Open Air by Chris Caines - Artists Talk - December 3rd, 2011
I went to the Open AirArtists Talk today to hear video artist Chris Caines speak about his current exhibition at the Mosman Art Gallery, which is part of the Festival of Mosman. The work is comprised of a video installation, in The Cube at the gallery, and also a locative iphone application, "Open Air - Locative Audio Essay" which you can view and listen to whilst walking along the path at Sirius Cove, to see the views from the Artists Cove. (I've also used the app at home, so if you're not in Sydney, then you can try it remotely too, but obviously the locative parts won't be the same.)
Once you enter The Cube, the videos and audio starts playing. The videos are displayed in a gallery case, so the viewer can get an intimate view of the moving images by looking down into the case. The Light is amazing, and the colours so rich and vibrant, even with the subtle, delicate blends as Caines adjusts the video by looking forwards and backwards in Time - into the Past and into the Future - to create his video paintings. I think he has captured the light of the works of the Masters in this piece. There are twelve images displayed, which shift throughout time, traveling from the country to the city, as the viewer sees glimpses of both man-made and natural scenes being combined into a modern art work.
There's a soundtrack playing whilst you watch the videos - made from a collection of field recordings from the sites where the images and videos were originally recorded. The effect of listening to the soundscape and gazing on the video panels finding fragments of reality and images in them is quite mesmerizing and reminds me of watching shapes form whilst watching the clouds go by. I felt so relaxed after watching the videos - it's almost like waking up after a dream where you've been watching colours and shapes drift around - there's definitely a dream-like feeling to the work. Footage was recorded over a five year period, and covers the Beauty of the Australian landscape and city-scape. The overall work is stunning - the light and clarity of the video is something to behold. I took a few video clips and photos, below, which don't obviously do the work justice, but are for documentation purposes - you really need to see the work in situ to appreciate its true beauty. Thank you to the Gallery and Festival for including video art in this year's programme.
Open Air exhibition is a multimodal mediation by Chris Caines on the tradition of landscape as a subject of artists in Australia from 19th century painting to the media arts of the present day. The Open Air project includes a video installation in the Gallery space and a locative audio essay iPhone app for the Curlew Camp Artist's Trail at Little Sirius Cove.
You can find the "Open Air - Locative Audio Essay" app in the iTunes app store. Produced in partnership with the Centre for Media Arts Innovation at UTS.
Exhibition launch : Thursday 27th October 2011 @ 6:30pm by Councillor Anne Connon, Mayor of Mosman. RSVP by Tuesday 25th October - call 9978 4095
Open Air Exhibition continues from Friday 28 October – Saturday 31 December, 10:00AM – 5:00PM
Mosman Art Gallery, Corner Art Gallery Way and Myahgah Road, Mosman
Chris will create a video installation within using the romantic ideas of the Plein Air tradition as a starting point. These video and audio pieces will be aural and imagistic fictions that imagine possible Australia's and alternate histories of art and nation that spring from the crucial fulcrum of events unfolding in the late 19th century to which the images produced in these locations are central.
The video work will be linked to a site specific GPS iPhone application which can be viewed at Sirius Cove. Together, Chris' video installation and iPhone application will create a strong sense of place and form a link between the Gallery and Sirius Cove, highlighting this important part of Mosman's rich cultural heritage.
my first k-film. I've been wanting to try this for close to a year or more, ever since Adrian Miles pointed them out on the artists in the cloud list. built using Korsakow. I was running an old version of mac o/s so I couldn't use the software. upgraded on sunday night & now it works. I've got a couple of orphan branches and I didn't clean up the clips or audio, so it's far from perfect, but gives me the idea on how to do it. this is just a simple one using flying / water / blue / waves / waveriding / patterns type keywords
these korsakow k-films really are quite wonderful. it links the videos on words (in & out). so u can have a language story underlying the film. there's many words / things I cannot say - either for not having the words or not being able to speak them. but I can think them when filming. then link them up later. story within the story. hopefully the mood / theme comes across. so many ideas to try.
this test film is using steps involved in the How to SNUify (first) tutorial. I'm sure there's plenty more things yet to try. it was very easy to make. just add all the clips, then add input & output words to create the 'links' between the videos.
if you play it, maybe turn down your volume as I didn't remove the audio so it's natural sound with lots of wind & plane/flying distortion. I might try a music soundscape next - replace the audio on the video clips and then link them - it would sound different each time, depending on the order you / the viewer (listener) played the films back
note: the default embed code seems incorrect : the url seems incorrect - it should be .html not .htm & the .js file shouldn't have the index.html before it, so change these and it should embed ok on other sites. doesn't seem to be displaying, so use the link above. will look at it later after some sleep
At the MF Doom gig on Friday 1st April, DJ Sheep led a turntablist battle revival in Brisbane. Prior to this gig, there’d been words – DJ Butcher had posted “dude.. u know i’ll beat you on the decks.. ur an idiot..” on OzHipHop.com (24/03/2011). DJ Sheep, following the hip hop code he lives by, raised a challenge to battle on the decks. Unfortunately the challenge was turned down, so spectators only saw one side of the battle, but they left charged. I wasn’t there to see it in person, but I saw the video and on Sunday morning, DJ Sheep said on Ozhiphop.com, “I’ve never felt better in years after a gig, i got so many daps, and props from people, it felt like the old days again for once…”, so it sounded like it was a night to remember. The only way I could imagine it being better (in my head), is if there *had* been a battle, or if there had been two sounds (sound systems) on opposite sides of a fenced off outdoor basketball court or a Jamaican dance hall like back in the early days of hip hop DJ battles.
Kodwo Eshun, in his book “More Brilliant Than The Sun”, coined the term “Sonic Fiction” when writing about one of the pioneers of hip hop DJing, Grandmaster Flash, and his album “The Amazing Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel”. I suggest that the turntablist battles could also be thought of as Sonic Fiction on multiple levels – in the sounds produced and performances of the actual turntablist set, and also in the stories behind the battles – in some case they’re personal, in other cases they’re for competition and showcase. In all cases, they are related to the DJs career and reputation. DJ Battles are the opposite of “Fight Club” – everybody (in the DJ community) talks about the battle, and the rules are set. DJ Sheep commented, “the hip-hop code is that when you call someone out or get called out, you either step up or admit defeat. if you say you’re better and back out, you’re reputation goes down the drain, that’s hip-hop. It’s been like that since the inception”.
Now back to the set – in traditional style, Sheep gave props to the fallen, shouting out RIP to Angus, Jeeps (750) and Sabre (BWP) before he started. Then he got down to business with his message explaining to the crowd that DJs used real records. “In the history of beef, it’s usually the Butcher that slaughters the Sheep, but today we’re going to see the Sheep slaughter the mutherfuckin’ Butcher”. Sheep then launched into his set – beat juggling, chirps, transform moves such as flares and orbits, and the crab. From the video, you can see a brick and sandbag on the table – DJ Sheep and Brisbane beat-maker Tigermoth highlighted the large springs in place of the table legs which caused the table to move around, and some skipping of the needles during Sheep’s set. I think the crowd probably wouldn’t have noticed this had it not be pointed out. In any case, Sheep took advantage of the moments and paused, giving space to his set and acknowledging the crowd. They gave him plenty of love in return.
Finally it’s happening, the 5th edition is now live!
From the 1st of December till the 5th, this five day videoart extravaganza will screen around 150 experimental, underground and obscure videos from more than 125 independent artists from all over the world.
a drive to bethells beach not far from Auckland, NZ on 10/07/2009. another video from the archive. this is my favourite beach in Auckland - the sand is brown and in winter the wind blows and you're surrounded by a sandy mist.
I've started another MLA (maybelogic.net) class called Global Village - I'm a little behind as I joined a week late, so tonight I watched the week1 videos and read through the forum posts. I'm behind on another too - Douglas Rushkoff's "Program or be Programmed" which hopefully I can catch up on during my holiday weekend (though I think this might be the last week). for Global Village, run by talented artist Bobby Campbell, we watched videos by Robert Anton Wilson, Marshall McLuhan, William Gibson, Ray Kurzweil, Timothy Leary and more. I liked the quote from Soren Kierkegaard "life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlSOzj3BsR8 - I think this is partially what we're (?) / I'm doing with the video diaries each November for #vlomo10 (videoblogging month). I watched another of McLuhan's videos where he spoke about technology/gadgets vs the book & the return to tribalism (technology/communication gadgets/tribes) from individualism (renaissance man/books/singular experiences) : Marshall McLuhan - The World is a Global Village (CBC TV) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeDnPP6ntic - this was interesting too - his predictions of the future were very apt.
on 08/08/2004 I went on a helicopter ride over Wiltshire and surrounding areas and saw some of the crop circles. my cousin's husband worked for the flight company (pilot though he wasn't flying this helicopter) and they were taking people on crop circle tours and there was a spare seat so I jumped at the chance to see them. there was also a crop circle conference running that weekend further down the hill but I recall it was quite expensive so we didn't go in to it. the end of the video is some footage from the same day driving through the UK countryside - England is beautiful in the summer - the colours of the wheat fields against the sky is one of my favourite memories of UK summer. so, for day 15, this is another one from the archive.
I don't think the video is online as I didn't think the quality was that good and I didn't like how shaky the camera was, but again. but I really like the colours in the footage & I even like the shakiness now too - with the frames of the helicopter windows and different shadows. am glad I didn't delete these clips now! amazing how time can change your views on things (& the world) I took many photos on this day and some of these have been included on a UK crop circle tracking website.
it was a hot hot hot day at the Newtown Festival today. a few clips from my wanderings. I liked the band that was playing near the King St entrance - I've heard a couple of those songs on fbi radio but I can't remember the name of the band. hula hoops seem to be this year's craze. might have to try one - good for the waistline!
surprise fireworks in the city on saturday night - I can see the edge of them. music is "Easy to Love" by The Jezabels http://www.thejezabels.com - I love this song and all of the jezabels cds. I was going to do a top 10 cd list for 2010 (cds I've bought this year - maybe not all were released this year) but I'm saving it for another vlomo10 day. the jezabels "she's so hard" cd is definitely on this list!!
I went to Saint Mary Mackillop place today at lunch - it's near my work office. I didn't get to see all the museum as I had to return to work, but I bought a few postcards, bookmarks and prayer cards. I like the screen printed cards - they remind me of Warhol. I sent some up to my friend's Mum who lives in a nursing home - hopefully she can give some to her friends. I sent some to my Mum too. the museum is very good, I'll have to go back and do the full tour (~45mins). the tour guide was quite interesting - she spoke about some of the historical period and what things were like in Mary's day - they had video exhibits, a film with Ernie Dingo speaking of Mary's work with the Aboriginal people and how they have stories with her in it now. and many artefacts such as the kits the traveling priests used to carry on horseback as they went from town to town in places where there wasn't a local town priest. apparently this is happening these days too - though they travel in cars / 4wd now instead of on horseback :) - the guide said wasn't it interesting that we seem to have reverted to the old days / ways in some ways. I had to leave before the tour was finished so I could return to work. it looked like an interesting historical museum so I'm going to go back and see the full tour another day when I have time (I think it takes ~45 mins). and who sells postcards for 50cents these days! amazing
in 2003 I went flying with a friend D and his pilot friend. I took some video and this is one of the clips. we flew over the beaches then into the harbour area so we saw the city and the harbour. I left the audio in this file so you might want to drop it to 0 as it's noisy (it was a small plane). I remember feeling a little sick part of the way through - maybe because I was looking at / concentrating on the camera at the same time and also because I could smell the fuel fumes more than in a passenger plane. it was a great flight though!
so it's a video from the archives for today. I'm pretty sure I've never uploaded this before - it was the first camera I could take videos with (an old kodak if I recall correctly) - I always thought the quality wasn't that good, but now i like the colours - it's almost like a lomo camera video?(!???)
some of the Aus hip hop MCs are taking part in #rappertag - it's like an online cypher / circle, where one rapper takes their turn then tags the next person in. then that person uploads their video & this repeats. it's getting/is (?) quite popular, so for today's #vlomo10, I'm mixing the twitter memes a bit and made a quick video showing you some of the #rappertag clips & details. check it out if you're interested. today's #rappertag #14 by Suffa from Hilltop Hoods got a great reaction, so we're waiting for the next installment now. (anyone else thinking a little along the lines of William Gibson's (@greatdismal) pattern recognition video-on-the-net-footage? not exactly the same, but along similar lines?)
