these pauses and will focus on the minor details in the absence of more significant action. While the style of the film is not increadibly entertaining it forces the viewer to focus on things they otherwise would not have noticed.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Next - Anthony Castanos
The movie Next is about Chris Johnson's ability to see the future, how the government is trying to use his power to stop terrorists, and his attempts to save his girlfriend, played by Jessica Biel, from a preconceived death. The idea of the film calls into question the concept of fate and whether or not what Johnson sees could actually be considered "the future." Technically he still has to the ability to change his decisions and affect the now rather than following a preconception that would lead to his death or some sort of trouble. It seems instead, he sees what could potentially happen rather than a definite fate. The movie suggests that there is a difference between seeing the future and seeing your fate because while you can change your present situation to adjust the future, seeing fate would have to be impossible if it's meant to be a fixed, inevitable future that can never go unchanged and seeing it ahead of time would already change what you were meant to do. This film contrasts from Minority Report in that Tom Cruise sought to follow his preconceived future to find out if it was true while Johnson makes his own future by adjusting his decisions in the now to form a preapproved future. The film takes the liberty of making Johnson's powers into physical images such as when he divides into several figures to find a prefered future.
Next
A line from the film that really stood out to me was "Every time you look at the future it changes, because you looked at it. And that changes everything else." This seems to support the idea that time is changing, that everything is constantly changing. And it invokes another idea that each change has its succeeding change and that there is some kind of chain reaction mechanism. But what interests me is the fact that simply looking at it changes the future. Why does simply looking at it change it? What if you were to look at it but do nothing to alter the change? This seems to imply that the simple act of looking, which can arguably equate to the simple fact of knowing the future or the succeeding change is enough to change the future. So does knowledge, even if left alone and not used, have the power to change a future? Or might it mean that once we have knowledge, it is impossible to separate it from our actions which effect change? This reminds me of Bergson when he says that having an end state in mind drives the action to arrive at that end state. But in the case of this film, the major storyline is that he has two end states in mind: the one he sees occurring in the future, and the one he desires to occur in the future. And knowledge of both these end states drives his actions.
Film Screening: Next
The film Next is about a man, Nicholas Cage, who can see two minutes into the immediate future. Because of his talent, he is tracked down by the government to locate an atomic bomb about to be deployed by terrorists. An interesting scene in this film is when him and the police are in a hostile situation and he proceeds to divided his vision up into a multitude of selfs and explore the area in which there are possible bad guys or sensor bombs. What it shows us on the screen is him standing in one position and images of himself departing from his body in all different directions. What he intends to do by pulling this stunt is test all the possible options of what would happen next if they went in this or that direction. Therefore, if one of his images sets of a sensor bomb and dies, he know not to choose that option and instead picks another route. In this scene theya re in an engine room with many levels and platforms and the camera pans all around the room showing us replicas of Nicholas Cage testing all the different next options. He finally clears the entire area and they proceed to kick ass. It is stated in the film that when one sees the possible options of what comes next, that changes the future. I think by saying this , he means that nothing can be predetermined even if he can see in the future because doing that changes what comes Next.
JoeyP
JoeyP
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Film Screening - BB Optics
On April 10, I attended the PFA’s screening of BB Optics. This screening involved a presentation by Bill Brand of a number of works he has been responsible for preserving through his company, BB Optics. The six short features shown were the Nixon White House Super-8 Films, New Left Note, The Fallen World, Fire in My Belly, Home Avenue, Black and White Film, and Daffodils.
The Nixon White House Super-8 Films were created by members of Nixon’s cabinet who were given video cameras to record whatever they chose to. The majority of the film focused in on Nixon attending political events. The film lacked sound, making it extremely boring to watch. I didn’t understand the point of filming Nixon giving a speech when you aren’t able to hear what he is saying.
The next clip shown was New Left Note. This clip consisted of mostly scenes of political protest. The editing was extremely jumpy and disjointed. As Mr. Brand discussed, the clip left out the leaders, choosing instead to focus in on the common people involved in the protests.
The Fallen World was the artist, Margie Keller’s intimate portrayal of her husband. The first shot focused in on a huge stone sculpture. A classical music soundtrack accompanied the clip. The video followed a middle-aged man as he walked around to different sites, including a graveyard.
A Fire in My Belly focused in on scenes from Mexico. The film started off by cutting between newspaper articles and scenes on the street of Mexico. Next, the film showed two wrestlers fighting along with scenes of a cock fight and a bull fight. Finally, the film ended with scenes from a circus, showing a person on a trapeze and a monkey doing tricks.
The next three films shown by Mr. Brand were described as portraying intimate situations. The first film, Home Avenue, involved a women retelling the story of how she was raped in college. She discussed each event at the same locations that each event took place. In the next film, Black and White, we watched in black and white as a woman undressed and then slowly covered parts of her body with black paint, making them disappear to the audience. The final film was Daffodils, which was intimate showing of Mr. Brand by his wife.
Overall, I was disappointed with the BB Optics showing at the PFA. I found most of the clips boring. This probably stemmed from the fact that I had no connection to the film archival process like many people in the audience did.
Philip Schmidt
The Nixon White House Super-8 Films were created by members of Nixon’s cabinet who were given video cameras to record whatever they chose to. The majority of the film focused in on Nixon attending political events. The film lacked sound, making it extremely boring to watch. I didn’t understand the point of filming Nixon giving a speech when you aren’t able to hear what he is saying.
The next clip shown was New Left Note. This clip consisted of mostly scenes of political protest. The editing was extremely jumpy and disjointed. As Mr. Brand discussed, the clip left out the leaders, choosing instead to focus in on the common people involved in the protests.
The Fallen World was the artist, Margie Keller’s intimate portrayal of her husband. The first shot focused in on a huge stone sculpture. A classical music soundtrack accompanied the clip. The video followed a middle-aged man as he walked around to different sites, including a graveyard.
A Fire in My Belly focused in on scenes from Mexico. The film started off by cutting between newspaper articles and scenes on the street of Mexico. Next, the film showed two wrestlers fighting along with scenes of a cock fight and a bull fight. Finally, the film ended with scenes from a circus, showing a person on a trapeze and a monkey doing tricks.
The next three films shown by Mr. Brand were described as portraying intimate situations. The first film, Home Avenue, involved a women retelling the story of how she was raped in college. She discussed each event at the same locations that each event took place. In the next film, Black and White, we watched in black and white as a woman undressed and then slowly covered parts of her body with black paint, making them disappear to the audience. The final film was Daffodils, which was intimate showing of Mr. Brand by his wife.
Overall, I was disappointed with the BB Optics showing at the PFA. I found most of the clips boring. This probably stemmed from the fact that I had no connection to the film archival process like many people in the audience did.
Philip Schmidt
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Announcement about Film and Event Reviews
The last day of class, May 2, is the deadline for posting film and event reviews to the blog for course credit. If you have attended something and not yet posted about it, be sure to do so over the next week!
There is a film 5/2 at PFA. Plus this weekend the San Francisco Film Festival begins, so you could try to see something in it if you still need to attend a film: www.sffif.org. Check it out even if not for class; there are some great things in the program...
There is a film 5/2 at PFA. Plus this weekend the San Francisco Film Festival begins, so you could try to see something in it if you still need to attend a film: www.sffif.org. Check it out even if not for class; there are some great things in the program...
Jim Campbell, Shadow
Jim Campbell’s artwork, Shadow, is an intriguing piece because the ability to see its details is impossible. The piece is seen from afar as a Buddha in a square glass box. Upon approaching it, smoke fills the glass box, making it impossible to see the intricacy of the piece, leaving only a shadow of the Buddha inside. Campbell describes his work as frustrating. It is this frustration that controls the interest of its viewers. Because the viewers would soon lose interest if they could outsmart the piece, Campbell dedicated most of his efforts to ensure there were no holes in the interface, which would hinder the viewer’s attempt to sneak up to the object. I found it comical that the Buddha is sitting atop a scientific journal article from 1993. This is ironic because it is impossible to get close enough to the piece to read it. As I stood in front of the piece I found myself running up to it, as if I could move faster than the smoke within the box. Campbell’s piece was extremely interesting because we are able to interact with it, but is also frustrating as he described.
Campbell also described his work as a, “one liner.” As I sat there, I became somewhat disappointed as Campbell seemed uninspired by his own work. Many individuals were enthusiastic, asking questions and finding new ways to interpret the meaning of the piece. I felt like everyone was looking too far into the piece, whereas Campbell saw it as just a Buddha in a box. Campbell’s lack of enthusiasm caused me to question the true meaning of art. Are we looking to far into it, trying to find meaning that does not exist? Or can it be interpreted in any way, differing with every viewer?
The video Campbell showed was attention grabbing, because you really had to look at what you were watching in order to understand what is truly there. The video started out as a blurry mixture of colors, but as I watched, it slowly began to develop into movement. Eventually I was able to see it for what it truly was, a boxing match. Campbell said that this type of art is very interesting because every individual who experiences it is different. Some take 10 minutes to see it for what it is, whereas for others it takes 10 seconds. These videos provided art in which the viewer can interact, making it more appealing as well as entertaining.
Campbell also described his work as a, “one liner.” As I sat there, I became somewhat disappointed as Campbell seemed uninspired by his own work. Many individuals were enthusiastic, asking questions and finding new ways to interpret the meaning of the piece. I felt like everyone was looking too far into the piece, whereas Campbell saw it as just a Buddha in a box. Campbell’s lack of enthusiasm caused me to question the true meaning of art. Are we looking to far into it, trying to find meaning that does not exist? Or can it be interpreted in any way, differing with every viewer?
The video Campbell showed was attention grabbing, because you really had to look at what you were watching in order to understand what is truly there. The video started out as a blurry mixture of colors, but as I watched, it slowly began to develop into movement. Eventually I was able to see it for what it truly was, a boxing match. Campbell said that this type of art is very interesting because every individual who experiences it is different. Some take 10 minutes to see it for what it is, whereas for others it takes 10 seconds. These videos provided art in which the viewer can interact, making it more appealing as well as entertaining.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Response to Berkeley Dance Project 2007
The piece The Reception, featured in the Berkeley Dance Project 2007 at UC Berkeley, is an examination of “cyber culture” and “corporeal presence” through a crossing of choreographed dance and what they described as tele-immersion technology. The thirty-minute Reception included actual dancers who interacted with people that were filmed and then either televised on a monitor, or projected onto a screen. The narrator, who also physically participated in the show, asked the audience to examine their own notions of presence, and whether the lack of physical presence can be replaced, and equally so, through cyber-incarnations. These questions echo the notions of Mark Hansen in his article Seeing with the Body.
In the first segment, a female dancer dances with a cybernetic partner projected on a large screen in front of her. A web camera captures the image of the dancing girl, and, remotely, sends the image to a program in another building on campus, which reinterprets the image, transports it back, and projects a pixilated dancer on the large screen. The result is a sort of digital shadow. As the process of capturing the image, transporting it, and transposing it takes a few seconds, there is a slight delay between the dancer and her digital shadow. The actual dancer reacts to this delay, and tends to repeat herself, in order to present the illusion of dancing with an actual partner, or perhaps just her reflection. From this, arises the dichotomy of whether the digitization is supposed to simply be a sort of reflection (ballerina practicing in a mirror), or the replacement of a human, creating a new dance partner that will never break synchronicity.
The second segment questioned the notion of presence, and the lack thereof, in connection with digital replacement. The narrator muses on a distant lover, and his desire to see her and be with her. He then interacts with a “talking-head” (the head and shoulders) version of his lover playing on a monitor from a pre-recorded video. They converse back and forth with one another, presenting a believable interaction. Two questions arise from this. Firstly, from a personal standpoint, if our ideas on “what is real” are merely reinterpretations of our perceptions of reality, then does a digital reincarnation of someone suffice for their absence if we perceive the digitization to be real? And secondly, from an audience standpoint, and through a similar reasoning, is there a difference between watching two real people interact, and a real person and a digitally portrayed person interact if we can ignore the presence of digitization?
The questions raised in The Reception are tackled by Mark Hansen in his article Seeing with the Body. Hansen claims that digital reinterpretation, such as that featured in the dance piece, creates a “plane severed from a human observer”. (58) He believes that this in no way mimics or suffices for human presence. The existence of digital medium blocks reality-based human perception, as we are cut off from the “real” emotions of physical contact.
Eddie Berman
In the first segment, a female dancer dances with a cybernetic partner projected on a large screen in front of her. A web camera captures the image of the dancing girl, and, remotely, sends the image to a program in another building on campus, which reinterprets the image, transports it back, and projects a pixilated dancer on the large screen. The result is a sort of digital shadow. As the process of capturing the image, transporting it, and transposing it takes a few seconds, there is a slight delay between the dancer and her digital shadow. The actual dancer reacts to this delay, and tends to repeat herself, in order to present the illusion of dancing with an actual partner, or perhaps just her reflection. From this, arises the dichotomy of whether the digitization is supposed to simply be a sort of reflection (ballerina practicing in a mirror), or the replacement of a human, creating a new dance partner that will never break synchronicity.
The second segment questioned the notion of presence, and the lack thereof, in connection with digital replacement. The narrator muses on a distant lover, and his desire to see her and be with her. He then interacts with a “talking-head” (the head and shoulders) version of his lover playing on a monitor from a pre-recorded video. They converse back and forth with one another, presenting a believable interaction. Two questions arise from this. Firstly, from a personal standpoint, if our ideas on “what is real” are merely reinterpretations of our perceptions of reality, then does a digital reincarnation of someone suffice for their absence if we perceive the digitization to be real? And secondly, from an audience standpoint, and through a similar reasoning, is there a difference between watching two real people interact, and a real person and a digitally portrayed person interact if we can ignore the presence of digitization?
The questions raised in The Reception are tackled by Mark Hansen in his article Seeing with the Body. Hansen claims that digital reinterpretation, such as that featured in the dance piece, creates a “plane severed from a human observer”. (58) He believes that this in no way mimics or suffices for human presence. The existence of digital medium blocks reality-based human perception, as we are cut off from the “real” emotions of physical contact.
Eddie Berman
Friday, April 20, 2007
Doug Aitken
Doug Aitken, prominent LA artist, spoke of creating non-linear narratives that discuss the relation of different images in space. The theme in all of his works seem to be “Let’s make it, break it, and make it new again”. Aitken was frusterated with the rigidity of film and wanted to work with different perceptions. With works such as Diamond Sea, set in the diamond mines of Africa, he claimed to first break the linearity of film. He creates a psychological landscape out of physical one by allowing images to expand and become, what he calls, “kaleidoscopic”. Other works, such as Eraser and Monsoon focus on negative space. Other works he discussed included Rise which showed a cityscape from a “God’s eye view”. Next he discussed Into the Sun, which he claimed “expanded the notion of filmmaking through its connection to mythology.” The photograph he showed of the exhibit in London had projections of film on 3 walls and red earth covering the floor. Aitken also talked about Restless Minds, a film showing the beat patterns and linguistics of auctioneers.
Aitken discussed many interesting things in him lecture, however I was most taken with his ideas on the closed door policy of museums. I loved how he projected his work on the outside walls of a museum, in order to escape the constraints of tickets, hours, etc., so that even a person walking by or traveling on a bus could experience his work. I am also intrigued by the dioramas that he creates. For example, Plateau 1 is a large model created almost entirely out of fed-ex boxes. The sheer intricacies and the 6 months that it took to makes is completely fascinating.
I enjoyed the discussion and the work presented was very interesting and stimulating, however Aitken seems to be a slightly pompous, stereotypical artist—mellow, but very full of himself.
Aitken discussed many interesting things in him lecture, however I was most taken with his ideas on the closed door policy of museums. I loved how he projected his work on the outside walls of a museum, in order to escape the constraints of tickets, hours, etc., so that even a person walking by or traveling on a bus could experience his work. I am also intrigued by the dioramas that he creates. For example, Plateau 1 is a large model created almost entirely out of fed-ex boxes. The sheer intricacies and the 6 months that it took to makes is completely fascinating.
I enjoyed the discussion and the work presented was very interesting and stimulating, however Aitken seems to be a slightly pompous, stereotypical artist—mellow, but very full of himself.
Breakdown of Due Dates
4/22 Dance Performance at 2pm
4/23, Due in class: 2-3 page Final Paper Outline
Include the name of what you are working on in the title of the outline. Start with a short paragraph articulating your main argument. (A thesis paragraph.) List a CLAIM for each body paragraph; this is a topic sentence. Indicate the EVIDENCE or sources you will work with to support that claim (text, scene). Paraphrase your ANALYSIS of pertinent details of this evidence. Briefly suggest how your INTERPRETATION will link this analysis to your claim. (see handout) Cite the sources you are using at the end of the outline.
4/23 6pm Screening of your clips
You can show a SHORT clip from the film you are writing on: must be under 5 minutes!! If you are not writing on a film you can use my laptop (or yours) to access a website or show an image of a game or artwork.
4/25 and 4/30 In-Class Presentations
You will have five minutes to present your final project to the class. You will need to explain your argument in a general way; it is a task very similar to that of writing the introduction to your paper. We will be especially interested to hear how you will use Dlz/Vrlio/Sbchk/Hnsen; how the example you are working on relates to things from the class that we have all read or seen; and how its presentation of space and especially time fit in with the larger themes of the course. You will be able to use my laptop or yours to show images or slides but you are not required to do so. (If you want to use my laptop you will need to e-mail me a PowerPoint file titled with your name by 9am the morning of your presentation.) We’ll talk more about the presentations in class on 4/23.
4/30 6-8pm (screening time) ROUGH DRAFT due in two copies, Peer Edit
You will be partnered with another student to do a live peer-edit. You will read and discuss each other’s rough drafts, offering critique and advice. You’ll take home the copy that your partner read and wrote on, and we will keep the other copy. You can choose to show each other edits beyond this session if you find it helpful.
5/7 FINAL PAPER Due by 6pm in hard copy and by e-mail
One hard copy is due to Norman’s box in the Rhetoric office. The other copy is due by e-mail, as a Word.doc attachment, to Brooke at bbelisle@berkeley.edu. Please put “Final Paper” in the subject line of this e-mail so it will land in the right place. You will not get your final papers back, since we find that so many students never come pick them up. We will e-mail, to whatever e-mail address you have listed on BearFacts, your grade on the final paper and your grade for the cours, and probably a sentence of commentary. We will e-mail you more extensive feedback about your final paper only if you ask us to do so; please indicate this on the front of the hard copy you turn in AND in the body of the e-mail you send that has your final paper attached.
4/23, Due in class: 2-3 page Final Paper Outline
Include the name of what you are working on in the title of the outline. Start with a short paragraph articulating your main argument. (A thesis paragraph.) List a CLAIM for each body paragraph; this is a topic sentence. Indicate the EVIDENCE or sources you will work with to support that claim (text, scene). Paraphrase your ANALYSIS of pertinent details of this evidence. Briefly suggest how your INTERPRETATION will link this analysis to your claim. (see handout) Cite the sources you are using at the end of the outline.
4/23 6pm Screening of your clips
You can show a SHORT clip from the film you are writing on: must be under 5 minutes!! If you are not writing on a film you can use my laptop (or yours) to access a website or show an image of a game or artwork.
4/25 and 4/30 In-Class Presentations
You will have five minutes to present your final project to the class. You will need to explain your argument in a general way; it is a task very similar to that of writing the introduction to your paper. We will be especially interested to hear how you will use Dlz/Vrlio/Sbchk/Hnsen; how the example you are working on relates to things from the class that we have all read or seen; and how its presentation of space and especially time fit in with the larger themes of the course. You will be able to use my laptop or yours to show images or slides but you are not required to do so. (If you want to use my laptop you will need to e-mail me a PowerPoint file titled with your name by 9am the morning of your presentation.) We’ll talk more about the presentations in class on 4/23.
4/30 6-8pm (screening time) ROUGH DRAFT due in two copies, Peer Edit
You will be partnered with another student to do a live peer-edit. You will read and discuss each other’s rough drafts, offering critique and advice. You’ll take home the copy that your partner read and wrote on, and we will keep the other copy. You can choose to show each other edits beyond this session if you find it helpful.
5/7 FINAL PAPER Due by 6pm in hard copy and by e-mail
One hard copy is due to Norman’s box in the Rhetoric office. The other copy is due by e-mail, as a Word.doc attachment, to Brooke at bbelisle@berkeley.edu. Please put “Final Paper” in the subject line of this e-mail so it will land in the right place. You will not get your final papers back, since we find that so many students never come pick them up. We will e-mail, to whatever e-mail address you have listed on BearFacts, your grade on the final paper and your grade for the cours, and probably a sentence of commentary. We will e-mail you more extensive feedback about your final paper only if you ask us to do so; please indicate this on the front of the hard copy you turn in AND in the body of the e-mail you send that has your final paper attached.
Office hours 2/23 - 5/2 (brooke)
4/23 MONDAY in Rhetoric Library
11.15 joanna
11.30 cathy
11.45 chris
12 laura
12.15 olivia
12.30 johnny
4/25 WEDNESDAY in Rhetoric Library
11.15 leesha
11.30 alina
11.45
--
12.15 robin
12.30
12:45
4/30 MONDAY
11.15
11.30
11.15
11.30
--
12
12.15
12.30
12.45
5/2 WEDNESDAY at Cafe Milano on Bancroft between Telegraph and College
11.15
11.30
11.45
---
12.30
12.45
1
1.15
1.30
1.45
2
(3pm film at PFA)
11.15 joanna
11.30 cathy
11.45 chris
12 laura
12.15 olivia
12.30 johnny
4/25 WEDNESDAY in Rhetoric Library
11.15 leesha
11.30 alina
11.45
--
12.15 robin
12.30
12:45
4/30 MONDAY
11.15
11.30
11.15
11.30
--
12
12.15
12.30
12.45
5/2 WEDNESDAY at Cafe Milano on Bancroft between Telegraph and College
11.15
11.30
11.45
---
12.30
12.45
1
1.15
1.30
1.45
2
(3pm film at PFA)
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Final Paper Rashomon
I'm planning on doing my final paper on the 1950 film Rashomon, directed by Akira Kurosawa and written by Shinobu Hashimoto along with Kurosawa. The film takes place in 12-century Japan and follows three different accounts of the murder of a Samurai, as told to a trial judge. Each account, - the first from the killer, the next from the slain samurai, and the last from a third party - are each completely different from each other. Yet, as Kurosawa presents each story with equal credence, he challenges the viewer to decipher which is true, if any of them are. I'm planning to relate this to Sobchack's idea concerning memory.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Mark Hansen - Seeing With the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography
1. In Mark Hansen’s article, Seeing With the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography, he starts by discussing a particular scene in Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner. In this particular scene, Rick Deckard places a photograph into a machine and using this machine, is able to explore the space three-dimensionally within this two-dimensional picture. Hansen believes that the digitization of photographs creates a crisis. In one way, digital manipulation of photographs poses a “threat…to traditional indexical notions of photographic realism” (54). This isn’t the first time that this problem is brought up in the movie. At a different point in the film, a replicant named Rachael confronts Rick Deckard after Deckard accuses her of being a replicant. She shows him a picture of herself with her mother. Yet, the audience realizes that the photograph is a fake. In this world of advanced technology, a photograph, something that usually can be counted on to be authentic, can no longer be trusted to be authentic.
2. Another crisis created by the digitization of photographs that Hansen discusses is the “radically new understanding of the photographic image as a three-dimensional “virtual” space” (54). As Deckard uses the machine to move around within the two-dimensional picture, he transforms this two-dimensional space into a three-dimensional space. This machine transforms a photograph from “a physical inscription of light on sensitive paper” into a “data set that can be rendered in various ways and thus viewed from various perspectives” (54). In a sense, this machine that is able to move around inside of a two-dimensional photograph has gained a human-like quality. With commands from a user, the machine is able to move around the photograph, focusing in on particular areas of interest. This is the same as if a human being was suddenly transported to the scene of the original photograph, able to move around and explore as he pleased. This machine is taking the place of human vision, allowing a person to explore the area in a picture without having to actually be there.
3. This visual technology is “relocating vision to a plane severed from a human observer” (58). Suddenly, a person does not need to be present to observe a scene, all he needs is a photograph of the place and the right technology. This technology is taking the place of the human eye. However, this shift from the human eye to technology changes what an image represents. With the use of technology, images suddenly represent “millions of bits of electronic mathematical data” (58).
Philip Schmidt
2. Another crisis created by the digitization of photographs that Hansen discusses is the “radically new understanding of the photographic image as a three-dimensional “virtual” space” (54). As Deckard uses the machine to move around within the two-dimensional picture, he transforms this two-dimensional space into a three-dimensional space. This machine transforms a photograph from “a physical inscription of light on sensitive paper” into a “data set that can be rendered in various ways and thus viewed from various perspectives” (54). In a sense, this machine that is able to move around inside of a two-dimensional photograph has gained a human-like quality. With commands from a user, the machine is able to move around the photograph, focusing in on particular areas of interest. This is the same as if a human being was suddenly transported to the scene of the original photograph, able to move around and explore as he pleased. This machine is taking the place of human vision, allowing a person to explore the area in a picture without having to actually be there.
3. This visual technology is “relocating vision to a plane severed from a human observer” (58). Suddenly, a person does not need to be present to observe a scene, all he needs is a photograph of the place and the right technology. This technology is taking the place of the human eye. However, this shift from the human eye to technology changes what an image represents. With the use of technology, images suddenly represent “millions of bits of electronic mathematical data” (58).
Philip Schmidt
Kenneth Anger Films
Tonight’s films from Kenneth Anger were confusing in the sense that they had no plot, and Scorpio Rising was especially difficult to view because of the rapid assembling of different scenes flashing before you. It reminded me of a slideshow rather than my traditional idea of a film.
Fireworks had somewhat of a plot and possibly represented a dream. A sailor was holding a man while lightning flashed, then the scene cut to the man sleeping on his bed. I assume that when he “woke up” he was dreaming, and his dream was about a group of sailors beating him up. Although the movie ends with a scene of him sleeping, confirming my idea that it was a dream, there are parts that lead you to believe it wasn’t. For example, the fireplace is now on fire, presumably from the flaming Christmas tree in the dream, and the hand on his desk is now fixed, when it was broken in the “dream”. On another note, something in the film reminded me of the film we saw in class where the dancer danced into different rooms. At one point in Fireworks, the man was talking to a sailor at what looked like a bar, then in his home next to the fireplace. Unlike the film we saw in class, this was much more abrupt and it was difficult to tell if it was meant to be connected to the previous scene.
Rabbit’s Moon wasn’t much easier to understand, but an interesting idea the lecturer brought up was the debate he had when restoring the film: flip the image or don’t flip the image? Apparently the film was accidentally flipped when Anger transferred it, which caused Lipman to wonder whether or not to flip it back. There were two sides to it: 1) the big dipper would appear correctly if it was flipped or 2) not flipping it may keep what was intended. He decided making two versions, one flipped and one not, which I think was a fair decision.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Hansen - Seeing the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography
1. In Mark Hansen’s article, he starts off with the scene from Bladerunner in which Deckard manipulates a photograph in order to discover evidence leading to the whereabouts of the replicants. In his investigation, he operates a computer and reveals the invisible by walking through the image as if it is a 3d world rather than a flat image. However, this manipulation of photographs and the digital technology comes into question as he brings up William Mitchell. Mitchell grows wary of the present day digital manipulation of images and questions “the status and interpretation of the visual signifier” (57). Hansen proposes Mitchell’s guidelines limits the scope of digital photography and imaging. Instead of digitizing a hardcopy image, one can construct a 3d environment within the computer and take a picture within this environment. Game developers often such virtual worlds and take screenshots of these virtual environments. This may supposedly break Mitchell’s limits, however images within computers still relay the images back to in a 2d format. While Mitchell may worry about the implications of digital, digital photography acts as a quicker, perhaps more efficient tool in traditional photography, bypassing many steps of development.
2. Hansen later raises the question of the human perception versus the machine vision. Several theorists before the digital age criticized the human mind in operating in a camera-like fashion, taking snapshots of reality and missing out on true motion. As the technology evolved to present day digital media, Hansen brings up Florian Rotzer’s belief of “functional isomorphism.” “A person does not see the world out there,” rather “see[ing] the model created by the brain and projected outwards” (65). Hansen suggests that if the computer vision “abandons perspective entirely in favor of a completely realized modelization,” then it is possible to modify what our perspective. This poses the problem that human construction becomes as malleable and controlled like a photographic image. However, Hansen rebuts that the computer vision can only be an instrument or aid of human perspective.
3. The digital technology acts as an extension of our bodies or rather “embodied prosthesis.” Hansen then quotes architect Lars Spuybroek, suggesting that all thoughts and movements belong to the mind and within our body. These thoughts come to fruition when we will our body to move and operate in the “haptic” world. Hansen then interprets the computer to be an extension of our bodies, able to extend as a prosthetic into the virtual world. Suddenly our “body, in short has become crucial mediator between information and form: the supplemental sensorimotor intervention it operates coincidences with the process through which the image is created” (78). Our body acts as an intermediate between the mind and the virtual world full of data.
-Benjamin Louie
2. Hansen later raises the question of the human perception versus the machine vision. Several theorists before the digital age criticized the human mind in operating in a camera-like fashion, taking snapshots of reality and missing out on true motion. As the technology evolved to present day digital media, Hansen brings up Florian Rotzer’s belief of “functional isomorphism.” “A person does not see the world out there,” rather “see[ing] the model created by the brain and projected outwards” (65). Hansen suggests that if the computer vision “abandons perspective entirely in favor of a completely realized modelization,” then it is possible to modify what our perspective. This poses the problem that human construction becomes as malleable and controlled like a photographic image. However, Hansen rebuts that the computer vision can only be an instrument or aid of human perspective.
3. The digital technology acts as an extension of our bodies or rather “embodied prosthesis.” Hansen then quotes architect Lars Spuybroek, suggesting that all thoughts and movements belong to the mind and within our body. These thoughts come to fruition when we will our body to move and operate in the “haptic” world. Hansen then interprets the computer to be an extension of our bodies, able to extend as a prosthetic into the virtual world. Suddenly our “body, in short has become crucial mediator between information and form: the supplemental sensorimotor intervention it operates coincidences with the process through which the image is created” (78). Our body acts as an intermediate between the mind and the virtual world full of data.
-Benjamin Louie
PFA: "The Passenger" by Michelangelo Antonioni
Frustrated about his life and his failure to effectively inquire/report about rebels in Africa, David Locke takes the identity of a dead man (Mr. Robinson) in the hotel room adjacent to his by switching rooms and passports. Locke soon realizes that his new persona is a gun dealer for the African rebels that he was attempting to report about. He finds this new lifestyle intriguing and tries to make all of the schedule appointments in Mr. Robinson’s schedule. However, nobody seems to show up at most these appointments but in the process he meets a mysterious lady, known as “The Girl.” Throughout the entire film, he is being pursued by both his wife and a hit squad that was trying to kill Mr. Robinson for supplying the rebels with money. The movie ends in a tragic scene in Africa, where Locke is murdered by the hit squad and his wife sees his dead body.
In one scene of the movie, Locke listens to a tape of a conversation that he and Robinson had in the past. What is particularly interesting about this scene is that the conversation is being acted out on the screen at the same time we see Locke listening to the tape in the future in the same room—merging the two times into one image. So in effect, this scene allows the viewer to experience two moments in time simultaneously. In another scene, Locke’s wife and friend watch video tapes of Locke reporting the news. This allows the wife and audience to look at Locke in a previous time and persona—giving us the ability to juxtapose Locke’s new and old personas.
-Christopher Melgaard.
In one scene of the movie, Locke listens to a tape of a conversation that he and Robinson had in the past. What is particularly interesting about this scene is that the conversation is being acted out on the screen at the same time we see Locke listening to the tape in the future in the same room—merging the two times into one image. So in effect, this scene allows the viewer to experience two moments in time simultaneously. In another scene, Locke’s wife and friend watch video tapes of Locke reporting the news. This allows the wife and audience to look at Locke in a previous time and persona—giving us the ability to juxtapose Locke’s new and old personas.
-Christopher Melgaard.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Final Paper - Donnie Darko
For my final paper, I am writing on Donnie Darko. This movie was directed by Richard Kelly in 2001. It’s about a suburban teenager who comes face-to-face with his destiny. I chose this movie in particular because of the element of time travel involved. Donnie is able to take look into his future and use the future to make a decision about the present. By doing this, he collapses time, taking an interval of time and turning it into an instant. In particular, I am going to focus in on the use of opsigns and sonsigns in the film. My biggest concern so far has been finding an academic outside source that isn’t a film review.
Philip Schmidt
Philip Schmidt
Saturday, April 14, 2007
The Passenger-Mara
Michaelangelo Antonioni's "The Passanger" is a film that follows David Locke, a reporter, who takes on the life of David Robertson when he unexpectidly dies. They met in Africa when staying in the same hotel and formed a of friendship. After assuming this new identity Locke walks in the footsteps of this other man without knowing what he is getting himself into, Robertson was a gunrunner for African rebels. Along the way he meets "girl" who is a wanderer herself.
The most striking thing to me about this movie was that it was as if the camera was an observer itself, following this man through his life. The movie begins slowly, with few lines, and the audience is just watching. The camera would shift views and look off into the desert, or watch a camel walking, or a wire on the wall, and then go back to watching Locke. The focus was never entirely on the main character or what he was doing. Something would be happening, and then as if the camera's attention got caught by something on the side it would change views, then "remember" what was going on main stage and go back to the main story line
As opposed to distracting me from the film, I actually felt that it enhanced it. Because of the slower pace of the movie, it had the potential to get boring, as many films of these kinds do. I was more intuned to the film because of these changes in direction of the camera. It made me feel more "there" in the movie because I was seeing these tiny details, these random images that are always present in movies but always bypassed. They gave more visual texture to the film that I really liked.
Another thing that I feel that the director did well was the way he did the memory sequences. After Robertson dies, Locke remembers moments with him, listens to recordings of their conversations, as he begins his transformation into Robertson. The change from present time to memory time is subtle and flows. In one part of the room it will be a memory, and then the camera will pan across the building and look in through a window and it's the present.
Over all I enjoyed the film and was suprised that Jack Nicholson was in it, it seemed a different kind of movie than his others.
The most striking thing to me about this movie was that it was as if the camera was an observer itself, following this man through his life. The movie begins slowly, with few lines, and the audience is just watching. The camera would shift views and look off into the desert, or watch a camel walking, or a wire on the wall, and then go back to watching Locke. The focus was never entirely on the main character or what he was doing. Something would be happening, and then as if the camera's attention got caught by something on the side it would change views, then "remember" what was going on main stage and go back to the main story line
As opposed to distracting me from the film, I actually felt that it enhanced it. Because of the slower pace of the movie, it had the potential to get boring, as many films of these kinds do. I was more intuned to the film because of these changes in direction of the camera. It made me feel more "there" in the movie because I was seeing these tiny details, these random images that are always present in movies but always bypassed. They gave more visual texture to the film that I really liked.
Another thing that I feel that the director did well was the way he did the memory sequences. After Robertson dies, Locke remembers moments with him, listens to recordings of their conversations, as he begins his transformation into Robertson. The change from present time to memory time is subtle and flows. In one part of the room it will be a memory, and then the camera will pan across the building and look in through a window and it's the present.
Over all I enjoyed the film and was suprised that Jack Nicholson was in it, it seemed a different kind of movie than his others.
PFA Michelangelo Antonioni – The Passenger
Michelangelo Antonioni – The Passenger
Jack Nicholson in Michelangelo Antonioni’s “The Passenger,” stars as David Locke, a British journalist covering the civil war in instable parts of Africa. When an acquaintance, David Robertson, suddenly dies of a questionable heart attack, Locke spontaneously swaps identities, perhaps to leave his lost burnt out life. While assuming the mysterious Robertson’s life, Locke follows Robertson’s appointment book only to discover his new identity is a gunrunner for the African rebels. Locke makes one last visit to his previous life before he escapes and embarks on Robertson’s life. Upon his travels, he meets a young mysterious woman who seems like a wanderer with no direction. She accompanies him on his journey, urging him to continue Robertson’s fight with the rebels against tyrannical rule. However, unsure of his actions, Locke continually runs from both his past life, as his cheating wife and producer search for him, and pursuing African agents, unbeknownst to Locke. As the pursuers catch up to Locke, he also meets his untimely fate.
“The Passenger” starts out with almost no dialogue and often times eerily silences filled with little background sounds. I have never seen a film in which the director continually zooms or pans out from the characters to focus on the surrounding setting or landscape. In many scenes, Antonioni pulls out to situate the viewer in the desolate African deserts, the winding turns and hills of Spain, the bustling cityscape, or focusing on settings outside windows and impending events unknown to Locke. In addition, Antonioni portrays past events in an interesting manner. Rather than cutting or using a flashback blur, he leaves the present characters in the same scene as the past events. In an earlier part of the film, Locke recalls a conversation he had with Robertson occurring as he is sitting at his desk. The camera then pans left toward a balcony in which both Locke and Robertson were conversing with each other. As the camera pans back to Locke at his desk, we discover the conversation occurring was from a recorder. In another scene, Antonioni shows Locke’s wife looking out a window, witnessing Locke crazily burning a pile of branches. As the camera cuts to down to Locke’s level of perception, his wife remains in the upstairs window and another woman worryingly runs out screaming at Locke. We later realize that the worried woman was Locke’s wife and the events occurring took place in the past. His wife in the window is in the present realm reminiscing about the fiasco.
I enjoyed the film’s long drawn out scenic shots. However, sometimes I found the movie too slow and not very stimulating. At times, I felt as if I was wandering along with the characters, confused about which direction to be heading in their journey. Overall, I still enjoyed the film.
-Benjamin Louie
Jack Nicholson in Michelangelo Antonioni’s “The Passenger,” stars as David Locke, a British journalist covering the civil war in instable parts of Africa. When an acquaintance, David Robertson, suddenly dies of a questionable heart attack, Locke spontaneously swaps identities, perhaps to leave his lost burnt out life. While assuming the mysterious Robertson’s life, Locke follows Robertson’s appointment book only to discover his new identity is a gunrunner for the African rebels. Locke makes one last visit to his previous life before he escapes and embarks on Robertson’s life. Upon his travels, he meets a young mysterious woman who seems like a wanderer with no direction. She accompanies him on his journey, urging him to continue Robertson’s fight with the rebels against tyrannical rule. However, unsure of his actions, Locke continually runs from both his past life, as his cheating wife and producer search for him, and pursuing African agents, unbeknownst to Locke. As the pursuers catch up to Locke, he also meets his untimely fate.
“The Passenger” starts out with almost no dialogue and often times eerily silences filled with little background sounds. I have never seen a film in which the director continually zooms or pans out from the characters to focus on the surrounding setting or landscape. In many scenes, Antonioni pulls out to situate the viewer in the desolate African deserts, the winding turns and hills of Spain, the bustling cityscape, or focusing on settings outside windows and impending events unknown to Locke. In addition, Antonioni portrays past events in an interesting manner. Rather than cutting or using a flashback blur, he leaves the present characters in the same scene as the past events. In an earlier part of the film, Locke recalls a conversation he had with Robertson occurring as he is sitting at his desk. The camera then pans left toward a balcony in which both Locke and Robertson were conversing with each other. As the camera pans back to Locke at his desk, we discover the conversation occurring was from a recorder. In another scene, Antonioni shows Locke’s wife looking out a window, witnessing Locke crazily burning a pile of branches. As the camera cuts to down to Locke’s level of perception, his wife remains in the upstairs window and another woman worryingly runs out screaming at Locke. We later realize that the worried woman was Locke’s wife and the events occurring took place in the past. His wife in the window is in the present realm reminiscing about the fiasco.
I enjoyed the film’s long drawn out scenic shots. However, sometimes I found the movie too slow and not very stimulating. At times, I felt as if I was wandering along with the characters, confused about which direction to be heading in their journey. Overall, I still enjoyed the film.
-Benjamin Louie
Friday, April 13, 2007
Week of April 16 and 18
For Monday read the following chapters from the second reader:
From Writing Analytically: Writing the Researched Paper AND Finding and Citing Sources
From A Short Guide to Writing About Film: Researching the Movies
Monday we'll talk mostly about writing the final paper.
Monday night there will be a screening.
Wednesday we'll talk about the screening and the following article.
***You have to find it yourself as part of the assignment***(hint- it's indexed on JSTOR):
"Seeing With the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography" by Mark Hansen, (originally published in Diacritics in 2001)
Your paper topics look great!
A little help for people going into things we have not read much about...
For people writing on games or online words these two books are helpful:
The Video Game Theory Reader by Mark J. P. Wolf
First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game by Noah Wardrip-Fruin
For the person writing on Camille Utterback here is a chapter on her from a recent book: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10720&mode=toc
From Writing Analytically: Writing the Researched Paper AND Finding and Citing Sources
From A Short Guide to Writing About Film: Researching the Movies
Monday we'll talk mostly about writing the final paper.
Monday night there will be a screening.
Wednesday we'll talk about the screening and the following article.
***You have to find it yourself as part of the assignment***(hint- it's indexed on JSTOR):
"Seeing With the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography" by Mark Hansen, (originally published in Diacritics in 2001)
Your paper topics look great!
A little help for people going into things we have not read much about...
For people writing on games or online words these two books are helpful:
The Video Game Theory Reader by Mark J. P. Wolf
First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game by Noah Wardrip-Fruin
For the person writing on Camille Utterback here is a chapter on her from a recent book: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10720&mode=toc
Butterfly Effect
Butterfly Effect by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber released in 2004. I'm really intrigued by the way this movie represents this theory of chaos. Butterfly effect is the theory that a small occurrence turns into a huge effect. The main character has holes in his memory that are filled in by what he does in the present. At first he uses his journals to access his past. But in the end when his journals are gone he uses a home video. It's interesting that for the course of the film he traveled back through his own thought process, but the video was an outside objective point of view but provided the same result. I'd like to tie this in with Virilio's Open Sky with the "ghostly double" as Ashton Kutcher travels back basically into a memory and directs his memory-self to do something. I'd like to consider more also the way Kutcher's character experiences pain and nose-bleed as he rushes back to the present, as if this is the toll on his weighted body to speed through the journey of time to the present, yet he always maintains the same consciousness throughout the film.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Final Paper - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
For my final paper, I would like to analyze the last installment of the Star Wars saga, released in 2005 and directed by George Lucas. I am a fan of the series and find the concept of space travel and “the force” intriguing. I would narrow the focus on the technologies of the holographic images and the ability for space crafts to travel at the speed of light. I may choose to go into specifics of “the force” such as foreseeing the future. The main relation to the course will be through the technology that is possibly dissolving space and time.
STARGATE
My final paper will be about the movie Stargate by Roland Emmerich, released in 1994. I want to write about Stargate because I am a fan of the movie and find it very interesting and I dont find it hard to relate Virilio's open sky and Optics on a grand scale. In the movie there is one specific scene where they are trying to place 7runes in a correct order to open a time portal with no control over how far they are traveling when they open it and go through they are in a dark pyramid. (more to it but will become relevant in the essay) This can be applied to teleconfrencing due to the hole in space and a hole in time. A concern I have is how many times im going to have to watch it to understand it enough to relate it to virilio.
Final Film Paper- Mara
For my final paper I am going to analyze the film "Enigma" (2001) directed by Michael Apted, screenplay by Tom Stoppard. This film is about breaking the Nazi Shark Enigma code in WWII that led to one of the greatest breakthroughs in the war. This movie relates to the changing of technology through time and how humans adapted and integrated it into their lives. New forms of communication, ways of conducting war and espionage caused a shift in thinking. Technology made everything close and became a battle between man and machine. I will use Virilio's "optics on a grand scale" which discusses the loss of journey and the ever present now. I will also incorporate Sobchack's ideas on expressive technology that "Chan[ge] not only our expression of the world and ourselves, these perceptive technologies also change our sense of ourselves in radical ways that have now become naturalized and transparent". Jericho is the main character who lives codes and has a close relationship with the new technology that is a part of him because of his ability to be on par with the machine. The machine becomes the eyes of the Allies in the war. Also, time becomes irrelevant as space becomes smaller.
There is also an aspect of memory that can be gleened from the film as well. Throughout the film Jericho experiences poignant memories by physically being in places that evoke memories. With the growing of instant communication, there will be less need to have a physical presence and when that happens, what will create our memories if we do not experience people in the flesh.
There is also an aspect of memory that can be gleened from the film as well. Throughout the film Jericho experiences poignant memories by physically being in places that evoke memories. With the growing of instant communication, there will be less need to have a physical presence and when that happens, what will create our memories if we do not experience people in the flesh.
Final Paper-Memento
In my final paper I will examine a film produced in 2001, titled Memento, which was written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Nolan separates this video into a number of sequences, and jumbles each of these sequences around to create a unique effect of temporality within the film. The film is about a young man who is no longer capable of producing short-term memories. In order to keep his life organized he uses Polaroid pictures to identify different people and places as well as their characteristics. In Vivian Sobchack’s article, she refers to family albums as a, “memory bank” saying that photographs has an increasing value, which “materializes and authenticates experience, others, and oneself as empirically real” (Sobchack 143). This completely pertains to Leonard, the main character of the film, and his use of photographs for memory. I will examine other sources, possibly Mary Ann Doane’s book, The Emergence of Cinematic Time, as well as articles from the Cinema Journal and Film Quarterly to aid in my analysis of the photography within the film.
Camille Utterback
I plan on writing my final paper on Camille Utterback's External Measures (2003) and Untitled 5 (2004) series of interactive art. I heard about this style of art, which uses the viewer's movements in molding the art work itself, last semester. I am very interested in using this style of digital artwork because it incorporates many of the authors we have discussed in class. I plan on relating Utterback’s work to Virilio’s analysis of the digital as well as Bragaglia’s section on the ability of art to give sensation through movement. Because this type of digital art depends on the viewer, I am narrowing my focus to how interactive art transforms the viewer into both a piece of are as well as the artist.
Final Paper Topic
For my final paper I will focus on Virilio’s Open Sky, and the film, “Click” starring Adam Sandler and directed by Frank Coraci.
Specifically from Open Sky I will consider Virilio’s ideas on “dromospheric pollution”, the loss of the journey, and the consequence of telecommunications and live-coverage.
From the film “Click”, I will compare the remote that Adam Sandler uses to control his life to “dromospheric pollution” and telecommunications. At the end of the movie Adam Sandler has great regret that he has missed experiencing the journey.
“Click” seems like a representation of Virilio’s grim forecasts coming true and the horrible consequences “dromospheric pollution” will have on the journey of life.
Leesha
Specifically from Open Sky I will consider Virilio’s ideas on “dromospheric pollution”, the loss of the journey, and the consequence of telecommunications and live-coverage.
From the film “Click”, I will compare the remote that Adam Sandler uses to control his life to “dromospheric pollution” and telecommunications. At the end of the movie Adam Sandler has great regret that he has missed experiencing the journey.
“Click” seems like a representation of Virilio’s grim forecasts coming true and the horrible consequences “dromospheric pollution” will have on the journey of life.
Leesha
Final Paper Proposal ~ Kirsten Nicholls
Run Lola Run, directed by Tom Tykwer, 1998
I will be writing about this film, Run Lola Run, because I have known about this film since high school and have been a big fan since first viewing it some six or seven years prior. I will relate this film to our studies in this course by looking at the concept of real time as discussed by Virilio in his article “Perspective of Real Time, Optics on a Grand Scale” and also by Deleuze. I will narrow my scope by focusing on the use of opsign and sonsign throughout the movie. For outside sources, so far I have found the following: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski: Variations on Destiny and Chance by Marek Haltof and Vertigo: The making of a Hitchcok Classic by Dan Auiler. This movie is very complex in the amount of cinematic techniques that are used. I would like to discuss these different techniques, but I am concerned that they will either detract from the paper itself. I am also concerned about how I should write in these cinematic techniques and still have a small, stream-line paper in the end.
I will be writing about this film, Run Lola Run, because I have known about this film since high school and have been a big fan since first viewing it some six or seven years prior. I will relate this film to our studies in this course by looking at the concept of real time as discussed by Virilio in his article “Perspective of Real Time, Optics on a Grand Scale” and also by Deleuze. I will narrow my scope by focusing on the use of opsign and sonsign throughout the movie. For outside sources, so far I have found the following: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski: Variations on Destiny and Chance by Marek Haltof and Vertigo: The making of a Hitchcok Classic by Dan Auiler. This movie is very complex in the amount of cinematic techniques that are used. I would like to discuss these different techniques, but I am concerned that they will either detract from the paper itself. I am also concerned about how I should write in these cinematic techniques and still have a small, stream-line paper in the end.
Doom, 2005, id Software (game) Andrzej Bartkowiak (film director)
I am going to be analyzing and comparing the video game Doom 3 with the film, Doom. I will be referencing some ideas from Deluze to show how the video game Doom is an action image and how the movie failed to do so in some aspects. This will tie in to some of Sobchack's ideas about our moral ethics. Although she may think that video games fail at creating personal responsibility but films succeed, Doom is quite the opposite. The movie was horrible and a complete disgrace to the video game series, which is a "landmark title" in first person shooters (FPS). Interacting with a video game incorporates mental and some minor physical interaction that can make the event more "real" than a film. I will focus the paper on the scene in the movie which switches from third person to first person.
In addition to using Deluze and Sobchack, I'm going to look into two recommended books: "First Person" and "Rules of the Game". I'm also going to reference some academic reviews. My only concerns are that I cannot focus this topic enough and that perhaps I will have a hard time finding real "academic" sources.
In addition to using Deluze and Sobchack, I'm going to look into two recommended books: "First Person" and "Rules of the Game". I'm also going to reference some academic reviews. My only concerns are that I cannot focus this topic enough and that perhaps I will have a hard time finding real "academic" sources.
Love Actually
I am analyzing the movie “Love Actually” for my final project. This movie was written and directed by Richard Curtis. It was released in the USA in 2003. It has a “running time” of 135 minutes.
This movie consists of multiple spaces or locations. The story goes back and forth between characters and areas. This builds anticipation about how the scenes will be connected and why they are all being shown. The scene in which all of these spaces and characters assemble, or the meeting point, is the scene about which I will write. This convergence or juxtaposition occurs at the little kids holiday play.
Each individual spaces or location has its own plot and characters. The thing they all have in common (throughout) is the time during which the actions are taking place (i.e. some of the scenes are not flashbacks for others; it is “present day” in each, and this present day is the same date for each).
Each space had to be shot/ filmed in different locations at different times; but this particular scene (at the little kids play) is where they all come together. It shows the viewer how they all “fit” into the main story line.
I will also try to incorporate the idea of love being considered “timeless.”
This movie consists of multiple spaces or locations. The story goes back and forth between characters and areas. This builds anticipation about how the scenes will be connected and why they are all being shown. The scene in which all of these spaces and characters assemble, or the meeting point, is the scene about which I will write. This convergence or juxtaposition occurs at the little kids holiday play.
Each individual spaces or location has its own plot and characters. The thing they all have in common (throughout) is the time during which the actions are taking place (i.e. some of the scenes are not flashbacks for others; it is “present day” in each, and this present day is the same date for each).
Each space had to be shot/ filmed in different locations at different times; but this particular scene (at the little kids play) is where they all come together. It shows the viewer how they all “fit” into the main story line.
I will also try to incorporate the idea of love being considered “timeless.”
Jean Vigo - Zero for Conduct
The PFA combined a showing of Jean Vigo’s shorts “Taris” and “Zero for Conduct” with an accompaniment of live music played. This live music accompaniment was an experiment in which the UC Ambassadorial Jazz Ensemble improvised music and sound effects to the short film about the French champion swimmer Jean Taris in “Taris.” In this short film, Vigo films Taris as he swims and demonstrates the basic forms and movements of each swimming style. As he swims, Vigo utilizes slow motion and close-ups of Taris as he swims, while the Jazz band accompanied with lyrical and comical sound effects. Vigo also manipulates time and motion as he repeatedly shows Taris diving into the pool and in reverse, leaving the water feat first. The flutist highlights this repeated action by playing the same arpeggio forward and backwards. Vigo then ends the film by showing Taris diving in reverse and a quick obstruction or cut shows Taris in clothes, followed by walking on water as he exits into darkness.
The second film, “Zero for Conduct” began just as the student DJ initiated a countdown on his track. Drawing from events of his own life, Vigo honors his anarchist father in this short film in which boarding school children rebel and take over the school. The film follows the comical events of three children opposing the school master and cronies, culminating in the triumphal and memorable pillow fight scene. In this scene, Vigo utilizes an oblique angle shot to create a sense impending chaos and anarchy. Preceding the pillow fight, the children gather in the center of the sleeping hall, raise their skull and cross-bone flag and proceed to march. When told to return to their beds, they disperse and begin the pillow fight, causing mass chaos. The most notable scene shows the children lifting one of the leaders of the rebellion and march down the hall. Vigo utilizes an angled slow motion shot to capture the parading children as feathers fall like confetti in a victory march. His use of slow motion adds to the triumphal march.
Throughout the film, each DJ brought his own unique style and sound. A few DJs provided tracks in sync with the action and sequences of the film, while others provided more background music. DJs transitioned seamlessly in sync with the changing scenes of the film. The live music added an interesting element to the film. The electronic music seemed like it would be an inappropriate accompaniment, but I thought it worked quite well.
-Benjamin Louie
The second film, “Zero for Conduct” began just as the student DJ initiated a countdown on his track. Drawing from events of his own life, Vigo honors his anarchist father in this short film in which boarding school children rebel and take over the school. The film follows the comical events of three children opposing the school master and cronies, culminating in the triumphal and memorable pillow fight scene. In this scene, Vigo utilizes an oblique angle shot to create a sense impending chaos and anarchy. Preceding the pillow fight, the children gather in the center of the sleeping hall, raise their skull and cross-bone flag and proceed to march. When told to return to their beds, they disperse and begin the pillow fight, causing mass chaos. The most notable scene shows the children lifting one of the leaders of the rebellion and march down the hall. Vigo utilizes an angled slow motion shot to capture the parading children as feathers fall like confetti in a victory march. His use of slow motion adds to the triumphal march.
Throughout the film, each DJ brought his own unique style and sound. A few DJs provided tracks in sync with the action and sequences of the film, while others provided more background music. DJs transitioned seamlessly in sync with the changing scenes of the film. The live music added an interesting element to the film. The electronic music seemed like it would be an inappropriate accompaniment, but I thought it worked quite well.
-Benjamin Louie
Monday, April 9, 2007
Final Paper
FINAL PAPER PROPOSAL
due on Blog (as comment to this post) by Thursday, 5pm
1 paragraph, approx 100 words.
Title, artist/director, and date of the object you will write about.
Why you want to write about this, how you will relate it to the course.
How you’ll focus and narrow the scope.
Initial ideas about sources.
Initial concerns or questions.
Your final paper will be 8-10 pages. You will need to use one of the theorists from the second half of our course (Deleuze, Virilio, Sobchack). You will also need to find at least TWO other sources. At least one must directly relate to your chosen object, and at least one must provide historical or theoretical context. The sources should be academic, the kinds of things we might have used in class if we had studied that object; so for instance you could use a review published in Film Quarterly but not a review published in USA Today.
Sites for Finding Media Art, Digital Art:
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/search/keyword:cinema
http://www.rhizome.org/
http://artport.whitney.org/
some examples:
http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/battleofalgiers/BattleofAlgiers.shtml
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/art_and_cinematography/douglas/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/24-hour-psycho/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/illuminated-average/
at BAM in Measure of Time: Ken Goldberg piece, Shirley Shor piece
Partial List of Potential Films:
Rashoman
Run Lola Run
Sliding Doors
Bourne Identity
Mission Impossible 3
The Day After Tomorrow
Pulp Fiction
Sex Lies and Videotape
Crash
Memento
EXistenZ
I-Robot
AI
Premonition
12 Monkeys (is based on La Jetee)
TVSeries: Daybreak, 24
Irreversible
Chunking Express
2046
(films from) The Decalogue
La Femme Nikita
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Places to find Sources:
Project Muse: muse.jhu.edu/
JStor: www.jstor.org/
Berkeley library: http://sunsite5.berkeley.edu:8000/
PFA Library: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfalibrary/
Berkeley Media Resources: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/
due on Blog (as comment to this post) by Thursday, 5pm
1 paragraph, approx 100 words.
Title, artist/director, and date of the object you will write about.
Why you want to write about this, how you will relate it to the course.
How you’ll focus and narrow the scope.
Initial ideas about sources.
Initial concerns or questions.
Your final paper will be 8-10 pages. You will need to use one of the theorists from the second half of our course (Deleuze, Virilio, Sobchack). You will also need to find at least TWO other sources. At least one must directly relate to your chosen object, and at least one must provide historical or theoretical context. The sources should be academic, the kinds of things we might have used in class if we had studied that object; so for instance you could use a review published in Film Quarterly but not a review published in USA Today.
Sites for Finding Media Art, Digital Art:
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/search/keyword:cinema
http://www.rhizome.org/
http://artport.whitney.org/
some examples:
http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/battleofalgiers/BattleofAlgiers.shtml
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/art_and_cinematography/douglas/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/24-hour-psycho/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/illuminated-average/
at BAM in Measure of Time: Ken Goldberg piece, Shirley Shor piece
Partial List of Potential Films:
Rashoman
Run Lola Run
Sliding Doors
Bourne Identity
Mission Impossible 3
The Day After Tomorrow
Pulp Fiction
Sex Lies and Videotape
Crash
Memento
EXistenZ
I-Robot
AI
Premonition
12 Monkeys (is based on La Jetee)
TVSeries: Daybreak, 24
Irreversible
Chunking Express
2046
(films from) The Decalogue
La Femme Nikita
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Places to find Sources:
Project Muse: muse.jhu.edu/
JStor: www.jstor.org/
Berkeley library: http://sunsite5.berkeley.edu:8000/
PFA Library: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfalibrary/
Berkeley Media Resources: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/
Sunday, April 8, 2007
1. Throughout this excerpt, Sobchack refers to a sense of duty, "ethical responsibility" (136) or "ethical investment" (140). She argues that each technological advance -photography, cinema, and electronic- changes the "norms of ... ethical investment" (140). She says that "As our aesthetic forms and representation s of 'reality' become externally realized and then unsettled first by photography, then cinema, and now electronic media, our values and evaluative criteria of what counts in our lives are also unsettled and transformed" (136). In other words, as technology advances, representations of reality externalize our perceptions of it more and more and this breaks down our sense of ethics. Military training seems to be a good example of this. First, there were shooting ranges where you shoot a picture of someone, not a real person. Technology has advanced to the point where soldiers are being trained to shoot using video-games like Doom or virtual simulations that simulate them dropping a bomb over a building. But in these technological mediums, there seem to be no real consequences except you use up your life points, "game over," or "mission accomplished." They do not see real blood or the families that grieve over a lost relative. It seems that as these technological intermediates overlap more and more representations of reality, the connection between a person and reality and its consequences become weaker and so does his/her sense of ethics. Perhaps this correlation is not a coincidence but rather reveals that in the real world there is an unchangeable moral standard or "ethical responsibility" which exists like the body but through cultural values and technology, its representation is different but this representation is not reality.
2. Sobchack refers to Chris Marker's film La Jetee and uses it to demonstrate the difference between photographs -"moment" (144)- and cinema -"lived momentum" (145). In the film, still photographs of a woman are shown and Sobchack describes it as seeming to only see a figure in memory: "frozen and re-membered moments that mark her loss as much as her presence" (145). From this paragraph it seems to imply that this woman is no longer with the hero, that in reality she is not there but her presence remains through the photograph, keeping her from completely vanishing. But then she "suddenly blinks" as the "increasingly rapid cinematic succession of stilled and dissolving photographic images of her" (145) approach motion and subtly achieve it and "the image becomes 'fleshed out,' and the woman turns from a posed odalisque into someone who is not merely an immortalized lost object of desire but also -and more so- a mortal and desiring subject" (146). Isn't this "increasingly rapid cinematic succession of stilled and dissolving" the same as the increasing reduction of the interval? At this point where the intervals are so small we perceive the representation of movement and the woman appears to regain a degree of substance or "flesh" as "we and the image are reoriented in relation to each other. the space between the camera's (and the spectators) gaze and the woman becomes suddenly inhabitable" (146). It appears that the woman may have vanished completely had it not been for the photograph that preserves the memory of her, making the photograph the point between her presence and her nonexistence, like a vanishing point where something of substance passes out of existence. But by rapidly succeeding these photographs or vanishing points, we bridge the space inbetween and seem to have a direct experience with her. It's interesting that traditionally a body must move towards a vanishing (along a z-axis) watching the image in the distance get closer and closer before being able to stand in direct relationship with it in the real world, but this film seems to propose that rapidly succeeding representations of vanishing points bring it from a removed distance to an involved, relational and intimate experience perhaps like the way reading brings an experience to a reader. Each word has a presence as it has a definition and purpose (verb or adjective), but alone it does not mean much; it simply exists like the woman in the photograph. But place a word after it and a word after that, each word its own vanishing point, and eventually a sentence forms and with it meaning and experience for the reader. As shrinking spaces between words to a critical size lets readers cross the time and distance separating the reader from the author, so does shrinking the interval between successive still photographs let viewers cross the time and distance (the z-axis) which is the removal of the third dimension that separates the viewer from the person using the camera.
3. I noticed that Sobchack spells "remembered" with a hyphen as "re-membered" (145). It seems appropriate to spell it this way emphasizing the "re" as if to imply the revers of "dismembered," suggesting that through the photograph she loses substance because she's dismembered of her body but can be "re-membered" in photograph, although not to the real her. In the same way electronics like a television might "atomize" (155) or dismember information of a whole, like an image, into pieces like electrons or pixels, and disperse it
across a system like the television screen to re-member it into a 2-D image. As electronics today accomplish this process with abstract things like image and information the negative consequences we may encounter are a noisy image or mistranslation. What consequences might occur if electronics atomize a living body to the effect of, in reality, accomplishing the "suddenly inhabitable"? The Fly is a movie in which such a scenario is presented. Jeff Goldblum is a scientist working on teleporting objects. The machine he invented essentially takes the object or material, analyzes it, atomizes it, passes it to the destination pod, and then "re-members" it there. for things like metal and paper the process works successfully, but when he put a baboon in it, the baboon came out the destination pod inside out. Later he realizes this occurs because the machine is interpreting the object's makeup insufficiently and demonstrates this by putting in a steak and observing that the steak after teleportation is artificial. It seems that to "re-member" something is to produce something like the original but actually a fake representation that falls short of the original. Then he understands this mistake occurred because he didn't teach the machine to recognize living tissue. So the machine's ability to re-member the steak was limited because it could only re-member the steak based on what it knows which is controlled by the scientist. Later Goldblum himself goes into the pod but there is a fly in the pod also so that when he comes out the other pod, his and the fly's bodily molecules are mixed and several problems arise. It follows that electronic capabilities are subject to what humans teach them to do. Therefore, it appears logical that since humans are often incapable of remembering things objectively and accurately, that electronic should be incapable also, resulting in the diminishing of reality.
2. Sobchack refers to Chris Marker's film La Jetee and uses it to demonstrate the difference between photographs -"moment" (144)- and cinema -"lived momentum" (145). In the film, still photographs of a woman are shown and Sobchack describes it as seeming to only see a figure in memory: "frozen and re-membered moments that mark her loss as much as her presence" (145). From this paragraph it seems to imply that this woman is no longer with the hero, that in reality she is not there but her presence remains through the photograph, keeping her from completely vanishing. But then she "suddenly blinks" as the "increasingly rapid cinematic succession of stilled and dissolving photographic images of her" (145) approach motion and subtly achieve it and "the image becomes 'fleshed out,' and the woman turns from a posed odalisque into someone who is not merely an immortalized lost object of desire but also -and more so- a mortal and desiring subject" (146). Isn't this "increasingly rapid cinematic succession of stilled and dissolving" the same as the increasing reduction of the interval? At this point where the intervals are so small we perceive the representation of movement and the woman appears to regain a degree of substance or "flesh" as "we and the image are reoriented in relation to each other. the space between the camera's (and the spectators) gaze and the woman becomes suddenly inhabitable" (146). It appears that the woman may have vanished completely had it not been for the photograph that preserves the memory of her, making the photograph the point between her presence and her nonexistence, like a vanishing point where something of substance passes out of existence. But by rapidly succeeding these photographs or vanishing points, we bridge the space inbetween and seem to have a direct experience with her. It's interesting that traditionally a body must move towards a vanishing (along a z-axis) watching the image in the distance get closer and closer before being able to stand in direct relationship with it in the real world, but this film seems to propose that rapidly succeeding representations of vanishing points bring it from a removed distance to an involved, relational and intimate experience perhaps like the way reading brings an experience to a reader. Each word has a presence as it has a definition and purpose (verb or adjective), but alone it does not mean much; it simply exists like the woman in the photograph. But place a word after it and a word after that, each word its own vanishing point, and eventually a sentence forms and with it meaning and experience for the reader. As shrinking spaces between words to a critical size lets readers cross the time and distance separating the reader from the author, so does shrinking the interval between successive still photographs let viewers cross the time and distance (the z-axis) which is the removal of the third dimension that separates the viewer from the person using the camera.
3. I noticed that Sobchack spells "remembered" with a hyphen as "re-membered" (145). It seems appropriate to spell it this way emphasizing the "re" as if to imply the revers of "dismembered," suggesting that through the photograph she loses substance because she's dismembered of her body but can be "re-membered" in photograph, although not to the real her. In the same way electronics like a television might "atomize" (155) or dismember information of a whole, like an image, into pieces like electrons or pixels, and disperse it
across a system like the television screen to re-member it into a 2-D image. As electronics today accomplish this process with abstract things like image and information the negative consequences we may encounter are a noisy image or mistranslation. What consequences might occur if electronics atomize a living body to the effect of, in reality, accomplishing the "suddenly inhabitable"? The Fly is a movie in which such a scenario is presented. Jeff Goldblum is a scientist working on teleporting objects. The machine he invented essentially takes the object or material, analyzes it, atomizes it, passes it to the destination pod, and then "re-members" it there. for things like metal and paper the process works successfully, but when he put a baboon in it, the baboon came out the destination pod inside out. Later he realizes this occurs because the machine is interpreting the object's makeup insufficiently and demonstrates this by putting in a steak and observing that the steak after teleportation is artificial. It seems that to "re-member" something is to produce something like the original but actually a fake representation that falls short of the original. Then he understands this mistake occurred because he didn't teach the machine to recognize living tissue. So the machine's ability to re-member the steak was limited because it could only re-member the steak based on what it knows which is controlled by the scientist. Later Goldblum himself goes into the pod but there is a fly in the pod also so that when he comes out the other pod, his and the fly's bodily molecules are mixed and several problems arise. It follows that electronic capabilities are subject to what humans teach them to do. Therefore, it appears logical that since humans are often incapable of remembering things objectively and accurately, that electronic should be incapable also, resulting in the diminishing of reality.
Am I Making Art?
I don’t really know how to characterize the films I have viewed at the PFA besides saying they are “interesting.” The film I will be discussing this time is “Am I Making Art.” It consisted of four different sections.
The first segment was of a “salt and pepper” screen (black and white dots, like one with no signal) with the image of a mouth emerging at different intervals of time throughout. I think it is ironic (if not intended) or symbolic (if planned) that the piece is about communication barriers (according to Cha Hakkyung, the artist) since the screen appears to have no signal which represents no communication. I also found it interesting that most of the sounds were of nature rather than words. These are “signs” which people of all areas would recognize as opposed to particular languages which only a specific group in a particular space and in a particular time would understand.
The next scene appeared analogous to a photo shoot where a model moves a little bit (to give the photographer a different angle or shot) and then holds the pose, repeating this process until the shoot is complete. It was of a scruffy looking older man posing in front of what I assumed was a monitor (where he was looking at the replication of his image while he was “making art”). He was within a confined space, but was moving within this area. He was contorting his body into different positions and would then hold the pose and say, “I am making art.” The transitions between the different poses were not dramatic; in fact, it probably took him less than a second to go between positions. It appeared as though he was using a distinct appendage during each transition. For example, he moved his arm from his side to his shoulder and repeated the phrase then moved his leg from the floor to a 90 degree angle and repeated the phrase. It looked like he tried to isolate each one in his motions by hesitating and “striking a pose” in this fashion. The motions themselves were done quickly and then held for a comparable amount of time or a little longer (so that the phrase was said while he was “motionless”). It reminded me of people like Muybridge and how he tried to brake up movements into still figures to try to understand motion.
Another scene was of a man lying facing the camera. He was very close to the screen (or he at least appeared to be while we were watching, it could have been zoomed in on him). He was smoking, humming, singing, listening to music, and apparently seducing the audience. More likely, however (since this is a “piece of art”), he was trying to prove that the viewer is not within the same space or in the same time as the area and time where the art is being created, yet the individuals watching feel connected to or involved with the story plot and actors. This is similar to the point in one of the scenes from Video Drone (I think it was called) where the guy makes out with the television (literally making the spaces and times exist as one in the same). Until virtual reality, however (and maybe not even then), we will not be able to be in two times or places at once.
All in all I thought the points these scenes were trying to discuss were interesting, however, I wouldn’t like to watch the film again.
The first segment was of a “salt and pepper” screen (black and white dots, like one with no signal) with the image of a mouth emerging at different intervals of time throughout. I think it is ironic (if not intended) or symbolic (if planned) that the piece is about communication barriers (according to Cha Hakkyung, the artist) since the screen appears to have no signal which represents no communication. I also found it interesting that most of the sounds were of nature rather than words. These are “signs” which people of all areas would recognize as opposed to particular languages which only a specific group in a particular space and in a particular time would understand.
The next scene appeared analogous to a photo shoot where a model moves a little bit (to give the photographer a different angle or shot) and then holds the pose, repeating this process until the shoot is complete. It was of a scruffy looking older man posing in front of what I assumed was a monitor (where he was looking at the replication of his image while he was “making art”). He was within a confined space, but was moving within this area. He was contorting his body into different positions and would then hold the pose and say, “I am making art.” The transitions between the different poses were not dramatic; in fact, it probably took him less than a second to go between positions. It appeared as though he was using a distinct appendage during each transition. For example, he moved his arm from his side to his shoulder and repeated the phrase then moved his leg from the floor to a 90 degree angle and repeated the phrase. It looked like he tried to isolate each one in his motions by hesitating and “striking a pose” in this fashion. The motions themselves were done quickly and then held for a comparable amount of time or a little longer (so that the phrase was said while he was “motionless”). It reminded me of people like Muybridge and how he tried to brake up movements into still figures to try to understand motion.
Another scene was of a man lying facing the camera. He was very close to the screen (or he at least appeared to be while we were watching, it could have been zoomed in on him). He was smoking, humming, singing, listening to music, and apparently seducing the audience. More likely, however (since this is a “piece of art”), he was trying to prove that the viewer is not within the same space or in the same time as the area and time where the art is being created, yet the individuals watching feel connected to or involved with the story plot and actors. This is similar to the point in one of the scenes from Video Drone (I think it was called) where the guy makes out with the television (literally making the spaces and times exist as one in the same). Until virtual reality, however (and maybe not even then), we will not be able to be in two times or places at once.
All in all I thought the points these scenes were trying to discuss were interesting, however, I wouldn’t like to watch the film again.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
The Medium Is 4/4/07
The Medium Is is a collection of works from the 1970’s, which explore the instantaneity of video and its presentations through unique techniques. Lynda Benglis’ Now muddles the ideas of “live recording” and pre-recorded material. In the 12 minute video from 1973 the words “now,” “start recording,” “do you wish to direct me?” repeat constantly while a woman’s face is visible facing itself in a colored background. It is unclear what is going on or how the scene is shot; it seems as if there is a monitor behind the woman who is showing pre-recorded material of the same woman doing similar actions and saying the same words. The action of the “live” woman right in front of the camera do not match up with the actions on the screen—they are the same but do not occur simultaneously, meaning the live woman is copying what is happening on the screen. So it is unclear what is live and what is pre-recorded.
Richard Serra’s Boomerang was shown in which, as we’ve seen, Nancy Holt has headphones on and can hear her voice after she speaks her words, not simultaneously. It was almost painful to watch her deteriorate again as she begins to slow down and feel like she has lost control over herself. At the end of the video, right as Nancy is at her final breaking point, she reveals her thoughts on the pollution of TV: it “cuts [us] off from reality as we usually experience it.” This reminds me of Verilio’s argument about ecological pollution by video technology and that it causes a hybrid man, a transhuman, to emerge who neither roams the world in a journey or is sedentary in an urban environment; this new man experiences the world, and motion through immobile devices such as TV without having to actually move himself. Thus, our reality, real time is completely different than of the people who existed before TV, and media was invented. Furthermore, just like this video experiment caused Nancy to break down, maybe TV is slowly doing the same thing to our senses and creativity.
Two Faces by Hermine Freed was a really interesting eight minute video from 1972 in which a prerecorded image of the artist was flipped and was courting her own identity. It began with two heads facing each other (it looked very real) and they were moving into each other and back—emerging from within each other. Then they began to do other symmetric movements, and later they began tongue playing and kissing. I had to remind myself that it was all just one person playing with mirrors, images and video, not two identical women. Although the artist has a doubled image in the video, she herself seems very alone because in reality she is touching her mirror image; her actions are between herself—the reality, and the mirrored double. However, I had some trouble figuring out the overall theme or point of the video, I just really enjoyed the artist’s creativity in using and video technology.
Dan Graham presented a 23 minute video called Performer/Audience/Mirror that dealt with just that—a performer, the audience, and the mirror. In it a man walked into a room with a mirror in the back and a group of people sitting on the floor facing the mirror. The man began talking about his position, posture, and balance; he described his movement by describing every specific action of every part of his body. It was interesting to think about if he was acting out what he was saying or if he was describing what he was doing. Nevertheless, he kept switching from facing the audience to facing the mirror and from describing himself to describing the audience. People began looking at themselves in the mirror and began to look like a unit, a collective, not individuals. I think what the video might have been trying to show is people’s fixation with TV. As the audience kept listening to the man speak, they looked into the mirror at themselves so the mirror became the screen and the audience became a unifying image. Also, everything the man was commentating on was happening right there and then, his speech was not premeditated; the people’s reactions, movements, and expressions provided him with ideas as a sort of feedback loop—he spoke, they reacted, and then he spoke again based on their reactions. In turn, this mirrors how TV and the media work showing that the audience (us) is their inspiration and consumer.
The last video by Peter Campus called Three Transitions was my favorite because of its special effects. He creates three self-portraits with technological aspects and then destroys them. In the last scene a hand is holding a piece of paper with the image of Peter on it and then it is set it on fire. As the paper burns the image disappears with it. It raised the question of where do these videos go after they are shown? It is as if the people shown on TV disappear, burn away when their purpose is finished and the video is shot, and shown. Moreover, it reminded me of Verilio who argues that the nomad is dissipating because the journey is no longer necessary for the intake of information; thus, it is needless to go in search of information because it is provided through the transapperant horizon. This video might hint at the fact that as quickly as we gain information, as quickly we can lose it because of our reliance on machines. The video image of Peter was destroyed by nature, by fire; this shows the dominance of nature over technology because in the end, fire can destroy anything. If we continue to rely on optoelectronics we will forget how it is to be in motion on a trajectory and search for information the “old” way.
Reminders
The reading for next week is Vivian Sobchack's article, "The Scene of the Screen", which is the last item in your reader. (And Monday night we will have a screening.)
At the end of next week you'll need to post a proposed idea for your final paper on the blog, so think about films, videos, or digital media objects that you would like to write about...we're open minded, as long as you can investigate some aspect relating to time.
At the end of next week you'll need to post a proposed idea for your final paper on the blog, so think about films, videos, or digital media objects that you would like to write about...we're open minded, as long as you can investigate some aspect relating to time.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Talks, Films, & Events (Repost)
A reminder of upcoming events...
You are required to attend the 4/22 dance performance on campus as well as TWO other events. One must be a film, the other can be a film or lecture. Post a response and evaluation for both the events you choose to attend. Please start a new post if you are the first to respond to an event. Then other people who also attended can post their responses as comments to the initial response. The responses should be similar to reading responses, describing the film a bit for those who did not see it but focusing on your ideas rather than on summarizing, doing some thinking about relationship of the event to themes in the course.
More events may be added to this list as they are announced. You may attend up to three extra events for extra credit (extra events 10pts each, required events 25 each except April 22 event counts double for 50).
Websites for More info about locations, tickets, etc:
Yerba Buena http://www.ybca.org/
Berkeley Art, Technology, Culture Colloquium http://atc.berkeley.edu/
Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/
California College for the Arts http://www.cca.edu/calendar/
TUESDAY APRIL 3 PFA
7:30 Anthology Film Archives: Recent Preservations
Andrew Lampert in Person
Lampert, archivist and programmer at Anthology Film Archives, long a key institution on the East Coast arts scene, presents classics of 1960s and '70s avant-garde in fabulous prints that you'd normally have to travel to New York to see. Program includes:
Film Number 16 Oz: The Tin Woodman's Dream (Harry Smith, c. 1967). Zenscapes (Marie Menken, c. 1957). Note to Colleen (Saul Levine, 1974). Nine Variations on a Dance Theme (Hilary Harris, 1966). Five 8mm Films (George Landow, 1961-62). Fuses (Carolee Schneemann, 1964-67)
Wednesday April 4
7:30 The Medium Is, works by Lynda Benglis, Peter Campus, Hermine Freed, Dan Graham, Richard Serra
With its instantaneous feedback and image manipulation, video technology creates a nowness of perception along with the distraction offered by any good spectacle. In Now, Lynda Benglis’s first color tape, the eponymous word is repeated, questioning the currency and the command. Then, over-driving the color image, Benglis collapses the notion of the medium as neutral. Wearing headphones in Richard Serra’s Boomerang, Nancy Holt repeats phrases that are heard, then heard again in delay. The effect is of feedback effectively devouring its own message. Using a split screen in Two Faces, Hermine Freed faces herself, caressing her mirrored image. Suspended between images, Freed exists as a doubled person, alienated and adrift. Recorded in San Francisco, Dan Graham’s Performer/Audience/Mirror is a study of mediated relations, a mirror standing in for the TV as the artist describes the audience before him. The circularity of the exchange captures the phenomenology of feedback. In Peter Campus’s seminal tape Three Transitions, inherent properties of the medium become potent metaphors for the depiction of internal states and the breach between reality and illusion.—Steve Seid
Now (Lynda Benglis, 1973, 12 mins, Color, Mini-DV, From VDB). Boomerang (Richard Serra, 1974, 10.5 mins, B&W, DVD, From The Museum of Modern Art, New York). Two Faces (Hermine Freed, 1972, 8 mins, B&W, Mini-DV, From VDB). Performer/Audience/Mirror (Dan Graham, 1975, 23 mins, B&W, DVD, From EAI). Three Transitions (Peter Campus, 1973, 5 mins, Color, Mini-DV, From EAI).
• (Total running time: 59 mins, U.S.)
Thursday April 5, Friday April 6 PFA (counts as one event)
Thurs April 5 7:30 Tropical Malady, Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand/France, 2004, 118 mins)
Fri April 6 7:00 Tropical Malady: Shot-by-Shot, Discussion with Apichatpong Weerasethakul
(Sud pralad). The agreeably irrational Tropical Malady melds folk fable with euphoric modern moviemaking, effortlessly traversing the mundane and the miraculous. In this pastoral with a dark pulse, two beguiling stories unfold: the first a playful romance between a handsome soldier, Keng, and Tong, a country boy; the second, a nocturnal journey into a realm of shape-shifting creatures. While Keng and Tong’s blissful courtship is told through moody, tender tableaux, the seeds of a lurking apprehension are being quietly sown—a dead body is found at the edge of the jungle, cows are found slaughtered in the fields. The villagers tell of a spirit that inhabits the body of a wandering tiger. As the second story emerges, Tropical Malady leaves behind the matter-of-fact for the mystical, a lush jungle peopled by talking monkeys and tricksters in human form. And who is that stalking the dread tiger? Is it soldier Keng? In this numinous tropic, we relish the malady of not necessarily knowing. Winner, Prix du Jury, Cannes 2004.
TUES APRIL 10 PFA
7:30 BB Optics: Optical Printing and Preservation Work
Bill Brand in Person
Brand presents a wide range of works preserved or printed by his firm, BB Optics, including avant-garde pieces and films confiscated from the Nixon White House by the FBI. Program includes:
New Left Note (Saul Levine, 1968/82). Nixon White House Super-8 Films (Reel S-10) (1969-73). The Fallen World (Marjorie Keller, 1983). Fire in My Belly (David Wojnarowicz, 1986-87). Home Avenue (Jennifer Montgomery, 1989). Black and White Film (Robert Huot, 1968-69). Daffodils (Katy Martin, 1979/81)
Tuesday, April 10 at Stanford University
4:30pm
the Sawyer Seminar Visualizing Knowledge: From Alberti's Window to Digital Arrays
presents a panel discussion between Pavle Levi and Marta Braun on "The Visibility of Motion."
Lectures and discussion will be held at the Stanford Humanities Center, 424 Santa Teresa
Ave., Stanford, CA 94305, (650) 723-3052.
http://visualization.stanford.edu information
http://visualization-wiki.stanford.edu streaming audio
THURSDAY APRIL 12 PFA
7:30 Time After Time
In experimental works and emotionally evocative narratives, students examine memory and its decay.
Program includes: Wandern (Daniel Czernilofsky, 5 mins). you are i hate you (Marik Armstrong, Josh McVeigh-Schultz, 14 mins). My Companions (Wenhua Shi, 1 min, B&W). A Sikh in America (Peter Alsop, 5 mins). Multiple Hugs & Kisses (Yosuke Hosaka, 6 mins). Saturday Ice Fever (Scott Bishop, Siyu Song, Frances You, 2 mins). Hard Knock Life (Alison Beaumont, 2005, 2 mins). Blips and Beeps (Nikolaos Hanselmann, 4.5 mins, B&W). Urban Jungle (Sophie Cooper, 8.5 mins). Fractal (Morgan Swing, 15 mins). Home Movies (Jason Karpman, 3.5 mins, B&W)
Total running time: 67 mins (plus Q & A)
Friday April 13 PFA
8:50 The Passenger
Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy/France/Spain, 1975, 123 mins)
A penetrating political thriller, The Passenger, set in the Sahara, is also a desert film, and it resembles the much earlier L’avventura—a desert island film—with its horizontal vistas and its theme of absence. Jack Nicholson portrays a London journalist named Locke who, sent to cover a rebellion in North Africa, assumes the identity of a man, Robertson, who has died in the next hotel room. Locke is running away from being a journalist—from the codes that replace knowing, the images that replace seeing. He’s much like Monica Vitti’s Vittoria in L’eclisse in his desire for escape, for a mask. But, embracing Robertson’s globetrotting, increasingly mysterious persona, he finds himself pursuing not the man’s life, but his death. Even the camera seems to have a will toward another world: it distractedly tracks a passing camel in the desert, an anachronistic horse-drawn carriage in Munich. The film’s famous final seven-minute zoom literally draws out the pain of seeing in focus.
Monday April 16 Doug Aitken 7:30
Art Technology Culture Colloquia, on campus (see website for location)
Internationally known Video and Digital artist Doug Aitken talks about his work.
http://archidose.blogspot.com/2007/01/30-in-30-27.html
TUESDAY APRIL 17 PFA
7:30 Anger Rising: The Restoration of Works by Kenneth Anger at UCLA Film and Television Archive
Ross Lipman in Person
New 35mm prints of four of Kenneth Anger's most famous films, plus an illustrated lecture by UCLA's Lipman detailing the challenges involved in restoring them. Program includes:
Fireworks (1947). Rabbit's Moon (1971). Scorpio Rising (1963). Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965)
Jim Campbell at Hosfelt Gallery March 17-April 28
Jim Campbell is a digital artist (and pioneer of HDTV) who installs arrays of LED lights to produce unusual projections of film of video. He has a show of new work open right now in San Francisco. If you want to go you can write about the exhibit as an event review.
http://www.hosfeltgallery.com/HTML/exhibitions.htm
Jim Campbell TALK at PFA Sat April 21 12pm in MEASURE OF TIME gallery
(REQUIRED) Sunday April 22, 2pm Zellerbach theater, Berkeley Dance Project
Directed by Lisa Wymore
Featuring The Reception, a cross-disciplinary performance piece utilizing dance choreography and tele-immersion technology to explore a re-visioning of cyber culture and corporeal presence. Also featuring new choreographic works by Tammy Cheney, Robert Moses, Carol Murota, and Ellis Wood. The Reception: Co-directed by Lisa Wymore (TDPS) and Ruzena Bajcsy (CITRIS). *The April 22 performance will be followed by a post-performance discussion: Being Here: Presence/Remote Presence within Live and Media Based Performance by N. Katherine Hayles.
The Resonance Project is a team of choreographers, dancers, computer engineers, and visual and sound artists who are investigating concepts of presence/remote presence and corporeal and code interactivity within live and media based performance. Unique to the project is the use of a "performance as research" model, within which scientists and artists collaborate to explore a re-visioning of cyber culture and corporeal presence.
You do not need to buy a ticket for this performance, meet in front of the theater before the show.
TUESDAY APRIL 24 PFA
7:30 Academy Film Archive: Recent Preservations
Mark Toscano in Person
Preservationist Toscano presents abstractions, conceptual pieces, and dryly humorous films, all preserved in the past year at the Academy. Program includes:
Film Exercise #5 (John & James Whitney, 1944). The Assignation (Curtis Harrington, 1952). Documentary Footage (Morgan Fisher, 1968). Runs Good (Pat O'Neill, 1970). Four Corners (Diana Wilson, 1978). Future Perfect (Roberta Friedman, Grahame Weinbren, c. 1976). Brummer's (David Bienstock, 1967). Murder Psalm (Stan Brakhage, 1980).
Wednesday May 2
3:00 Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Tsai Ming-liang (Taiwan, 2003, 82 mins)
Lecture by Marilyn Fabe
(Bu jian bu san). In Goodbye, Dragon Inn, Tsai Ming-liang, director of Vive l'Amour (1994) and What Time Is It There? (2001), created the sharpest combination yet of his major themes—rain, missed connections, and the poetry of loneliness—juxtaposed this time against something completely unexpected: a martial arts film. It's a rainy night in Taipei, and the crumbling neighborhood kino-barn is showing King Hu's swordplay classic Dragon Inn. Most of the audience appears to be elsewhere, offscreen dreamers haltingly putting their thoughts of love into very slow motion while the onscreen kinetic frenzies keep blazing on like helpful cues. Visualizing the fantasies of anyone who's ever worked in a movie theater, or just adored being in one, Goodbye, Dragon Inn underscores the essence of why people watch films: to be reminded of what it is to live, and what it means to dream.
You are required to attend the 4/22 dance performance on campus as well as TWO other events. One must be a film, the other can be a film or lecture. Post a response and evaluation for both the events you choose to attend. Please start a new post if you are the first to respond to an event. Then other people who also attended can post their responses as comments to the initial response. The responses should be similar to reading responses, describing the film a bit for those who did not see it but focusing on your ideas rather than on summarizing, doing some thinking about relationship of the event to themes in the course.
More events may be added to this list as they are announced. You may attend up to three extra events for extra credit (extra events 10pts each, required events 25 each except April 22 event counts double for 50).
Websites for More info about locations, tickets, etc:
Yerba Buena http://www.ybca.org/
Berkeley Art, Technology, Culture Colloquium http://atc.berkeley.edu/
Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/
California College for the Arts http://www.cca.edu/calendar/
TUESDAY APRIL 3 PFA
7:30 Anthology Film Archives: Recent Preservations
Andrew Lampert in Person
Lampert, archivist and programmer at Anthology Film Archives, long a key institution on the East Coast arts scene, presents classics of 1960s and '70s avant-garde in fabulous prints that you'd normally have to travel to New York to see. Program includes:
Film Number 16 Oz: The Tin Woodman's Dream (Harry Smith, c. 1967). Zenscapes (Marie Menken, c. 1957). Note to Colleen (Saul Levine, 1974). Nine Variations on a Dance Theme (Hilary Harris, 1966). Five 8mm Films (George Landow, 1961-62). Fuses (Carolee Schneemann, 1964-67)
Wednesday April 4
7:30 The Medium Is, works by Lynda Benglis, Peter Campus, Hermine Freed, Dan Graham, Richard Serra
With its instantaneous feedback and image manipulation, video technology creates a nowness of perception along with the distraction offered by any good spectacle. In Now, Lynda Benglis’s first color tape, the eponymous word is repeated, questioning the currency and the command. Then, over-driving the color image, Benglis collapses the notion of the medium as neutral. Wearing headphones in Richard Serra’s Boomerang, Nancy Holt repeats phrases that are heard, then heard again in delay. The effect is of feedback effectively devouring its own message. Using a split screen in Two Faces, Hermine Freed faces herself, caressing her mirrored image. Suspended between images, Freed exists as a doubled person, alienated and adrift. Recorded in San Francisco, Dan Graham’s Performer/Audience/Mirror is a study of mediated relations, a mirror standing in for the TV as the artist describes the audience before him. The circularity of the exchange captures the phenomenology of feedback. In Peter Campus’s seminal tape Three Transitions, inherent properties of the medium become potent metaphors for the depiction of internal states and the breach between reality and illusion.—Steve Seid
Now (Lynda Benglis, 1973, 12 mins, Color, Mini-DV, From VDB). Boomerang (Richard Serra, 1974, 10.5 mins, B&W, DVD, From The Museum of Modern Art, New York). Two Faces (Hermine Freed, 1972, 8 mins, B&W, Mini-DV, From VDB). Performer/Audience/Mirror (Dan Graham, 1975, 23 mins, B&W, DVD, From EAI). Three Transitions (Peter Campus, 1973, 5 mins, Color, Mini-DV, From EAI).
• (Total running time: 59 mins, U.S.)
Thursday April 5, Friday April 6 PFA (counts as one event)
Thurs April 5 7:30 Tropical Malady, Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand/France, 2004, 118 mins)
Fri April 6 7:00 Tropical Malady: Shot-by-Shot, Discussion with Apichatpong Weerasethakul
(Sud pralad). The agreeably irrational Tropical Malady melds folk fable with euphoric modern moviemaking, effortlessly traversing the mundane and the miraculous. In this pastoral with a dark pulse, two beguiling stories unfold: the first a playful romance between a handsome soldier, Keng, and Tong, a country boy; the second, a nocturnal journey into a realm of shape-shifting creatures. While Keng and Tong’s blissful courtship is told through moody, tender tableaux, the seeds of a lurking apprehension are being quietly sown—a dead body is found at the edge of the jungle, cows are found slaughtered in the fields. The villagers tell of a spirit that inhabits the body of a wandering tiger. As the second story emerges, Tropical Malady leaves behind the matter-of-fact for the mystical, a lush jungle peopled by talking monkeys and tricksters in human form. And who is that stalking the dread tiger? Is it soldier Keng? In this numinous tropic, we relish the malady of not necessarily knowing. Winner, Prix du Jury, Cannes 2004.
TUES APRIL 10 PFA
7:30 BB Optics: Optical Printing and Preservation Work
Bill Brand in Person
Brand presents a wide range of works preserved or printed by his firm, BB Optics, including avant-garde pieces and films confiscated from the Nixon White House by the FBI. Program includes:
New Left Note (Saul Levine, 1968/82). Nixon White House Super-8 Films (Reel S-10) (1969-73). The Fallen World (Marjorie Keller, 1983). Fire in My Belly (David Wojnarowicz, 1986-87). Home Avenue (Jennifer Montgomery, 1989). Black and White Film (Robert Huot, 1968-69). Daffodils (Katy Martin, 1979/81)
Tuesday, April 10 at Stanford University
4:30pm
the Sawyer Seminar Visualizing Knowledge: From Alberti's Window to Digital Arrays
presents a panel discussion between Pavle Levi and Marta Braun on "The Visibility of Motion."
Lectures and discussion will be held at the Stanford Humanities Center, 424 Santa Teresa
Ave., Stanford, CA 94305, (650) 723-3052.
http://visualization.stanford.edu information
http://visualization-wiki.stanford.edu streaming audio
THURSDAY APRIL 12 PFA
7:30 Time After Time
In experimental works and emotionally evocative narratives, students examine memory and its decay.
Program includes: Wandern (Daniel Czernilofsky, 5 mins). you are i hate you (Marik Armstrong, Josh McVeigh-Schultz, 14 mins). My Companions (Wenhua Shi, 1 min, B&W). A Sikh in America (Peter Alsop, 5 mins). Multiple Hugs & Kisses (Yosuke Hosaka, 6 mins). Saturday Ice Fever (Scott Bishop, Siyu Song, Frances You, 2 mins). Hard Knock Life (Alison Beaumont, 2005, 2 mins). Blips and Beeps (Nikolaos Hanselmann, 4.5 mins, B&W). Urban Jungle (Sophie Cooper, 8.5 mins). Fractal (Morgan Swing, 15 mins). Home Movies (Jason Karpman, 3.5 mins, B&W)
Total running time: 67 mins (plus Q & A)
Friday April 13 PFA
8:50 The Passenger
Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy/France/Spain, 1975, 123 mins)
A penetrating political thriller, The Passenger, set in the Sahara, is also a desert film, and it resembles the much earlier L’avventura—a desert island film—with its horizontal vistas and its theme of absence. Jack Nicholson portrays a London journalist named Locke who, sent to cover a rebellion in North Africa, assumes the identity of a man, Robertson, who has died in the next hotel room. Locke is running away from being a journalist—from the codes that replace knowing, the images that replace seeing. He’s much like Monica Vitti’s Vittoria in L’eclisse in his desire for escape, for a mask. But, embracing Robertson’s globetrotting, increasingly mysterious persona, he finds himself pursuing not the man’s life, but his death. Even the camera seems to have a will toward another world: it distractedly tracks a passing camel in the desert, an anachronistic horse-drawn carriage in Munich. The film’s famous final seven-minute zoom literally draws out the pain of seeing in focus.
Monday April 16 Doug Aitken 7:30
Art Technology Culture Colloquia, on campus (see website for location)
Internationally known Video and Digital artist Doug Aitken talks about his work.
http://archidose.blogspot.com/2007/01/30-in-30-27.html
TUESDAY APRIL 17 PFA
7:30 Anger Rising: The Restoration of Works by Kenneth Anger at UCLA Film and Television Archive
Ross Lipman in Person
New 35mm prints of four of Kenneth Anger's most famous films, plus an illustrated lecture by UCLA's Lipman detailing the challenges involved in restoring them. Program includes:
Fireworks (1947). Rabbit's Moon (1971). Scorpio Rising (1963). Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965)
Jim Campbell at Hosfelt Gallery March 17-April 28
Jim Campbell is a digital artist (and pioneer of HDTV) who installs arrays of LED lights to produce unusual projections of film of video. He has a show of new work open right now in San Francisco. If you want to go you can write about the exhibit as an event review.
http://www.hosfeltgallery.com/HTML/exhibitions.htm
Jim Campbell TALK at PFA Sat April 21 12pm in MEASURE OF TIME gallery
(REQUIRED) Sunday April 22, 2pm Zellerbach theater, Berkeley Dance Project
Directed by Lisa Wymore
Featuring The Reception, a cross-disciplinary performance piece utilizing dance choreography and tele-immersion technology to explore a re-visioning of cyber culture and corporeal presence. Also featuring new choreographic works by Tammy Cheney, Robert Moses, Carol Murota, and Ellis Wood. The Reception: Co-directed by Lisa Wymore (TDPS) and Ruzena Bajcsy (CITRIS). *The April 22 performance will be followed by a post-performance discussion: Being Here: Presence/Remote Presence within Live and Media Based Performance by N. Katherine Hayles.
The Resonance Project is a team of choreographers, dancers, computer engineers, and visual and sound artists who are investigating concepts of presence/remote presence and corporeal and code interactivity within live and media based performance. Unique to the project is the use of a "performance as research" model, within which scientists and artists collaborate to explore a re-visioning of cyber culture and corporeal presence.
You do not need to buy a ticket for this performance, meet in front of the theater before the show.
TUESDAY APRIL 24 PFA
7:30 Academy Film Archive: Recent Preservations
Mark Toscano in Person
Preservationist Toscano presents abstractions, conceptual pieces, and dryly humorous films, all preserved in the past year at the Academy. Program includes:
Film Exercise #5 (John & James Whitney, 1944). The Assignation (Curtis Harrington, 1952). Documentary Footage (Morgan Fisher, 1968). Runs Good (Pat O'Neill, 1970). Four Corners (Diana Wilson, 1978). Future Perfect (Roberta Friedman, Grahame Weinbren, c. 1976). Brummer's (David Bienstock, 1967). Murder Psalm (Stan Brakhage, 1980).
Wednesday May 2
3:00 Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Tsai Ming-liang (Taiwan, 2003, 82 mins)
Lecture by Marilyn Fabe
(Bu jian bu san). In Goodbye, Dragon Inn, Tsai Ming-liang, director of Vive l'Amour (1994) and What Time Is It There? (2001), created the sharpest combination yet of his major themes—rain, missed connections, and the poetry of loneliness—juxtaposed this time against something completely unexpected: a martial arts film. It's a rainy night in Taipei, and the crumbling neighborhood kino-barn is showing King Hu's swordplay classic Dragon Inn. Most of the audience appears to be elsewhere, offscreen dreamers haltingly putting their thoughts of love into very slow motion while the onscreen kinetic frenzies keep blazing on like helpful cues. Visualizing the fantasies of anyone who's ever worked in a movie theater, or just adored being in one, Goodbye, Dragon Inn underscores the essence of why people watch films: to be reminded of what it is to live, and what it means to dream.
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