tagged w/ Experimental Films
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The ghostly Polaroids that filmmaker Jem Cohen has taken of New York City over the past 30 years remind him of “a sleepwalker’s view of the city.” The impressionistic images, filled with vaporous landscapes, acid colors, deadpan close-ups and long, lonesome vistas, could be said to capture those parts of the city its residents have forgotten, or even what the city has forgotten about itself.
The same can be observed about Mr. Cohen’s short films, “NYC Weights and Measures” (2006) and “Lost Book Found” (1996), which capture the lonely solitude that exists beneath the often deafening noise and frantic bustle of the city’s streets.
This piece includes a number of Cohen's color Polaroids, as well as two of his short films.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/the-lonely-ghosts-of-new-york-citys-past/The ghostly Polaroids that filmmaker Jem Cohen has taken of New York City over the... more
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“Opsin” is the new beautifully shot, pristine monotone short film/music video by Ivan Villafuerte, an inspiring and powerful piece of urban visual poetry. It can be viewed as a follow-up to Villafuerte’s “Destello,” a magnificent tribute to the city of Chicago that allowed us to rediscover the beauty of images that we have before us in everyday life.
Villafuerte is a Chicago-based videographer, who has been creating some great atmospheric, running visuals over the past few months. An important element in these projects has been the inclusion of progressive imaginative audio, which really precisely sets the tone of each piece. The music is combined with contrasting focus and a selective eye that captures some very unique viewpoints. Villafuerte seems to be making this imaginative and evocative style his own right now, and it’s vividly shown in an earlier short work that is also presented here, “olololololololxl_l_l_l.”
Opsins are trans-membrane proteins essential for the conversion of photons to biochemical processes; they can be viewed as the essential points of contact between outside reality and our interior world of visual perception and experience. So I recommend putting them to work with the wonderful frames of these videos. And try to make sure you aren’t doing anything else when you watch them, so that you can just sit back and really enjoy the views.
This piece includes a number of photographs, as well as HD versions of the two short films/music videos.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/opsin-an-inspiring-simple-and-powerful-piece-of-urban-visual-poetry/“Opsin” is the new beautifully shot, pristine monotone short film/music... more
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“In Focus: Still Life” is a selection of remarkable photographs from an installation of wonderful still life photographs presently on view at The J. Paul Getty Museum Center for Photographs. The collection presents a survey of some of the innovative ways photographers have explored and refreshed this traditional genre. During the 19th century, still life photographs tended to resemble still life paintings, with similar subjects and arrangements. Beginning in the 20th century, still life photographs have mirrored the subjects and styles that have more broadly concerned photographers in their time.
In addition to early experiments of pioneers of the photographic medium, some of the works that have been newly acquired by the Getty Center are presented here: “Still Life with Triangle and Red Eraser” (1985) by American Irving Penn, “Lorikeet with Green Cloth” (2006) by Australian Marian Drew, and “Blow Up: Untitled 15” (2007) by Israeli Ori Gersht. Gersht loosely based his “Blow Up” series on traditional floral still life paintings. His arrangements of flowers are frozen and then detonated; the explosion is captured using synchronized digital cameras, with the fragmentary detritus caught in remarkable detail. This contemporary approach to still photography belies the notion of still life as something motionless, as it explores the relationships among painting and photography, art and science, and creation and destruction.
This piece also presents the acclaimed experimental video “Still Life” (2001) created by the English artist Sam Taylor-Wood, a three-minute short film that focuses on a classically composed bowl of fruit as it decays. Also, there’s a pen. “Still Life” has been said to be one of the most classical works in contemporary art, carving a permanent record for itself in art history with hardly any commentary. This is not just a Still Life; it is based upon a particular type of still life painting that developed during the 16th and 17th centuries in Flanders and the Netherlands, part of a classical genre that contains symbols of change or death as a reminder of their inevitability. Its focus was upon confronting the vanity of worldly things through often subtle signs of elapsing time and decay.
Sam Taylor-Wood’s film represents yet another step in that direction: the image, beautiful as ever in Taylor-Wood’s universe, decomposes itself. By the end of the short film, nothing is left but a grey amorphous mass. But upon closer inspection, one detail distinguishes this picture from its predecessors. The plastic ballpoint pen, a cheap contemporary object. One that doesn’t seem to decay and doesn’t seem to be a part of the universal process of self-disappearing life. Is this what is really left here to stay after we are gone, this nothingness, this ridiculous attribute of ourselves?
This piece includes a number of stunning high-resolution color photographs, a slide show and the short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/still-life-photography-courting-surprise-and-allegorical-meanings/“In Focus: Still Life” is a selection of remarkable photographs from an... more
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“We Have Decided Not to Die” is an award-winning, very unusual and deeply intriguing eight-minute short film by the Australian filmmaker Daniel Askill. A Triptych. Three Rituals. Three Figures. Three modern-day journeys of transcendence. From the post-modern quirk school of filmmaking, this piece transforms the power of ritual actions into an emotional allegory that creates a world beyond evolution, creationism and intelligent design. From a mental state where logic drops away, the film embarks upon a visually lyrical odyssey along a poetically surreal road to reversible destiny, where death is no longer inevitable.
Includes a number of photographs from the film, as well as the sensually stunning short, “We Have Decided Not to Die.”
Please visit my website to view the photographs, and to watch this strange, intriguing short film:
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2009/12/26/we-have-decided-not-to-die-spiritual-rituals-of-reversible-destiny/“We Have Decided Not to Die” is an award-winning, very unusual and deeply... more
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“Kicks 4 Cranes” is a hauntingly lovely short film by Seattle-based filmmaker Matt Cibelli, a film that’s sure to please both crane lovers and shoe fetishists. Cibelli’s work shifts between narrative and experimental styles with a beguiling sense of simplicity, contrasting beautiful scenes of construction cranes with a bemused audio track of women talking about their collections of shoes.
“Kicks 4 Cranes” is a hypnotic piece of work, and like all good experimental films, in the end its subjects are even more mysterious than before. However, it also evokes considerable attention to the way in which beauty often needs to be constructed and maintained, not unlike a giant office building. And the film does the obverse as well, showing us that a giant, gleaming construction crane against a sky can, in its own way, be as enticing as a pair of fashionable pumps.
This piece includes a number of colorful photographs from the film, as well as the amazingly hypnotic short, “Kicks 4 Cranes.”
Please visit this website to view the photographs and wonderful short film:
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/kicks-4-cranes-the-lost-language-of-cranes/“Kicks 4 Cranes” is a hauntingly lovely short film by Seattle-based... more
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“Between” is a 4-minute short experimental film by the German filmmaker Tim Bollinger. The film has been described as a dark, surreal piece that travels through grounds and walls and into moments stuck in time. As Bollinger describes it, “It’s a journey through worlds of the subconscious, allowing us to catch sinister glimpses of the human psyche’s ambivalence.” Its complex combinations and the resulting visions evoke a stroll in between different senses, caught up in an endless loop within our inner life, where the exit is the only entrance.
This piece includes a number of color photographs from the film, as well as the surreal experimental short, “Between.”
To view the photographs and the short film please visit:
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/between-the-exit-is-the-only-entrance/“Between” is a 4-minute short experimental film by the German filmmaker... more
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