experimenta2013

[experimenta2013]

[experimenta2013]

Stephen Connolly’s film Zabriskie Point (Redacted) is part of the Cinema Redacted programme.

1. Could you describe the main ideas and or inspirations behind your film Zabriskie Point (Redacted)?

 (Redacted) was inspired by a visit to Zabriskie Point the site – it is a small lookout near Death Valley in California. Over a few hours I shot some material, but after pondering on it for a few months, I realised couldn’t see it - except through the screen or filter of Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1971 feature Zabriskie Point. The Zabriskie Point site has achieved the special ‘aura’, invoked by Don Delillo in his ‘MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA’ scene in his novel White Noise, an exploration of the ideas of Walter Benjamin.

 Like the barn, the Point is not a place, it is a site – in this case with a pleasing arrangement of rocks and stones - that hosts behaviours by visitors. People come from Las Vegas every hour by bus and look at the landscape and socialise – activities of spectatorship and visualisation.

 This prespective on the site was then folded back onto the Antonioni film – which I think sought to investigate linkages between spectacle & consumption, and politics & protest – but struggled with the realist drama form Antonioni signed the contract with MGM and agreed to make.

 It then made sense to invoke – as a visitor - the representations of another visitor 40 years ago. My film is constructed around this doubling – through the things unseen or overlooked in the original film – such as the research, the treatments and script, the fiction/fact uses of protest footage, the ‘hows’ of landscape portrayal and so on. And it can address the spectacle and protest themes directly, without drama – they have not gone away!

2. Your work often draws on fictional and factual (or documentary) versions of historical events, foregrounding the mediation of history through cinema, TV and archival footage. How do you position your work in relation to documentary film?

 As I see it, documentary Is a very constructed mode of filmmaking - perhaps we have never seen unmediated filmmaking ever. So I foreground this construction - revealling the shape of the representations we make and performing a critical ethnography in image and sound.

 This also informs how historical material is deployed - as an informing perspective or background noise – rather than a particular set of events. So history receeds yet remains as a set of frames through which the contemporary is addressed.

Film For Tom

With reference to documentary also, instead of overt narrational or expository material, the work deploys very specific visual strategies. The ideas these forms suggest – like ‘the historical frames above’ is as important as the image content. This strategy is very visible in Film for Tom for instance where the form of the archive materials is considered.

3. How does Zabriskie Point (Redacted) relate to or develop themes from earlier work such as Great American Desert, which is also set in the American landscape (albeit a very different one)?

Great American Desert

 Continuing from the points made above -  Great American Desert was a film about a place on a crossroads – Quartzsite, Arizona - that is provisional and temporary. Its population expands from approx 500 to over a million people in recreational vehicles in January every year – so the place has a mutable spatial form.

 The representation had to achieve a kind of fixity - a degree of measure and distance – that acknowledeged a paradox in the picturing of this place - its transitory nature is a permanent feature and a state of existence for many of the people who are dropping in; and a pursuit of a kind of individualism practiced on a mass scale. And by and large, the experience of the place is from within a vehicle – so in motion and thus bringing in movement. I’ve moved forward with this in the treatment of urban landscape.

   A central question in this film is - how can the medium - with all its indexical prowess - not just observe people / objects / landscapes - but also capture the structuring relationships within which these subjects/objects exist and are apprehended.

It’s a tall order - possibly the new piece achieves this more clearly with a previous representation to bounce off.

4. Are you working on any other new projects or films at the moment?

 I’m working on several new films – I’ll mention two.

Firstly, to pursue an interest in the spatialisation of capital in landscape and consider the notion of ‘the collective’ - this is the basis for a film in Detroit, Michigan - I’ve shot a strategic visual element already.

Secondly, an outsider academic friend of mine is to be in a film - the work may hover between a exposition of his research and a portrait – this piece is currently in development.

steve connolly artist filmmaker

16.10.13

www.bubblefilm.net Questions by Erica Scourti

Experimenta Tumblr exclusive: INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN CONNOLLY

[experimenta2013]

SCREENING TODAY: Stom Sogo: Sweet First, Seizure Second

Seven films by the late, lamented Japanese artist rebel showcasing his thunderous potential.

BFI Southbank, NFT3 Oct 20, 2013 9:00 PM

A dynamo whose thunderous potential was cut short by his premature death, Japanese moving-image artist Stom Sogo (1975-2012) remains a romantic rebel. His body of aggressively beautiful work, fashioning multiple electrified layers of strobing imagery through re-photography, his primary technique, revelled in optic and aural jolts as much as attempting a sincere connection with the viewer.

Curated and introduced by Andrew Lampert, Anthology Film Archive.

[experimenta2013]

“[A] movie’s reality should be as nasty and fucked up as possible, so we want to get fuck out of the theater and hope for something better in life…. I try not to have a message or even word in my movie. But I usually have some sick stories behind each of the movies. Those are just mental eye candy that it taste sweet first, seizure second.” – Stom Sogo

Sweet first, Seizure second: A Tribute To Stom Sogo

[experimenta2013]

Stom Sogo: Portrait from the Big Film Series By Lee Krist

[experimenta2013]

An Interview with Stom Sogo by Andrew Lampert

Anyway, the interview finally started at night of the Saturday. We were so

wired and wasted by all the all the, all, the.

---

(Within my present memory of creation of past,) Andy asks "Do I consider the filmmakers who present their work out the form of ‘film

-

screening’ as just another kind of filmmaker or do they differ from the category?"

"They must still be a filmmaker who sucks shit and shoots it out."

In some reality, movie is way cooler than art. Just the problem here is that

a movie director shouldn’t be acting like a rock star, worse a filmmaker

shouldn’t be acting like a pseudo intellectual composer on a stage of a

place like Lincoln Center. That’s bad. They should at least sit down and let

you know that they are responsible of the shit you sat through. If they are

smart, they shouldn’t exist. They should fucking hide from this reality. Like

the media, its maker of the product is the God. Read the rest of the interview here (pdf)

[experimenta2013]

YA PRIVATE SKY (Stom Sogo, 2001)

from AnthologyFilmArchives

A short work by Stom Sogo (1975-2012) that combines super 8 film and mini-dv digital video.

[experimenta2013]

Women Looking at Other Women

Women Looking at Other Women

an interview with filmmaker Bette Gordon and Karyn Kay

BOMB 2/Winter 1982, FILM

Karyn Kay Who said, “Where there is struggle there is narrative?”

Bette Gordon Peter Wollen, I think.

KK Initially I loved Hollywood, and I loved it for all the problems, and then I loved experimental work for all the other problems, and now what I’m interested in is merging the two sets into a conjunction of problems and a more complex film practice. I think someone like Yvonne Rainer’s work is very important because she mixes politics with theoretical issues and experimentation in narrative form, not making a straight replica of traditional narrative. Also, George Landow has been an important influence on 16mm experimentation with narrative and cinematic structures.

BG Then, what you’re saying, and I agree, is that playing with the narrative, as well as telling a story is more interesting than a straightforward replication of what Hollywood does anyway, or the simple story with beginning, middle and end.

KK Or the simple experimentation. Besides Hollywood isn’t or hasn’t always been a “simple story.” Look, for example, at Ophuls, Sirk, Sternberg.

BG I’m very interested in narrative, but I don’t have a desire to reproduce Hollywood because nobody can do it like “they” do I.

more here

[experimenta2013]

Anthology Film Archives presents: Artist Film Restorations from the USA

For the last five years Anthology Film Archives has focused on preserving works by filmmakers who became active or came to fruition during the years 1975-1990. This sampler programme represents an eclectic array of artists who were largely active in New York City. Films preserved with support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. —-Andrew Lampert AN ALGORITHM Dir Bette Gordon. USA 1977. 10min. 16mm. A visually stunning kinetic rhythm produced by looped footage (mathematical curves) in and out of phase with each other.

AN ALGORITHM  Bette Gordon 1977

THE DISCOVERY OF THE PHONOGRAPH Dir Stuart Sherman. USA 1986. 6min. 16mm. A prime example of Stuart Sherman’s sound films. As ever, he is dedicated to choreography, cross- cutting and associational image relations. BEDTIME STORY Dir Esther Shatavsky. USA 1981. 6min. 16mm-to-35mm blow-up. A collage film masterpiece by Esther Shatavsky made as much from splicing tape as it is from celluloid. SIX WINDOWS Dir Marjorie Keller. USA 1979. 7min. 16mm. A self-portrait of sorts by Marjorie Keller: an important figure in the New York City film community who died at age 43. MISSION TO MONGO Dir Jim Hoberman. USA 1977. 4min. 16mm. A bright and bouncy comical dialectic featuring postcards purchased in New York City’s Chinatown. By Village Voice critic, J. Hoberman. GOODBYE 42nd STREET Dir Richard Kern. USA 1983. 5min. Super 8mm-to-16mm blow-up. Kern films the derelict and depraved storefronts of famous 42nd Street and interrupts his visit with random acts of violence. RADIO ADIOS Dir Henry Hills. USA 1982. 11min. 16mm. High energy and also hilarious, RADIO ADIOS features performances and appearances from filmmakers Abigail Child and George Kuchar and poets Charles Bernstein, Hannah Weiner and Jackson Maclow. RAW NERVES: A LACANIAN THRILLER Dir Manuel de Landa. USA 1980. 30min. 16mm. A semiotic, language-obsessed film noir shot in garish color and overflowing with delirious optical wipes, spirals and effects.

[experimenta2013]

Experimenta Tumblr exclusive: INTERVIEW WITH JODIE MACK

Let Your Light Shine, a programme of work including Jodie’s new film and performance, Dusty Stacks of Mom is screened on Saturday 19th October. Could you describe the main ideas and inspirations behind your work?

My work re-imagines material detritus and ignites the kinetic-potential of everyday objects as a way to prod at the strange role decoration plays in our daily lives. As I told someone recently: mostly I’m inspired by why the majority of normal people despise contemporary art and how imagery oscillates between worlds of obscure and mainstream consumption. I’m also inspired by how technology simultaneously enhances and ruins the world.

Dusty Stacks of Mom

Animation plays an increasingly crucial role within cinema, as well as music videos, advertising and other commercial contexts. How does your work relate to what could be called the mainstream applications of animation?

I think my work questions the role of abstract animation in mainstream applications of moving images and calls attention to how this type of imagery functions in both the foreground and background of our collective consciousness. Animation has always played a large role in all forms of cinema, but the mainstream has always reserved a special place for abstract animation, specifically in advertising. (Let's not forget that a classic experimental animation, A Colour Box by Len Lye, is also an advertisement for the post office). I'm interested in how both sensation and narration play a role in the common perception of abstract animation. The common person may feel uncomfortable when watching an abstract film if narrative/cinematic expectations aren't met, yet this type of imagery can elicit enough joy to, say, sell a pair of shoes or something. Uncanny!

A Colour Box (1936) by Len Lye

Dusty Stacks of Mom is described as a ‘film and performance’. Have you always incorporated performance within your work or is this a new direction for you?

I have incorporated performative elements in other films, like Rad Plaid, Glitch Envy, The Saddest Song in the World, and The Future is Bright. I also perform in my musical animation  Yard Work is Hard Work. I grew up training in the performing arts, so this feels pretty natural. I enjoy blurring the boundaries between the theatrical and the cinematic, and I also like to find celebrate the practice of gathering in a room together to watch something. In a world full of multiples, I seek to create a one-of-a-kind experience for the spectator.

Yard Work is Hard Work, Jodie Mack Are you working on any other new projects or films at the moment?

Right now, I am touring the program I'll present at the BFI in the states. When that's finished, I hope to travel around and embark on a series of stroboscopic ethnographies made with foreign textiles. weblinks: Jodie Mack on Vimeo www.jodiemack.com Questions by Erica Scourti

[experimenta2013]

The Realist (preview)

by Scott Stark

preview created for the Toronto International Film Festival, taking place in September 2013.

[experimenta2013]

Stephen Sutcliffe Transformations (detail) 2005

Art Now Lightbox: Stephen Sutcliffe

Stephen Sutcliffe’s two films take poems as their starting points. Transformations is based on the Thomas Hardy poem of the same title. Hardy draws attention to the cycles of death and rebirth that are ever present in the countryside. He describes a man his grandfather knew and his wife, and a ‘fair girl’, who, in a process of organic renewal, have been transformed into trees and flowers:

…they are not underground But as nerves and veins abound In the growths of upper air…

Come to the Edge uses a recording of the poet Christopher Logue reciting a poem originally written in 1968:

Come to the edge. We might fall. Come to the edge. It’s too high! COME TO THE EDGE! And they came, and we pushed, And they flew.

The poem is combined with video footage shot in a 6th form common room. In the footage a good-humoured scene is suddenly transformed into something altogether more sinister as the group of schoolboys enact a ritual humiliation upon a seemingly older, mustachioed boy. ---from Tate.org.uk

[experimenta2013]

[experimenta2013]

Sebastian Buerkner at Tramway, Glasgow

FRIEZE April 2009 His work recalls a line from the classic film noir Out of the Past (1947), uttered by the duped hero: ‘I could see the picture in the frame, but not the frame around the picture.’ However, his use of disconcerting white flashes, employed ‘to throw the viewer off balance and out of the image’, also intensifies the fleeting and illusory qualities of each picture. Perhaps Buerkner’s installation could be seen as reflecting the ‘ever-more fractured subjectivity’ that theorist Anne Friedberg describes as a consequence of Internet and digital technologies.

His notion is that the work supports a situation in which the viewer is both maker and spectator, conscious and unconscious: ‘You can look in and look out from these two worlds’. More interesting than this, though, is the confrontation that occurs when the viewer looks out of this virtual environment through the two windows that have been cut in the white fabric. The specificity of the venue is more than a foil for Buerkner’s installation – it anchors his work to a site of real engagement.

Sarah Lowndes in Frieze

[experimenta2013]

CONTEXT: Stephen Sutcliffe References, inspirations and other material relating to OUTWORK

“A frame is a scheme of interpretation in which the particulars of the events and activities to which we attend are organized and made sensible. From James Shultz to Casteneda, we have been sensitised to the idea that the ‘same’ event, indeed even it’s status as an event, is dependent on the framework from which it is perceived and thus many ‘realities’ may be simultaneously occurring among (and even within) participations to the same set of activities….Goffman goes on to employ these concepts in a mix of analysis and illustrations, to show how the vulnerable everyday experience is to misinterpretation, and to reveal the detail underlying its construction, both individual and interpersonal”  Contemporary Psychology

“Frame Analysis is a rich, full, exceedingly complex book based on familiar data: clippings, cartoons, novels, vigniettes from the cinema and legitimate stage. The argument rests on distinctions, on the one hand, between what is taken to be real from the perspective of the observer in any situation and the actual occurrence an, on the other, between fabrication, internal and sometimes collusive misinterpretation of a situation by one person for another, and simple errors in framing and self-induced alterations.” American Journal of Sociology

ERVING GOFFMAN

[experimenta2013]

CONTEXT: Stephen Sutcliffe References, inspirations and other material relating to OUTWORK Marat / Sade,

Peter Brooks, 1968  The persecution and Assassination of Marat as performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the direction of the Marquis de Sade.

[experimenta2013]

CONTEXT: Duncan Campbell References, inspirations and other material relating to It For Others Anthropomorphic Packaging Mascots: "Anthropomorphic cartoon-product mascots used to be pretty prevalent and a lot of them are still around. Usually they are a food-come-to-life sort of thing. But product mascots in which the character is the product’s package “come to life” are little more unusual. Sort of like Droste effect packaging meets Fantasia. Or maybe it’s just the inverse of our recent tendency to think of ourselves and other people as packages. (See: Who’s That Brand?) People are packages and packages are people.” Randy Ludacer