Alec Crichton, works from 2003 to 2005
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Alec Crichton is a Köln based freelance designer, artist and writer. This torrent contains eight work's;
Lichtdifferenz(2005)
Schattenschieber(2005)
Frequenzfluss(2004)
Mauenheim(2004)
Widerholung(2004)
Wohnschimmer(2003)
Zaunsein(2003)
Zeitfluss(2003)
Since i don't how to make multitracker torrents in azureus, you will have to share this via demonoid(now it works..)!
at 2:00 PM
Anthony Discenza
Saturday, February 10, 2007
I received a little brown package, all the way from California, with two of Anthony Discenza's works yesterday. Moving Image and Object 8242600.
Moving Image stills
Object 8242600 stills
A few words Anthony wrote about he's practice back in June 2003:
Between the relentless spread of consumerism and the rapid advancement of technology, we find ourselves exposed to ever-greater amounts of visual stimuli. From television, movies, and the internet, to an endless sea of magazines and other print media, a steady stream of highly mediated imagery assaults us. In the constant battle for viewer attention, more and more of our information, regardless of its content or context, arrives in the form of elaborately manipulated visual sequences formally and structurally indistinguishable from mass entertainment. The result is a profound level of alienation, a gradual poisoning of our own experience as the logic of the spectacle colonizes our own internal narratives.
As a visual artist complicit in the production and consumption of images, I find this situation both fascinating and deeply problematic. I'm particularly concerned with the violence which informs our media over-exposure. By this, I'm not necessarily referring to specific violent images or content, but rather to the dissociative effects produced by the speed, quantity, and extreme disparity of the imagery we consume. My work attempts to expose this violence while acknowledging its seductive, anaesthetizing force.
I work mainly with visual material appropriated from commercial film and television. Using re-recording, compression, and signal degradation to break down the original information, I look for ways to collapse media imagery into itself, to arrest it within a moment of simultaneous destruction and reification. Through this collapse, I'm trying to uncover layers of meaning not apparent in the original context. At the same time, I'm interested in revealing the world of images around us as a very "real" space--one which shapes our world view in all sorts of potent but invisible ways. Finally, my goal is to destabilize the act of viewing itself, in the hopes of revitalizing the ways we engage with this both ubiquitous and unseen world of images.
Anthony Discenza
June 2003
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at 4:15 PM
Guy Debord
Misc films of and/or with Guy Debord.
Self-proclaimed leader of the Situationist International, Guy Debord was certainly responsible for the longevity and high profile of Situationist ideas, although the equation of the SI with Guy Debord would be misleading. Brilliant but autocratic, Debord helped both unify situationist praxis and destroy its expansion into areas not explicitly in line with his own ideas. His text The Society of the Spectacle remains today one of the great theoretical works on modern-day capital, cultural imperialism, and the role of mediation in social relationships.
After the dissolution of the Situationist International, Debord was tangentially implicated in the assassination of his friend and publisher Gérard Lebovici. The accusations infuriated Debord, and he consequently prohibited the showing of his films in France during his lifetime. Debord continued writing, and in 1989 he published his Commentaries on the Society of the Spectacle, arguing that everything he wrote in 1967 was still true, with one major exeception: the society of the spectacle had reached a new form, that of the integrated spectacle. The prospect of overturning the society of the spectacle seemed more unlikely than ever. In December of 1994, at the age of 62, Debord killed himself. The French press, who had always repudiated the significance of the Situationist International, suddenly made him a celebrity.
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at 1:04 AM
The Tiger Lillies & Alexander Hacke - The Mountains of Madness [+Extras] (2006)
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Synopsis
H.P. Lovecraft, born on the 20th of August 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island, was hardly known as an author during his lifetime. After his death his reputation as master of the macabre was immortalized and his work is considered a classic of horror-literature. On the 18th of August 2005 the World premiere “Mountains of Madness” was dedicated to this master by the artists Alexander Hacke (known as bassist of Einstürzende Neubauten), Berlin Icon Danielle de Picciotto and the legendary English group The Tiger Lillies. This humorous and darkly melancholic production combines an unusual combination of varieté, opera and gypsy- music with sinister industrial sounds and clashes - the brilliant falsetto-voice of Martyn Jaques, the singing saw, the accordion as well as the upright bass are entwined by Alexander Hackes electronic soundscapes- a new experience for the Tiger Lillies, who have never been accompanied by electronic instruments before. The beautiful illustrations of Danielle de Picciotto influenced by Italian and Dutch renaissance “Natura Morta” still-lives and modern toy-catalogues make up most of the stage-set together with the light-design by Lutz John, usually known for his expressive work with the German pop group “Wir Sind Helden”.
Extras
* Interview with directors Alexander Hacke and Danielle De Picciotto
* Short documentary "Tiger Lillies visit H.P. Lovecraft's grave"
Notes
Should be standalone-compatible
Not my rip, thanks to the original uploader.
As this is mainly a concert, he didn't touch the audio, 448kbit/s 5.1Channel AC3 sound.
Screenshots
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at 11:04 AM
Angela Schanelec - Marseille (2004)
Monday, January 22, 2007
The first movie of the "Berliner Schule" ("La Nouvelle Vague Allemande" Cahiers Du Cinema) that gained international recognition with it being screened in the "Un certain regard"-section of Cannes Film Festival 2004.
After the very sparse white on black of the opening credits we see the back of Sophie's head. She's in a car, she speaks awkward French, the woman who drives gets out, gets her a map, of Marseille. We learn, very soon, that they are exchanging apartments, the other woman, her name, we learn later, is Zelda, will go to Berlin and Sophie will stay, for a few weeks, in Marseille. Zelda says: Guten Tag, Auf Wiedersehen, Mein Freund, der Baum, ist tot - the latter phrase being a German song by a German singer who died young. Zelda disappears, Sophie stays. Zelda very literally disappears because there won't be a trace of her when Sophie will return to Berlin. The Marseille apartment, empty, unlived in as it is, will have been a gift, something inexplicably given in a film that ends with something - almost a life - taken.
Sophie, for the first third of the film, is in Marseille. She walks around, she takes pictures. She looks at the pictures, she moves without a direction, the camera is with her, sometimes distant, sometimes following her closely. Sophie is a stranger in a strange world, she sometimes seems cut off from her surroundings. We hear sounds, we see her face but the background is blurred. She does not seem unhappy, she does not seem happy. She does not talk much and she always thinks for a long time when she is asked. In the end she will be asked what it is she photographs. She will think for half a minute (or perhaps she does not think, but simply refuses to answer, to herself, to the policeman who asks) and then she says: The streets.
We do not know much of her and we do not learn much of her in these minutes we spend in Marseille, walking around with her. She meets a young man from a garage, who lends her his car, she drives around, which we don't see. There is a lot we don't see - although it takes some time to realize how much. She meets the young man in a bar, they drink, a friend arrives who insults Sophie, for no reason. Sophie and Pierre, the young man, walk up in a street that is lit in brownish golden light and they sleep with each other, which we don't see (and, really, don't know). The next night they dance.
One very sharp cut later Sophie is back in Berlin, she is approached by a young woman who returns a cap to her, a cap she has left in a McDonald's restaurant before she went to Marseille. There is more she has left, or rather: she has run away from. (At least this is what can - but does not have to be - inferred.) There is Ivan, a photographer she might be in love with. There is Hanna, an actress, Ivan's girl friend, their son Anton. We learn more about Ivan, we learn more about Hanna. We see Ivan taking pictures of women workers in a factory, without an explanation. We just see and watch. We watch the women from a sidewards angle, then we watch Ivan taking the pictures, then we watch the woman from Ivan's perspective. They talk, but not much. We just hear and see and watch. There is a lot we see - although it takes some time to realize how much. We are left with these images. They remain unexplained and they don't explain what we see. "Marseille" has a bewildering structure, switching from the elliptical cut (shocking, really) to the insistent gaze (frustrating first, but amazing after all).
For ten minutes, at least, we watch a rehearsal. Hanna plays a minor role in a Strindberg play. The same scene is rehearsed three times. We watch the man talking to the woman in an aggressive Strindberg way and we see Hanna entering the stage. Then the camera moves to the left and we watch the woman answering to the man in an aggressive Strindberg way. This time we don't see Hanna entering the stage. When leaving she makes a mistake, she adds a word that does not belong in her line. We see her then off stage, cowering. Hanna is not happy. She is not happy with David, she suffers from unexplainable pain. We do not learn much more about her. Sophie is out of sight for quite some time. We start doubting if this is really her story we are told. Oh yes, it is, but Schanelec refuses to follow her and her story in linear fashion. Ivan's taking of pictures, Hanna's rehearsal become important, not so much as explanations for their behaviour, just as the parts of their lives Schanelec has decided to follow.
Sophie then returns to Marseille and after the most daring ellipsis we see her at a police station, in a yellow dress. She sits, then she talks, then she does not talk for half a minute. She is asked what it is she photographs. The streets, she says after what seems a very long time. She cries. We see her on a sidewalk, the camera moving parallel to her. She crosses the street, the camera remains on the sidewalk, Sophie is moving away from it. Then she stops and the camera stops. She enters the German consulate. In Schanelec's (and cinematographer Reinhold Vorschneider's) films you see the most intelligent and subtle travellings imaginable - and even mor effective as they starkly contrast with a lot of very long, very static takes that just make you watch and see.
"Marseille" ends with a series of takes on the beach. It is getting dark, the streetlamps are switched on. We see Sophie in her yellow dress, distant, moving, we see the sea and there is a strange kind of consolation in this image of the dress, Sophie, the sea.
Language: French/German Subtitles: English
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at 11:59 AM
EMAF 2006: Stories Behind the Screen (2002-2005)
Monday, January 8, 2007
The collection Stories Behind the Screen presents ten videos from European media artists, which tell stories in a variety of ways that differ from the kind of story-telling we are used to from Hollywood. Most of the videos work without language or text, putting their visual effect into foreground. They show new, interesting and some very entertaining approaches in the international media art scene.
They were shown at the European Media Art Festival (EMAF) in Osnabrück, Germany, in spring 2006.
The European Media Art Festival (EMAF) is one of the most extensive media art events world-wide. As a forum for international media art, the EMAF presents films, videos, performances, multimedia installations and digital media.
ABOUT THE FILMS
1. Nummer Twee | NL | 2003 | 03:03
Realisation: Guido van der Werve
Performer: Guido van der Werve, Magnus Logi Kristensson, Will Trumpie, Margie Oosten, Marloes Meents, Celine Kraal, Rachel Meibergen, Zunaira Choudry
Choreograph: Elisabeth Lambeck
Camera, Light: Ben Geraerts
Sound: Casper Lambeck
Photographer, Focus: Willem K. van der Jagt
Distribution: Netherlands Media Art Institute – Montevideo, Amsterdam
When Guido van der Werve is hit by a car in Nummer Twee, it’s not unusual for dancing ballerinas to take their leave of him.
2. Light Body Corpuscules | B | 2004 | 06:26
Realisation: Antonin De Bemels, Gordon Delap
Concept, photography, editing: Antonin De Bemels
Dancers: Melanie Munt, Ugo Dehaes
Electro-acoustic composition: Gordon Delap
Lighting design: Laurence Halloy
Distribution: Antonin De Bemels
The body of light in Antonin de Bemels’ and Gordon Delap’s video Light Body Corpuscles is a play with light, enabling the discovery of a real body.
3. Safety Tips for Kids | GB | 2003 | 5:12
Realisation: Roz Mortimer
Distribution: Wonderdog Productions, London
Newspaper articles about the disappearance of English children are the starting point of a critical discussion about abuse and the dependence of charges in Roz Mortimer’s Safety Tips For Kids.
4. Hanoi | GB | 2004 | 03:47
Realisation: Lucia Helenka
Script: based on a text by Marguerite Duras
Narration: Catherine Deneuve
Distribution: Lucia Helenka
While Hanoi by Lucia Helenka is an enigmatic and slowly invasive journey to the heart, Calling 911 by Jan de Bruin deals with the idea of reality in the American society.
5. Calling 911 | NL | 2004 | 06:06
Realisation & Distribution: Jan de Bruin
6. Living a Beautiful Life | D | 2003 | 13:21
Realisation: Corinna Schnitt
Performer: Diana Imber, Michael Gianelli
Found Footage: >Der Katzenprinz<, Defa-Film, 1970
Camera: Philipp Lachenmann, May Rigler
Sound: Jens Brand
Light: Philipp Schmitz, Detlef Issel
It can be suspected from Corinna Schnitt’s Living a Beautiful Life that there is more than meets the eye to the depicted intact American family.
7. L'Axe du Mal / Axis of Evil | CDN/F | 2003 | 04:36
Realisation: Pascal Lièvre
Distribution: Vidéographe, Canada
The Axis of Evil is the subject of Pascal Lièvre’s music video of the same name.
8. Optimizer Customizer | NL | 2002 | 12:09
Realisation: Jan van Nuenen
Concept, photography, editing: Jan van Nuenen
Sound: Jan van Nuenen, Martijn van den Berg
Music: Martijn van den Berg
In the animated work Optimizer Customizer by Jan van Nuenen a feminine machine, over-stuffed with the most modern nano-technology, proceeds with her endlessly repeating task.
9. Perpetual Motion in the Land of Milk and Honey | GB | 2004 | 6:10
Realisation: AL + AL
Distribution: Acme Studios
The future we know from SciFi and Orwellian premonitions has become an integral part of our world today. Perpetual Motion in the Land of Milk and Honey by AL + AL delivers the positive proof: we have already arrived in the future.
10. On a Wednesday Night in Tokyo | D | 2004 | 5:40
Realisation & Distribution: Jan Verbeek
A perfunctory activity it would seem is presented in On a Wednesday Night in Tokyo by Jan Verbeek – but in Tokyo it turns into a ritualised magic show, which fascinates the viewer with the question: is it staged or reality?
All films are XVID (not my rip).
Running time 70 min.
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at 4:48 PM
Hatred of Capitalism, A Semiotext(e) Reader edited by Chris Kraus and Sylvère Lotringer
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Compiled in 2001 to commemorate the passing of an era, Hatred of Capitalism brings together highlights of Semiotext(e)'s most beloved and prescient works. Semiotext(e)'s three-decade history mirrors the history of American thought. Founded by French theorist and critic Sylvere Lotringer as a scholarly journal in 1974, Semiotext(e) quickly took on the mission of melding French theory with the American art world and punk underground. Its Foreign Agents, Native Agents, Active Agents and Double Agents imprints have brought together thinkers and writers as diverse as Gilles Deleuze, Assata Shakur, Bob Flanagan, Paul Virillio, Kate Millet, Jean Baudrillard, Michelle Tea, William S. Burroughs, Eileen Myles, Ulrike Meinhof, and Fanny Howe. In Hatred of Capitalism, editors Kraus and Lotringer bring these people together in the same volume for the first time.
Chris Kraus is a filmmaker and the author of I Love Dick and Aliens & Anorexia, and coeditor of Hatred of Capitalism: A Semiotext(e) Reader. Index called her "one of the most subversive voices in American fiction." Her work has been praised for its damning intelligence, vulnerability and dazzling speed.
Professor of French Literature and Philosophy at Columbia University and founder of Semiotext(e), Sylvère Lotringer is widely credited for having introduced poststructuralist theories in America. He has coedited Hatred of Capitalism (Semiotext(e), 2002), with Chris Kraus, and French Theory in America, with Sande Cohen. Semiotext(e) has published his book length dialogues with Paul Virilio, Pure War (1998), Crepuscular Dawn (2003), and The Accident of Art (2005).
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at 1:47 PM
