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Liquid Perception

I've been travelling a lot this month. I am not allowed to film anything new untill I deal with the 10 tapes piled up on my table. So, this is the story, picking it up in the early-middle part, like any good story there are many perfectly fine starting places and relevant vantage points throughout. Be sure to look here, here, here, here for more.

Special thanks to my dear freind Sara Heifetz who performed as 'the voice of Gilles Deleuze' in this video. The text is taken completely out of context, from his book Cinema 1 - the movement image.  

    a subjective perception is one in which the images vary in relation to a central and prevlidged image; an objective perception is 
    one where, as in things, all images vary in relation to one another, on all their faets and in all their parts. These definitions       
    affirm not only the difference between two poles of perception, but also the possibility of passing from the subjective to the    
    objective pole. For the more the privledged center is itself put into movement, the more it will tend toward an acentered system
    where the images vary in relation to one another and tend to become like the reciprocal actions and vibrations of a pure
    matter. What can be more subjective than a delerium, a dream a hallucination? But what can be closer to a materiality made up
    of luminous wave and molecular interaction? (on google )

click to watch the video

Jon Jost

click image to watch the video of jon jost

I met Jon Jost, this weekend, at the Woods Hole Film Festival. I watched his film Oui non. HOly SHiT- it was way too familiar in its conception and form to what I have intended from this space here. Here, where feel I  am always grasping and grabbing at the pieces of this puzzle. Feeling like I have clubbed hands, banging away at this keyboard every so often managing to contrive one second of grace from it.  And he made this film 2 years before I started this. Where will I be 10 years from now?  I will have to take some time thinking about how to write about this film, will certainly help me consider my film with new perspective.

Here is something Jost wrote:
This film is about how we turn reality into fiction, and create reality from fiction. Most visitors to Paris, a real city, arrive with a preconceived and in many senses fictional map, imprinted by history, politics, and the arts, so that the city seen has already been prescribed, just as the spectator’s preconditioning determines which film they will (or won’t) see.

Oui Non is also about the transition from celluloid film to digital aesthetics, from rigidity to plasticity, from filming with the burden of large costs to making of works almost without cost. It asks the viewer to set aside the habits of a spectator, the expectation and anticipation of “a story,” and instead to simply look and observe as in life. And to question.

For the maker it is very much a transitional work, a step from one place to another. It is a farewell to film. (link)

I am suprised his name has not come up in the world of 'videoblogging theory', only that damn (lovely) Trauffaut quote over and over.

Over the course of our short conversation, he said everything I want to tell people about filmmaking, or what isn't said enough, or what I need to be reminded of, and he has 40 years of experience to back it up. On my bus ride back to NYC, he and his wife were incidentally, seated infront of me, while I edited this video.  Kind of awkward but also fitting.

click to see Jon Jost speaking

Child's Play

Made this for my friend Raould who loves the carousel at Prospect park.
Reminded me of these 16 mm films we would watch in elementary school.
I want to make more like it.
Gearing up for a kids feed for The PAN.
That's rightt, a daily 15 min video made by the PAN Group, that is all Gee - rated!
click image below to watch the video! 

Broken

This is a video for a song by House of Freaks.

I will be focusing on making videos for The PAN
Music Moments, using songs by bands I like, which don't have videos.

Filmed on the train down to Virginia and edited it on the ride back to NY. I have loved this train ride, in the past. It provided a much needed transition time from NYC to Richmond.

But this time is difficult. I have not visited since the murder of the Harvey family and I am still broken from it. I don't know if I will ever fully repair. I find myself crying most of the ride down and back. Making the video is difficult because of this, but cathartic, I am hoping...

Notice how the shift in the camera's perspective alters the way the land passes outside the train window. With the camera's lense parallel to the window, the trees pass by so quicky that they become an abstraction on a flat flickering screen. When the camera's lense is at a 45 degree angle from the window the world outside gains enough depth to become a doirama of streets lined with toy houses.

It is amazing how a small alteration in physical perspective can change so much.

What a feelin'

Dancing, with music by Nobody.
click image to download video.

Sudan dancing

More on Sudan. The video was given to me by my friend David who works in Africa for the UN, the audio is a from conversation we had here in NYC.

Going Rates

My friend David, made another short visit to NYC. Here, here and here, you can see videos from when I filmed him last year around the same time, we talked about some of his experiences with taking pictures in Africa. This year, he talked to me about the new job he started organizing and implementing a demilitarizaion effort in Sudan. There's been quite a lot of tumult there recently, but since African news is not a top priority in US media, we don't get to hear much about it.
Here are some links to info on Sudan:
Location and Facts
Latest UN reports from Sudan
Sudanwatch blog

Giddy as ever

Two minutes in a cab with Beth and Jim, priceless. They tell me a story about one of their first dates.

Elevation

Going down, temperature drop, prices cut.

Coming and Going

Click on the picture to watch
A lot can happen in 5 seconds. Leaving home for work and leaving work for home. The days have felt like this, lately.

Rock Hard Place

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I get accused of being a "Linda Tripp", Mary impresses with her witty reparte and Lynda shows how to get a date via videoblog.

Hurry.

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Often feel as if you are being filmed? It's best to just always assume this. Still, make a point to appear natural and be yourself.

Who's to say?

CLick HeRe to WatCh

The little phone. A little phoney. You see yourself in the reflective surfaces though you look different than you had remebered, but who can really say.

Another Dimension

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Start the year off right. Watch a Twilight Zone marathon on TV.

Intimacy

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Really, it's not what you think.
It's what I think.
I was messing with some new software and I accidentally recorded this conversation.

Sidekick

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Ilsa has a crush on Kenyatta's Sidekick. Who brings a camera to a party? or a computer for that matter. We do.

Emotional Availability

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Liza, Sara and I go out to eat on a Tuesday night. It's just the usual girl talk. Though in a room that would otherwise be empty but for three friends that go way back and a universe full of chilipepper lights the usual is perfect.

About French Condoms

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Sara explains what makes French cheese so delicious. And this bill explains why it is so hard to stay away from the questionable row of Indian restaurants around the corner from my place.

Speaking Directly To The Camera

Click HERE to see

I would like to introduce my family into some of my video. They are interesting and entertaining, would certainly fit right in with the other characters here. I am visiting them now so, this would be the perfect opportunity. Still... not sure.

Leaving town

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I am trying to maintain my regular filming, editing, posting habit eventhough, I am taking a little vacation from my nyc life. It would feel wrong to take a vacation from this.

Still Dancin'!!

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Finally, managed to capture some real tears on camera. Two big pathetic drops. Its harder than you'd think. As soon as I'd turn the camera on myself they's dry up and I'd crack a smile. See, I am not an actor, I can't summon the real emotions when I need to capture it on film. I have to work within an actual moment. Trouble is when I go into working mode I seperate and am not able to maintain the intensity and sincerity of the feelings. I become an observer; cool, removed, watching. This is common place for the artist put themself, it's comfortable, it is what you have to do to study the theory and gain mastery of the skills. Then (if you're me) you get bored. Can I push myself back to the otherside or be both at once? It's an exciting boundary to play with. Fun to use myself as the springboard but I am pretty sure working with actors is where this is really headed.

Art Comments

CLick here to see CommentsIt begins with nature, untamed and raw. Niagra Falls was once the most photographed (and drawn and painted and etched) place in the world. Looking at it in awe, a desire develops to control it, tame it for ones own benefit. Imagine the electricity. The video here was made by Wolfgang Staehle a pioneer in internet video art. What follows is pure ingenuity. Enchantment through lenses and the rythmic ticking of clocks, gears and gizmos. So many ideas to patent.Now the cities are dense and networked.  Anxiety is currency and its pulse is a comfort.  A parallel pulse of the mediated kind is made of vaguely familiar images and voices. Devoid of any content, they watch you and you watch them. It is a kind of dialog, kind of.  I have complained that art in galleries is stale but is it so good to be proved wrong.

Rats

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It's a mild night. We decide to sit outside. Despite the sounds of car alarms, sirens, music from bars and chatter from people on the sidewalks, it is a quiet evening. Jen tells a story about rats.

See Me

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Fascinating to see myself respond to the camera and to the person behind it. Playing with taking a very short clip of an interaction and pulling out moments. Subtle changes in expresssion, tone. I will work with professional actors soon. Watching myself and my own interactions with people on either side of the camera is very helpful.

Working From Home

CLicK Image to WAtch.
It's Saturday, I am working from home this morning. On the one hand I don't have to wear pants but it's really more that I am going to work before I have had a chance to put the pants on. Although you can see that I am frustrated, I am also aware that its probably funny. Turns out it is. I am laughing right now.

Click on this to watch the last entry of conversations with David in which we learn what it means to take pictures in Sudan.

David

CLick oN image to watch as David rolls tape and tells us about a hidden camera in Egypt. I haven't seen him in four years. He has spent a lot of time travelling and doing humanitarian aid work in Africa and always has amazing stories and photos to share.

the myth and the moment

Am I the last one to figure out that Joseph Campbell is Yoda? It all makes so much sense now. I taped this from an interview with him by Bill Moyers. It was made sometime in the 1980's and the public television channel plays it durring fund drives - its enough to make me want to donate. I was also washing some potatoes for dinner and I included it here because its a pretty image and seemed like a good idea to break up the harshness of the screen pic.

Click on image to watch the .mov. This is another experiment in conversation, filmed this past weekend. Laura is a journalist who I think will put this medium to good use.

Click on image to watch the .mov. I had a real vacation weekend on the eastern shore (Maryland). I am going to post a few 'conversations' from the weekend. This one, I hope Sandriel doesn't mind, I just knew I would use, and it's sort of a lead in to the video project I'm working up to. The next will take a little more editing-will post it tonight.

I am far away, in a place where there are no cell phones and limited internet access (they call it Upstate New York). I have not been able to keep up at my established pace this week but I have been filming mpegs with my digital camera to post as soon as I can. In the meantime, this video is an interesting conversation about copyright law and whats up with it and why you should care.

click here to watch story

Notice how the thumbnail links to the moving image. Learned a little HTML from Noah, for this post. Mostly I just cut and paste, but it's starting to be somewhat readable to me. Onward with the experiment.

click here to watch
This video is my friend taking me throught the space where we will be filming her graduate thesis project. It reminds me of dreams I've often had about moving through rooms in houses. I think, I will try to make some other video that describe this feeling. Artist Christoph Buchel whose work puts you physically in these kind of places, has an installation in NYC right now. look, i made a link!

click here to watch

A pastoral afternoon in central park, talking about videoblogs, what else? I was falling asleep as I edited and posted this so may be odd. After some trouble shooting looks like my diffficulties uploading with 'ecto' are actually with 'ecto' and not me. Next step is to contact them for help.

click here to watch this
the setting: in a cab in nyc. the characters: me, cab driver, jay's v-mail, woman (not shown) on bicycle
the story:I rarely take cabs but im late to meet two friends who dont know each other. The driver of the cab asks how he should get to my destination. I tell him that I dont drive, so however he thinks is fine. This is not what he wants to hear. So, i tell him a route that I might take. He tells me 'this is no good.' Then, camera rolling, he refuses to answer when I ask what route he has decided to take. This is an example of a typically bizarre nyc interaction. Next, I decide to make a phone call. What you see is me talking to Jay's v-mail. He's been a big help getting me set up here with typepad, and trying to keep me from getting frustrated with little technical difficulties. The best moment here, is where I look up for a fraction of a second mid-sentence. Pure emotion. The movie takes a dramatic turn when I noticing the cab almost hitting a woman on a bicycle. It's sort of a cliff-hanger. And all that in 30 sec!