Time Arts 1 SP08

DRIP 2008 - Student Moving Image Festival

2008-04-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

Our own Deke Weaver, is organizing the second ever DRIP annual student festival of the moving image. It is open to all undergrads from UIUC's School of Art & Design. Your work will be juried by Lissa Gibbs, Director of Contemporary Art Tucson (and former curator of San Francisco's Film Arts Festival), along with the work of studentts from Rensselaer Polytech and the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth.
Here's the skinny:
+ Videos must be 5 min or less
+ Work must have been completed after Jan 1, 2006
+ 2 submissions allowed per student
+ submissions must be in Quicktime DV-NTSC format
+ Deadline is May 7!

To submit download this flyer and submission form.

Last Project

2008-04-21T11:44:00.000-07:00

Our last project is here, and it's due on our last day of class - Tuesday April 29. It's a no-holds-barred, all-or-nothing, anything-goes, do-or-die, know-when-to-hold-'em, knock-down-drag-out... assignment. In other words, there are no thematic or formal constraints on what you produce. It doesn't even have to be video. It can be a super 8 film. It can be a performance. It can be watching candles melt.
OK, a couple of constraints... we can't burn anything in or near the building. And nothing that takes more than 5 minutes to actually watch. And no guns. Or hoaxes about bombs.
Also, if you'd like to use this project to restage one of your previous projects, go for it. But it must be either re-shot or re-edited significantly differently.
And, this is kind of exciting, although the collection isn't quite exciting itself - the library is offering streaming versions of some films/videos.

More Television Satire: Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

2008-04-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

Darkplace is a double satire of British sci-fi that includes a backstory via commentary. If you're a fan of the original BBC series The Office, or This is Spinal Tap, you should enjoy this.

Commercial Parodies +

2008-04-10T16:21:00.000-07:00

So, I found the "Taco Town" SNL ad.
And "Colon Blow".
Also, for an interesting mix up of old advertising and other footage, check out Rick Prelinger's "Panorama Ephemera".
For anyone interested in the Rushkoff "Merchants of Cool" Frontline series, you can see it online here.
If you have others that are interesting, feel free to post them in the comments, or on your blog.

For Thursday

2008-04-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

For those not in class Tuesday, you need to have storyboards for your two 30 sec videos to discuss. They can be electronic or on paper, but either way, take them a little more seriously than quick doodles of stick men. I suggest employing a montage method - using found images of people, things and settings that approximate your intention. You should be thinking about everything from composition to color to lighting, using the storyboards as a way to think through and imagine your visions. A good starting point is 3 frames per video minimum.
ALSO, for anyone planning on attending the Craig Baldwin event I posted about below (on April 11), I just found out the time should be 8pm not 9 as previously listed.

Tuesday April 8

2008-04-07T11:47:00.001-07:00

The last of the four visiting candidates for the sculpture/3d position will be speaking on Tuesday at the usual 4pm in room 229. We will meet there before returning to the lab to discuss the project in more detail.
Relating to the project, I have decided to extend the deadline to April 17, rather than the 15th, because of the change to our class schedule over the last week.

Upcoming Screenings of Interest

2008-04-03T17:27:00.000-07:00

Monday, April 7th:
For-Educational-Use-Only: a Series of Video Screenings (A&D room 229, 7pm)
Chris Marker's "Sans Soleil"
1983, 100 min, 16mm film, color, sound

Stretching the genre of documentary, this essay-film is a rich composition of thoughts, images and scenes, mainly from Japan and Guinea-Bissau, "two extreme poles of survival". Some other scenes were filmed in Iceland, Paris, and San Francisco. A female narrator reads from letters supposedly sent to her by the (fictitious) cameraman Sandor Krasna. "Sans Soleil" contains some stock footage, clips from Japanese film and television, and a few excerpts from other films. The original documentary footage was filmed by Marker with a 16mm Beaulieu silent film camera in conjunction with a non-sync portable tape recorder.

And, if your in or near Chicago next Friday:

Craig Baldwin, video and performance @ Enemy, 9pm, 4/11/08
Craig Baldwin presents his curated video series "Blows Against the Empire" (also listed sometimes as: "Blows Against the Empire: Jamming Tactics from Direct-Action to Media Intervention) -- followed by live audio/video performances, including I <3 Presets. At Enemy - 1550 N. Milwaukee Ave. 3rd Fl. (Damen Blue line, Damen/North).

Baldwin is an amazing SF Bay-area film maker and responsible for Other Cinema, and alt distribution system.

Today - Guest Lectures!

2008-04-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

This is a bit late notice, although we've talked about it already.
Today we will meet in room 229 at 4pm to see the third of four 3D/sculpture candidates' talks.
And today is the day of guest talks...
At 5:30, Noah Wardrip-Fruin will be giving a talk titled 'Play, Fiction, and Digital Media'.. Noah Wardrip-Fruin is a digital media creator and scholar whose current work is focused on fiction and play. Noah's a really interesting figure in new media and narrative and of significance to our discussions and work, especially as we've been talking about the impact/developments of newer forms of communications technologies. It's great that we have the chance to hear him talk.
This is in the lower level of KAM.

Not Advertising Project Info

2008-04-01T19:54:00.000-07:00

This project will involve the production of two 30 second videos designed to function in the context of television advertisements. Rather than advertising a product, however, your videos will do one of the following options:

1. use the conventions of video adverts to communicate a narrative that has nothing to do with advertising at all (like the Stan Douglas piece we watched).
2. create an advertisement for an idea/concept/philosophy as if it were a consumable product.

Method
1. First, develop and reseearch a starting point - what is the context in which your not advertisement would be viewed (what would be the ideal channel and time, during what kind of programming - what does any of this tell you about your audience?)
2. Create an analysis of the ads and/or programming that would surround your ad. What are the conventions, tropes and codes used? How are the stories within the programming and ads communicated - both explicitly and implicitly? What assumptions about the world are present?
One way to begin this is to look at the formal conventions used. This resource is a good primer on "the grammer of TV and film". What is the "grammar" used in your chosen context.
This should all be in writing, and maybe even accompanied by drawings.
3. Create storyboards for each video. You should have at least 3 storyboard frames with detailed descriptions about what's going on and both the implicit and explicit actions.
4. Shoot, capture, edit your videos
* You can also work with some motion graphics/typography (we will do some tutorials in After Effects), but these elements should be used in a complimentary role, not as the primary elements.
** You can also use "found" footage - try archive.org for some good, and mostly public domain, video.
Parts 1-2 should be underway for Thursday.

Television is Dead, Long Live Television

2008-03-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

OK so, I have two things that everyone needs to look at by Tuesday... one is a text, one is a video (although it, too is all text). These are to give us a kind of formal/historical/political introduction to television as a communication technology. Both are roughly from the same time - the early to mid 1970s, so these are reflections on the media roughly half way between its introduction and our current moment, but closer to its beginning in many important ways - pre-cable, pre-WWW, pre-satellite.
1. Raymond Williams: " The Technology and the Society"
2. Artists Carlotta Schoolman & Richard Serra: "Television Delivers the People"
But we can take the discussion up to the present... let's take Google's Youtube. Just the other day the New York Times ran a story about new implementations of data-mining technologies for Youtube videos. This kind of data-mining puts traditional tv ratings systems to shame - we're not talking statistical averages anymore - the individuated mass media of the web supplies real-time and automated meta data.
About two years ago, some ambitious directors/writers began a covert drama on Youtube called Lonelygirl15. It was created in tandem with other media (like myspace pages) to create the appearance that this was actually a 15-year-old girl's life - it got major coverage, and hundreds of people watched it and even wrote advice to lonelygirl15. And more recently, the writers of Scrubs produced a pilot sitcom that the WB network turned down. So, they put it on Youtube.
In class, we'll look at a few more things related to art and advertising and get into the project parameters.
Have a great weekend.

First Part of Class on Thursday

2008-03-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

The first candidate (of 4) for a position in sculpture/studio will be giving a talk that coincides with our class time, from 4-5pm in room 229. Because of the significance of this position, we will attend this talk before reconvening for a critique of the interview projects, which we will try to conduct in 229 as well.
This particular candidate looks especially relevant to our interests in time arts and moving image. Roxana Perez-Mendez creates installations and video works that blur the line between official and speculative histories, mostly surrounding Puerto Rican identity.
Some additional info:
images
short review

Interview project due Thursday March 27

2008-03-24T08:45:00.001-07:00

New For-Educational-Use-Only

2008-03-22T18:24:00.000-07:00

The next screening will be Monday, March 24, 7pm in room 229 as usual.
For anyone who's followed the DC punk scene that began in the early 80s (resulting in record labels Dischord, Simple Machines, DeSoto, etc) Jem Cohen might be of interest. He's documented that scene in photography and film and was the film maker behind "Instrument," the documentary on Fugazi.

Jem Cohen
Chain
01:39, 2004, color, sound

As regional character disappears and corporate culture homogenizes our surroundings, it's increasingly hard to tell where you are. In "Chain", malls, theme parks, hotels and corporate centers worldwide are joined into one monolithic contemporary "superlandscape" that shapes the lives of two women caught within it. One is a corporate businesswoman set adrift by her corporation while she researches the international theme park industry. The other is a young drifter, living and working illegally on the fringes of a shopping mall. Cohen contrives to turn the entire planet into a stretch of New Jersey commercial property--a universe that feels entirely real yet has the distinct smack of J.G. Ballard otherness. (VDB)

"Jem Cohen's Chain is a hypnotic, highly original piece about what it's like to live in the new global corporate landscape."
--Daily Telegraph

"Dreamlike... transforms a mundane world into something strange and new... formidable power... fierce political intelligence."
---Village Voice

Podcastic

2008-03-06T18:36:00.000-08:00

Here it is, with the files I've received up to the point you're looking at it. You can add it to your iTunes (if you use it) by going to "advanced" in the iTunes menu and "subscribe to podcast" - just paste the url into the field. Otherwise, you can use most Mac-based browsers to access it.

Reading for Tuesday, March 11. (Not the 6th as previously posted)

2008-03-03T11:37:00.001-08:00

Martha Rosler's In, Around and Afterthoughts

Podcasting

2008-02-28T16:19:00.000-08:00

The xml file can be found here. You just need to modify the "item" data to correspond to your track(s). i.e. you just need to get to me by the 4th a short text snippet that starts with <item> and ends with </item> with your data in between and in appropriate tags. You can email me with that info in the body of an email or as a plain text file.
Also, here's the Odeo site.

For Next Week

2008-02-21T16:09:00.000-08:00

So there's a reading due (linked below) and the spatial audio work, both for Thursday. There will be no regularly scheduled class on Tuesday, as I will be in Madison. So... use the scheduled class time productively - read the Sound Art article, work on field recordings, edit. The audio exercises turned out great, so keep doing what you were doing.
Some links of use:
Platform's And While London Burns - an operatic audio tour of London's financial district.
The sources for mixable and archival audio: CCMixter and the Internet Archive.
And just in case... some Audacity tutorials.

Next Reading (for Thursday 2/28)

2008-02-21T08:22:00.000-08:00

Goldsmith's Bring Da Noise: A Brief Survey of Sound Art

For Tuesday, Feb 19

2008-02-18T10:14:00.000-08:00

Please bring some AA batteries (you will need 2-4) and a compact flash card or SD card (something over 512MB will do). I have a couple of compact flash cards for people who cannot get one by Tuesday, but not enough for everyone.

The Longest Takes

2008-02-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

Tommy or Blake asked about the longest take in a film... and Marty (I think it was anyway) suggested Russian Ark, the single take (well, on the 4th try), 99 minute video by Alexander Sokurov set in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. I haven't seen this, but I will see if I can find a copy to screen. Another film that I always forget about in terms of long takes, and one I have seen, is Mike Figgis' Time Code, which clocks in at a close 97 minutes. But Time Code has the distinction of not only being done in one take, but produced in 4 simultaneous takes, presented simultaneously via a 4-split screen.

Reading for Wed Feb 7

2008-02-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

The reading is: Pier Paolo Pasolini's Observations on the Long Take (1967) (who is Pasolini?)
Make a short post to your blog about this in preparation for our discussion.
At 5:30, we'll watch a screening of Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up.
We'll also talk more about the next project.

Video Screening: Mon Feb 4, 7pm

2008-01-30T21:40:00.000-08:00

// For-Educational-Use-Only: a Series of Video Screenings //
-- UIUC School of Art and Design, New Media Program --

On Mondays this spring, in room 229 of the UIUC Art and Design building, we'll be screening videos at 7pm. This un-themed series will simply screen works that are sometimes hard-to-come-by, restricted in circulation, or perhaps "overlooked." Not all works will be screened in their intended format (i.e., works shot for film will be screened as videos) or even in pristine form; the idea is to get at least some experience of these often hard-to-find works out into circulation of our educational communities.

Monday, February 4th: "Light and Shadow"

Maya Deren
Meshes of the Afternoon, 1943, 14:00, film, b+w

Meshes of the Afternoon is one of the most influential works in American experimental cinema. A non-narrative work, it has been identified as a key example of the "trance film," in which a protagonist appears in a dreamlike state, and where the camera conveys his or her subjective focus. The central figure in Meshes of the Afternoon, played by Deren, is attuned to her unconscious mind and caught in a web of dream events that spill over into reality. Meshes of the Afternoon established the independent avant-garde movement in film in the United States, which is known as the New American Cinema. It directly inspired early works by Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, and other major experimental filmmakers. (ubuweb)
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Stan Brakhage
Anticipation of the Night, 1958, 42:00, film, color

In Anticipation of the Night, Brakhage created a film of self-exploration and psychological revelation that did not depend on a journey metaphor, a linear narrative structure, or an on-screen protagonist. Brakhage strove to communicate a "totality of vision" (what he saw, perceived, felt, imagined, and dreamt) through a complete identification between himself and a "liberated camera." Brakhage uses a constantly moving hand-held camera, unfocused images, under- and over-exposure, random compositions, distorting lenses and filters, flash frames, varying camera speeds, and fragmented time and space.
---
Linda Montano
Mitchell's Death, 1977, 22:20, video, b+w

Using performance as a means of personal transformation and catharsis, Mitchell's Death mourns the death of Montano's ex-husband. Every detail of her story, from the telephone call announcing the tragedy, to visiting the body, is chanted by Montano as her face, pierced by acupuncture needles, slowly comes into focus then goes out again. (vdb)
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Shuji Terayama
Shadow Film: A Woman with Two Heads, 1977, 15:00

Terayama's work is at once haunting and beautiful. Using visual expectation as a means of simultaneously disorienting and enchanting the viewer, the film never settles into a concrete narrative or even definitive symbolism. Much like the shadows Terayama employs to achieve these filmic and psychic effects, the film's underlying meaning is perpetually out of reach--it oscillates from childhood innocence to the throes of sexual passion with little more than a cryptic stare and a plodding musical score as interpretive devices.
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Peter Tscherkassky
Dream Work, 2001, 10:00, film, b+w

A woman goes to bed, falls asleep, and begins to dream. This dream takes her to a landscape of light and shadow, evoked in a form only possible through classic cinematography. "Dream Work" is the third section of the CinemaScope Trilogy. The film was made with a process called contact printing, by which found film footage is copied by hand and frame by frame onto unexposed film stock. (tscherkassky.at)
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Deborah Stratman
In Order Not to be Here, 2002, excerpt, film, color

An uncompromising look at the ways privacy, safety, convenience and surveillance determine our environment. Shot entirely at night, the film confronts the hermetic nature of white-collar communities, dissecting the fear behind contemporary suburban design. By examining evacuated suburban and corporate landscapes, the film reveals peculiarly 21st century hollowness--an emptiness born of our collective faith in safety and technology. (vdb)
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Guy Maddin
Cowards Bend the Knee, 2003, excerpt, film, b+w

This surrealist film is divided into ten short sections. It was initially conceived as an installation consisting of 10 peep holes each showing one section of the film. Maddin fuses the asthetics of silent film with contemporary installation art in this story of murder, abortion, revenge, amnesia, and ice hockey. (imdb)

Reading for Tuesday Jan 29

2008-01-24T20:46:00.000-08:00

Lev Manovich's What is Digital Cinema - post a short (100 word) response to the reading on your blog before class.
If you haven't emailed me a link to your blog, do that before class as well.

Archives, Images and Truth

2008-01-18T09:54:00.001-08:00

Since we're working on a project that involves the production of a database of images - a small archive of pictures on a theme - I thought some of you might find this review of a current show at the International Center of Photography interesting.

For Thursday, Jan 17

2008-01-16T09:14:00.000-08:00

We will look at Final Cut Pro and discuss importing media files (in our case, digital images). We will also discuss digital images and how to crop and set the resolution to the necessary settings for project 1.
You collection of a "themed" database of images/textures should be well under way for project 1, which is due next Thursday, Jan 24.
Also, send me a link to your blog being used for reading responses.