"What a moth might see from birth to death if black were white and white were black." -S.B.
Stan Brakhage's most famous piece may be the mothlight. After watching his works, I found out that he was keen on using creative materials. And after learning the materials, one can never expect such materials can reach such effect.
By learning his history, I think the reason why he could bring us so many surprise is because he used to study biography. And he found so much beauty inside.
Meshes of the afternoon 'Meshes of the afternoon' was my entry into Maya Deren, I first met in another course called 'Art of the moving image'. It was used to demonstrate the skill of cutting. I remember how I was amazed that such a black and white movie can have such deep meaning. I met it again in Linda's course again. This time, we focus on the experimental cinema. And I found myself involved so deep into it again. Although I knew the meaning already, however, it seemed that every detail in the movie drew my attention, inviting me to think as deep as possible.
She was the pioneer in American independent movies in the 1940s.
After watching her movies, Deren's personality may be tough, but exquisite at the same time, through my imagination. Take 'Meshes of the afternoon' as an example, the lady in the short movie was not as obedient as the ladies at that time. I remember the scene that the lady took the key out of her mouth. I wonder if i can regard it as she started to search her own heart. What's more, hiding the key in the mouth may represent the occupation of the rights of her own. However, the lady finally committed suicide, which may show the sadness of the women of that time. In addition, I found that she was quite interested in the Chinese and Japanese culture. For example, the background music in 'Meshed of the afternoon' was Japanese.
Other works:
Ritual in Transfigured Time
Compared to the 'meshes of the afternoon', I think this one was a bolder attempt. What I love the most in the short movie is the gestures. Deren took the advantage of being a dancer. The motions were free but not out of order. They didn't need any dialogue, however, as audience, we know what they wanted to convey to us. What's more, the use of the freeze-frame is very splendid. It was like the time was under her control.
Andy is not on the writing list, however, I am really interested in him since he likes to focus on figures.
Let's take the 'secret tests' as an example. Andy involved so many figures in it. They were all very natural , with a particular facial expression or doing certain stuff. And they were looking directly into the camera, but giving the audience different feelings. However, the background music was like a string, installing the figures in series. It was like the figures have a subtle relationship between them as they switched with the sound 'pomp!'. It all ended to the scene of the city. The transition was quite abrupt. Therefore, the sudden abruption was quite think-provoking ------ the different figures in the same city.
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Kiss (1963)
Sleep(1963)
Eat(1963)
Blow Job(1964)
Andy chosed very daily things, it seemed like he was put the fragments together and it became an art piece. And these four can demonstrate it well. It naturally involve the audience by the facial expression of the actors and the actresses (or maybe they cannot be even called the actors and the actresses, they expressed so naturally just like the camera didn't exist).
He was an artist ,a director and a photographer. But first of all, he was a philosopher. And his philosophy was what constructed all his work. He has a very unique thinking towards love, sex and death.
Return of Cinema - Experimental Short Film My summary the specialities of the experimental cinema: 1. Short (I can hardly find such film longer than 30 minutes), small dimension, low cost 2. Non-linear narrative, stagger narrative 3. Rarely use the synchronizing sound. ( the use of the sound is not always to fit with the pictures) 4. Experimental films are not used to express a certain incident or a particular story.
They are used to express the inner feelings/emotion.
EXPERIMENTAL FILM 002
What's more
5. experimental films broke through the traditional format of general cinema(I think 002 can well demonstrate) Films are not only a screen and a story, they are something more than that.
Dry Ice ERUPTIONS! How to Create Experimental Explosions! - Joe Genius
(and of course,
experimental artists should be very brave, as they need to prepare for the unexpected things!)
From my perspective, it is a group of artists who have the creativity in actions and do some rule-breaking actions.
1.
Gun man kill three (1991)
Blast Theory's first work was made over the sumer of 1991 by Matt Adams, Lorraine Hall, Niki Jewett, Will Kittow and Ju Row Farr in collaboration with Lucia Gahlin, Nicky Gibbs and Bruce Gilchrist. The development of the piece was prompted by an article in The Guardian entitled Gunmen Kill Three at Mobile Shop which described in detail how two men entered a mobile shop in a republican area and killed the two women behind the counter and a man who tried to intervene. Throughout the sequence of events the only words reported to be spoken was “IRA”. This was said by the protestant killers to reassure the two women moments before shooting them.
The resulting work was a promenade performance first shown at Union Chapel in London in September 1991 alongside DJs, an installation in gold leaf and a bar run by the artists. It was subsequently shown at Sheffield Independent Film as part of the Sheffield Media Show and at Bournemouth Polytechnic.
Structured around a re-enactment of the mobile shop killing, the piece featured live drumming, live wireless video projections, a sweep of the floor for evidence and an appeal for a missing child. A member of the audience was handed a paintball gun and offered the opportunity to fire at two performers in their underwear. If they chose to go ahead they were given three shots to make a hit. The piece ended with a monologue taken from Life After Life by Tony Parker in which a man describes bludgeoning someone to death with a hammer.
2.
Something American (1996)
On a stage 12m wide and 2m deep stands a bulky middle aged man in a New York cop's uniform. In a crisp American accent he speaks about the thrill of the force and his sexual fantasies. He even shows us his five favourite explosions.
This is a man at ease with himself.
Behind him a panoramic screen starts to flicker into life. Slide and video projections of cartoons, headlines and vast American landscapes spread right across the stage. Layers of icons, footnotes and speech bubbles build up into a constantly mutating electronic billboard.
As Something American develops, the cop sheds his layers of pretence. He opens up, breaks down and falls away. As he does so other versions of America come through; sometimes in tiny moments, at others in a flurry of activity and pumping music. Three performers talk about boxing and Rock'n'Roll and Remote Viewing. Then the talking stops and the UFOs arrive.
Punctuated by loops and samples from Sugarboat the show looks at what America represents for us through the eyes of one man. For him, and maybe for us, it is an endless landscape of hope and violence.
Something American won the Barclays New Stages Award in 1996 and toured the UK and Germany.
3.
I like Frank (2004)
In March 2004 Blast Theory premiered the world's first 3G mixed reality game, I Like Frank in Adelaide, at the Adelaide Fringe.
I Like Frank took place online at www.ilikefrank.com and on the streets using 3G phones. Players in the real city chatted with players in the virtual city as they searched for the elusive Frank. Whether playing on the streets or logging from around the world, players built relationships, swapped information and tested the possibilities of a new hybrid space.
The game invited players to search for Frank through the streets of Adelaide. Online Players moved through a virtual model of the city, opening location specific photos of the city. One photo revealed the location of a hidden object. Online Players then had to enlist a Street Player to go to that location and retrieve it. In the Exeter Hotel, in a pool hall and in saddle bags on bicycles were four different postcards each with a question for the Street Player to answer such as, 'Who do you think of when you feel alone?'Once an Online Player had achieved this they entered a new virtual Adelaide saturated in red where Frank was waiting in a photographic 'Future Land'.
Street Players received messages onto their phones that reveal that the creator of the game and Frank spent time together in Adelaide in the past. By walking through the north eastern part of the city Street Players followed in their footsteps. The game culminated with an interaction with a glimpsed figure at 'Future Land', a leafy sunken atrium between four mirrored office blocks. Via a video call on their phone they were invited to answer the question on their postcard and address it to an online player.
I Like Frank in Adelaide was produced during Blast Theory's appointment as Adelaide Thinkers in Residence for 12 weeks; an annual programme which brings world-leading thinkers to live and work in Adelaide. Programme partners included the Dept. of the Premier and Cabinet, Adelaide Fringe 2004, m.Net, SA Film Corporation, Australian Network for Art & Technology and Dept. of Education and Children's Services, with support from Internode, the Arts & Humanities Research Board, Australia Council for the Arts, Technology School of the Future, Australian Film Commission, Arts SA and Dept. of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology.
Three members of Blast Theory and two members of the Mixed reality Lab spent 3 months in Adelaide working with five local artists and scientists (Bianca Barling, Brian Degger, Anne Marie Kohn, Justin McGuinness and Aaron Stafford) to create I Like Frank.
------ My feelings after seeing the Blast theory pieces
I chose these three pieces of blast theory in order to compare the blast theory works in different period. Obviously, the works of different times have very different styles. In the early times, their focus was on some incident (or news) happened at that time. Just like the Gunman killed three, they put the incident on the stage to show to the audience. Different from other stage works, they involved the audiences, they can be part of the play so that they can truly get the emotion of it.
Things got a little bit different in the piece of 'something American', we can see that they add different kinds of acting method, such as dancing, media and some background effects. Also, from my point of view, their perspective became wider. They didn't focus on some small incidents, instead, some social phenomenon was high-lighted in their works.
Finally comes the ' I like Frank', to be honest, I really think the recent blast theory works are very cool! They involve so many people, the strangers have to try to communicate with each other in order to achieve the same goal. I even hope that I can participate in one of the event some day. Seeing the recent works, we can easily relate the blast theory with the situationist international ----- 'the liberation of the games'. The SI regarded the game as a different style of work. The blast theory also emphasized on the games. They used it to connect people, to break the rules, to let us see a very different world.
As talked about in the 'part 1', the Avant-garde days of the SI devoted themselves in creating some works that can combine art and politics together. Meanwhile, they stepped forward to give a clearer explanation of the concept of 'construct situation'. Within the development of the SI, their idea grew more mature gradually.
Nevertheless, we should always bear in mind that the idea of 'Unitary Urbanism' always play an important role in the SI, especially in the very beginning.
In 1960, the SI had their fourth conference, and they changed their core concept into 'the liberation of
the games'. That is because games seemed to be the main topic of organizing people's spare time, and that was only the other style of working. And Martos regarded it as the kickpoint of the SI ------- from the critique of art to the critique of daily life，and finally lead to the critique of the revolution and the whole society.
However, as the world is not never-ending feast, the SI started to have divergence in 1961. Some of the SI members left it and formed the SI2. The divergence of that time lead the SI into the second generation ------ the critical theory of the spectacle, from production to theory.
Amelie Despeaux andRaoul Vaneigem were the two who led the SI to its summit.
