generic cialisbuy cheap viagraRe-Enacting Expanded Cinema: Three Case Studies

In 2009, Lucas Ihlein and Louise Curham presented a paper at the buy cheap cialisorder viagra onlineRe-Live Media Art Histories conference in Melbourne.

There seem to be some problems accessing the proceedings online, so we’re posting the paper here on our own website in the spirit of collegiality.

It’s entitled Re-Enacting Expanded Cinema: Three Case Studies.

Here’s the abstract:

Since 2003, the practice of Sydney’s Teaching and Learning Cinema has involved the re-enactment of Expanded Cinema performances from the 1960s and 70s. As artists, we have discovered that direct access to the work of our aesthetic precursors is essential for understanding, and building upon the work of the past.

However, since many Expanded Cinema events were ephemeral and situated in time and place, they do not easily lend themselves to documentation and archiving. As a result, the works are poorly represented in art history. Re-creating them in our own ‘here and now’ is a creative pedagogical process, in which the works become available once again for first-hand experience.

Clearly, these re-creations are not ‘authentic’ or ‘correct’ – rather, the very concept of authenticity and the integrity of the bounded art event are brought into question by this unique form of practice-based research. In this paper, we touch on three three Expanded Cinema works we have re-created – William Raban’s 2′45” (1973); Anthony McCall’s Long Film for Ambient Light (1975) and Guy Sherwin’s Man with Mirror (1976).

We discuss the dilemmas that emerge from such a process. Geographical distance, cultural context and technological developments all make significant demands on the resourcefulness and wit of the re-enactors. Emerging from this process, our re-enactments generate an organic living history, in which the works are ‘kept alive’ through the practice of passing them from one generation to the next.

buy generic levitrabuy viagraYou can download the pdf of the paper here.


PS: Some of my earlier thoughts on re-enactment as a strategy are buy cheap viagrabuy viagrahere.

order levitra onlinebuy generic viagraXavier Garcia Bardon’s essay on “Man with Mirror”

buy generic levitrabuy cheap viagraxavier garcia bardon essay clip

Xavier Garcia Bardon, a film curator from Brussels, has written a book chapter all about Guy Sherwin’s Man with Mirror.

Excitingly (for us), his essay also includes a consideration of Louise Curham and Lucas Ihlein (Teaching and Learning Cinema)’s re-enactment/extension of Sherwin’s piece, entitled(Wo)Man with Mirror, which was first performed in 2009.

Xavier’s chapter is in the following book:

Philippe DUBOIS, Frédéric MONVOISIN, Elena BISERNA (ed.), generic cialisgeneric viagraExtended Cinema. Le cinéma gagne du terrain, Campanotto Editore, Pasian di Prato, 2010. ISBN: 88-456-1171-1

With Xavier’s permission, we’ve posted a link to the pdf of his chapter here.

It’s in French. If anyone can do a translation for us, we’d be eternally grateful.

Malcolm Le Grice Screening in Sydney

Moving Image Art
by Malcolm Le Grice
at Performance Space, Carriageworks,
245 Wilson Street, Everleigh NSW 2015.
Friday 5th November
6 – 8pm

Malcolm Le Grice will introduce a program of films and video, from 1 to 16 mins in duration, made between 1966 and 2009. Malcolm Le Grice started as a painter but began to make film and computer works in the mid 1960’s. He was a founding member of the London Filmmakers Co-operative and has made works collaboratively with other artists and performers including Brian Eno.

Program to include:

Little Dog For Roger, Wharf, Horror Film 1 documentation, Berlin Horse (sound with Brian Eno), Again Finnegan, For the Benefit of Mr K, Unforgettable, Beware, Critical Moment, Threshold, Neither Here Nor There, After Monet, Digital Aberration.

On the following day, Saturday 6th November, an associated event, Expanded Architecture – International Architecture Film Night.

S8 tech info (inc. hand processing)

OH&S links for photochemicals – general; pregnant people; for arts and home handy people in general

Devised at the Otherfilm Film Re-film Workshop www.otherfilm.org, Brisbane March 22-26, 2006 by Louise Curham with Sally Golding

Hand processing Super 8
(can be adapted for all film gauges)
Instructions:

Developing is the relationship between:

  • The exposure of the film in the camera (you can expose your film planning to use hot chemistry or longer development time)
  • The processing chemicals (strength of solution, brand of chemistry)
  • Temperature (hotter the temperature, the faster acting the chemicals, greater contrast and grain)
  • Time (long development, finer grain, short development, high contrast, grain)
  • The amount of film in the tank (more film, more chemical reaction required to develop it)

Equipment [all available from standard photographic supplier]
- Kodak D-76 developer
- Ilford Stop bath (for B&W 35mm still film)
- Ilford Fix (for B&W 35mm still film)
- 3 X 2L plastic jugs OR 3 x 1L plastic jugs (depending on tank size)
- running water
- thermometer
- developing tank (optimum: 5 reel 35mm still film developing tank, capacity 2L; adequate: 3 reel 35mm still film – developing tank, capacity 1L)
- timer
- sticky tape (to hold down remaining film in cartridge if clip testing, developing in two parts)
- domestic bleach eg White King
- container for bleach
- Chux cloth or similar to remove anti-halation backing
- rubber gloves

Work areas
- dark space to unload film into tank
- area to pour chemicals in and out of tank/jugs
- area to wash film
- area to hang film up to dry

Technique
We recommend you clip test your film. Load a small strip in the tank. Compensate in your developing time (ie, less film in the tank, the chemicals will act quicker on the film, so you will need to reduce your development time for the clip test – recommend about 2/3 the time you think you need for the whole 50 feet).

1. Mix chemicals
- Store developer in airtight container or mix fresh
- Always add chemicals to water
- Read the instructions, be careful, label your bottles

Developer:
- Total quantity required will depend upon your tank size. Measure it with water first.
- Strength of developer will depend upon brand and supplied preparation instructions. Use it as per instructions on the packet. Powdered D-76 is mixed 1:1 with water to create the correct solution. D-76 in liquid form is correct strength straight from the bottle.
- The principle to the developer is shorter time, greater strength, greater heat mean faster development which results in higher contrast (ie less detail in highlights and shadows).

Standard development using Kodak D-76 or ID-11
Mix 1+2
eg 300 ml dev: 600 ml water
Generally development time for 20 degree water temp c. 7 mins

Development for out-of-date film stocks – development time 20-30 mins
Mix 2+1
eg 600 ml dev: 300 ml water

Set out your developer, stop, fix in correct order in your work area.

2. Remove film from cartridge. Place in developing tank
Detach end of film out of cartridge, pull down on film so that it does not scrape on plastic edge of cartridge.
Coil loosely (like coiling power cable). Bundle film into tank. Ensure tank is sealed. If using a 1L tank, put just 25 feet in tank (c. 10 pulls out of cartridge = 25 feet). Pull only this amount out of the cartridge. Tape down the end. Keep it out of direct light.

3. Pour on developer. Note time.
Tap tank on bench to dislodge air bubbles.
Agitate tank for first 60 seconds (hold tank at either end and turn upside down repeatedly for 60 sec)
Thereafter, agitate for 5 seconds, every 30 seconds.
For 200T Tri-X, estimated development time 7 min with developer mixed to standard instructions (1:2, developer:water) at temperature (20 degrees C)

Tip developer back into jug.

4. Pour on stop bath. Agitate constantly for 30 secs.

Tip stop bath back into jug

5. Pour on fix. Agitate constantly first 30 secs. Agitate for 5 sec every 30 sec thereafter for total 5 mins.
Tip fix back into jug.
DO NOT ALLOW ANY FIXER DOWN THE DRAIN. It is a major pollutant – it contains silver (heavy metals) and kills aquatic life.

6. Wash film. Put under tap or put hose into tank. Film is not light sensitive any more. Wash for minimum 7 min.
The longer you wash, the more stable your film.

Notes

Push 2 stops when cross-processing B&W reversal
Recent experience in Japan suggests that push processing 2 stops will give a better result when cross-processing B&W ie TRI-X. Increase your development time by 1-2 mins. Cross-processing means developing a reversal stock as negative.

Use a fine grain developer
Recent experience in Japan shows the benefit of using a very fine grain developer with the maximum development time possible. I have used with success Fuji Microfine (favourite, can’t get it in Australia), Tetradol, Ilford Perceptol, watered down D-76.

Anti-halation backing
No image visible? It may have the anti-halation on the base, making the film completely opaque (black). It cannot be removed once the film has dried. This will wipe or bleach off while the film is still wet. Try wiping it off with a Chux. You will need to wipe hard. Be as careful as you can not to scratch the emulsion. Alternatively, bleach it off. Pour out 1-2 cups of bleach into a container (eg ice cream carton). Immerse film in bleach. Small black flakes will appear very quickly. As soon as they do, pull film out of bleach and wash under running water. You will still need to wipe it. Timing is critical as the bleach will also be acting on your emulsion.

Re-using chemistry
You can re-use developer but you will need to extend your development time as it becomes less and less fresh. Developing old Agfa, you get a very purple discharge into the developer. You cans till re-use it.

Clip testing
If you have some very important film, bracket your clips, try 5,6,7 min or 5,7,9 min. For very old film, try 5,10,15 min. I develop 1985 Agfa in 1:0.5 (dev:water) for 25 mins.

For more info on developing, via www.kodak.com – go to ‘Kodak professional’. Kodak B&W still film developing time information: http://www.kodak.com/global/plugins/acrobat/en/professional/products/films/bw/processChartLo.pdf
Kodak information on B&W still films:
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/films/bw/processing.jhtml?id=0.1.22.14.23.28.5&lc=en

The gauges
Standard 8mm film
Super 8mm film
16mm film

Googling Super 8
lavender.fortunecity.com/lavender/569/ – The 8mm Metadictionary – extensive list of links to information on all aspects of small gauge
www.filmforever.org – The Home Film Preservation Guide sponsored by the Association of Moving Image Archivists [USA]
www.homemovieday.com [USA]
www.littlefilm.org – technical assistance about amateur motion picture film [USA]
www.pro8mm.com – carry negative super 8 stocks, process and transfers also [USA]
www.filmshooting.com – website for small gauge cinematography community [Norway]
http://www.8mmfilmstock.com/ – suppliers of super 8 and standard 8mm film stock [USA]
www.onsuper8.org- they aim to provide up to date news, information and resources for amateurs and professionals alike focused on Super 8 and Single 8, and tailored specifically to using these formats in today’s digital age [UK]

Standard 8mm
www.upperfold.com/faq.shtml
Retro Enterprises, Tokyo
http://film.club.ne.jp/english/englishindex.html – all Fuji standard 8mm stocks etc.

Magazines
Super 8 Today [bi-monthly, launched 2005, USA, http://www.super8today.com/]
Smallformat [launched 2005, Germany] http://www.atollmedien.de/smallformat/

Super 8 Accessories
Reels, projectors, splicers.
Numerous on internet. Locally, reels manufactured by Tuscan in Sydney. Rodney Bourke in Albury collects and onsells numerous. Rodney Bourke P.O Box 1231, Albury, NSW 2640. Or email awmic@hotmail.com for more details. or call (02) 6059 2963. Richard Tuohy at Nanolab in Daylesford, Vic has equipment http://nanolab.com.au/.

Super 8 transfers
Numerous available in NSW.
Professional post house with telecine gate for standard 8 and super 8 – Video 8, 21 Dickson St, Artarmon, ph 9438 4144. Otherwise do it yourself with miniDV no disaster. Numerous methods on the internet – google ‘super 8 telecine diy’ eg http://homepage.mac.com/onsuper8/diytelecine/, http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/05/converting_supe.html. Nanolab can also transfer.

Super 8 film stocks
Colour Reversal
Ekta 64T, KODAK EKTACHROME 64T Color Reversal Film 7280 (64T, 40D with 85 daylight filter), E-6 process.

Kodachrome 40
Discontinued, can buy some on internet, can find processors on internet, Kodak will not assist.
Kodak will no longer process but Dwayne’s in the USA will process okay. Also Film Rescue in Canada are helpful.

Colour negative
Kodak 200 T Eastman colour negative
200 (7274 in super 8) Kodak USA, various internet sites ( Kodak Australia will not supply)
Inquire to Kodak USA Yale Film Lab, LA, see above

Kodak 500 T Eastman colour negative 500ASA. As above.
Inquire to Kodak USA or google.

Black & White
TriX, 200 ASA B&W reversal.Tri-X 200 (160T, 200D) Kodak

Plus X B&W 40 ASA
Not available through Kodak Australia, try internet, Film Plus, Melbourne

Suppliers:

Sound & Vision Stock Shop, 2 Whiting Street, Artarmon, NSW 2064 Sydney, 9906 2141, info@sound-vision.com.au,
www.sound-vision.com.au $23/roll (GST inc.)

Vanbar, Sydney & Melbourne www.vanbar.com.au, info@vanbar.com.au, 03 9347 7788 02 9550 5833 c. $23/roll

Kodak Australia minimum order, multiples of 5, $110, Kodak list price per roll $20 + GST

Nanolab – http://nanolab.com.au/ – stocks various film types inc. PlusX reversal.

Developing in Australia
Nanolab, Daylesford, Victoria, Australia, http://nanolab.com.au/
B&W and Ekta 64T (colour). Contact Richard Tuohy, richtuo@iprimus.com.au
$18 per cart plus postage, the film is returned lubricated, with leader head and tail and on a 50′ spool. It is necessary
to contact me by email first, however. Plus, he’ll also be offering 64T pulled to 40 ASA or pushed to 160 for the same price, especially useful for 40/160 cameras. He also has a range of stocks like PlusX and can get the Kodak negs.

Film Plus Melbourne
80 Punt Road, Windsor, Vic 3121, 03 9510 4640, 1- 4 weeks, $23/roll
Send Money Order or Cheque (do not send cash) Cost is $19.80, if you want your film on a spool then you will have to provide an empty 50 foot spool, when sending your film in. Also you must provide a postage paid return mail bag to your address.

Developing obsolete stock:
Kodachrome
Kodak recommends the following. More info at http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/s8mm/index.jhtml

Dwayne’s Photo, USA
Phone 620-421-3940
Fax 620-421-3174
website: www.k14movies.com

Yale Film and Video
10555 Victory Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91606
(818) 508-9253, http://www.yalefilmandvideo.com info@yalefilmandvideo.com

Film Rescue, US and Canada
Film Rescue International
http://www.filmrescue.com/ – USA and Saskatchewan, Canada
P.O. Box 428, Indian Head, SK S0G 2K0

DIY Telecine

Prepared for Media Arts, University of Wollongong April 2008, by Louise Curham. Good for everyone!

Video camera requirements
Manual focus
Manual iris
Progressive scan
tripod

Projector requirements
18 FPS, 24 FPS, variable speed

Film requirements
Test film for focus and exposure, the longer the test film, the better. Chose something with okay exposure and good focus. Ideally chose something with exposure similar to what you want to transfer.
Take up spool for you transfer material.

Screen requirements
Greater the reflective properties of the surface, the better the results.
Must be matt to avoid “shine back” from projector lamp.
Do not face projector lamp into camera lens, you will destroy the CCD chip in the video camera

I recommend matt cartridge paper – the silicon (?) in the paper gives good shine, the texture of the paper works well with the film grain.

Challenges

Don’t rush
This is a time consuming process. Allow 20 to 45 mins set-up time (depends on problems in the chain). Transfer time varies greatly, I allow 4 times the length of film.

Removing the “pulse” – At 18, 24 FPS very hard to achieve no pulsing effect.
Projector has 3 “hole” blade ie divided into 6 wedges, 3 metal wedges, 3 apertures.
PAL is 25 FPS or 50 fields (interlace) hence problems with syncing with projector blade

I achieve best results by using a variable speed projector and experimenting with which speed minimises the pulse – typically c. 9, 12 FPS.

Before you start
Test the projector, make sure it works.
Make sure the gate is clean, look for “blobs” in the projection. Clean the gate in the projector with soft bristle good quality brush and blower brush.

Setting focus, frame, white balance, exposure
Set up the video camera, work out if its minimum focal length will restrict you ie if the camera’s minimum focus is 1.5 metres, you will have to set the camera up 1.5 metres from the screen.

Set up the screen. Aim for an image c. 10-20cm on longest dimension. The smaller the brighter, brighter not necessarily best, but too low light NG.

Set up the projector. It will have to be slightly skewed from the video camera lens. Do not lace the film into the projector until you have set the frame and set the video camera to screen focus.

Set focus projector to screen.

Set the white balance on the camera. It will be very hard to use the film projector lamp to do this as the pulse registers too strongly for the video camera. Use a tungsten lamp, or the room light. (Lots of creative potential here).

Set focus video camera to screen area. Set focus by zooming in, then pull back to required frame.

Set frame by running test strip in projector. Set focus projector to screen.

Run the test strip. Set the exposure.

Be aware that any adjustments will slightly and critically alter the framing and will mean you need to test it again.

There is much material on the web on this topic which I tend to ignore. The basic principles are simple and any camera, projector with these properties will achieve a usable outcome. Our good friend Richard Tuohy at Nanolab can do it for you www.nanolab.com. If you want a professional job, try Video 8 www.video-8.com. Also theLab in Sydney have a super 8. Atlab has a standard 8 gate but don’t like to admit it.

Australian International Experimental Film Festival launched

Excitement!

Sue K & the Nanolab gang have announced their collaboration in presenting the Australian International Experimental Film Festival http://www.aieff.org.

Put this one in your diaries! Festival dates Melbourne, 30th April, 1st-2nd May, 2010. Submissions mid Dec 2009 to 15th Febuary 2010.

“Now To the Future” by Andrew Frost

[TLC note: the following is the text of a paper delivered by Andrew Frost at last November's Disappearing Video conference at the MCA. Here is a short roundup of the conference. And here is another, more comprehensive account, from our Brisbane guru Danni Zuvela. After the conference we asked the MCA if they were going to publish the papers or video documentation of the talks. They said they would like to, but as far as we know, it hasn't happened yet.

So we contacted Andrew Frost (best known as the guy from The Art Life) to see if he would like to publish his paper online here at the TLC. I think you'll agree it's a provocative account of video art reaching back to the 1980s, and ending with a set of predictions for the future which, well, see what you think of his predictions... - Lucas

-PS - here is a PDF version of this paper if you'd prefer to print it out, a bit more readable to those with square eyes from watching too much video art...]

[And just so you know who's talking to you in this article, here's a portrait of Andrew pinched from his Facebook profile...]

andrew frost portrait

- – - “Now To the Future” by Andrew Frost – - -

Video is everywhere. On line, in portable mobile technology, in the ever-present plasma-LCD display of signal, in the melding of television and cinema.

Convergence and proliferation are the truisms of 2008.

The sheer visibility of video is unremarkable, mundane in a way, yet the experience of the screen has worked its way into every aspect of electronic media and underwrites our fascination with the capture of moving image within the shifting frames of the thing we call – video.

To talk about the future of video, and the subset activity called video art, is to inevitably talk about its past. Video art has been in a perpetual state of emergence, securing access to the technology to make it happen, searching for ways to find an audience and thinking about how the moment of now is an echo of the past and prelude to the future.

My task today is to talk about some of the aspects of contemporary video art practice and make some bold predictions for the future.
Continue reading ‘“Now To the Future” by Andrew Frost’

Conceptual Paradise: There Is a Place for Sophistication

conceptual NZ Film Archive
The fabulously energetic Mark Williams at the NZ Film Archive is poised to screen the documentary essay Conceptual Paradise: There Is a Place for Sophistication. Unfortunately this screening is in Wellington, NZ, not much good to us at present but maybe someone in the community will be spurred to show it! Hope so!

The film is directed by Stefan Römer traces out the debates that allowed the intellectual art movement of conceptual art to emerge in the 1960s, and which has subsequently led to the most relevant questions in contemporary art.
As Mark’s e-mail today said, it features some of the most interesting and dynamic artists and art theorists alive today, presenting a diversity of voices to show conceptual art as a socio-historical development of various movements; that it has no one valid definition. Yet there are several ideas that are framed throughout the documentary; the fiction and ideal of art as political engagement; the history of art as a history of struggles around strategies of representation, and, in making a film about conceptual art, the trope of reflexivity that produces a study on the documentary as a genre in itself.

Artists:
Vito Acconci, Art & Language (Michael Baldwin, Mel Ramsden), Michael Asher, John Baldessari, Robert Barry, Hartmut Bitomsky, Mel Bochner, Gregg Bordowitz, Klaus vom Bruch, Daniel Buren, Victor Burgin, Luis Camnitzer, Jan Dibbets, Mark Dion, Sam Durant, Valie EXPORT, Stano Filko, Andrea Fraser, Liam Gillick, Dan Graham, Renée Green, Shilpa Gupta, Hans Haacke, Július Koller, Joseph Kosuth, Sonia Khurana, David Lamelas, Sol LeWitt, Thomas Locher, Marcel Odenbach, Yoko Ono, John Miller, Adrian Piper, Yvonne Rainer, Allen Ruppersberg, Ed Ruscha, Martha Rosler, Allan Sekula, Peter Weibel, Lawrence Weiner, Stephen Willats, Heimo Zobernig

Curators/Theorists:
Alexander Alberro, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Sabeth Buchmann, Charles Harrison (Art & Language), Geeta Kapoor, Geert Lovink, Seth Siegelaub, Gregor Stemmrich.

workshop 27 April 2009 – Louise’s notes

TLC workshop Monday 27 April 2009

Chronology

10.35 am Lucas collects Louise from Central.
10.45 am arrive Petersham.

Discussed contribution of new iteration given Guy is still performing this work – discussed the value of ’slips’ in our iteration, and the significance of transmission of the work to a new generation, both contributions we hope we are making.

There was lengthy discussion about integrity in re-enactment, informing audiences where work knowingly departs from the form and/or intention of the original. Also a long discussion about William Raban’s Diagonal, recently shown in Canberra by our Brisbane colleagues who brought Guy out last year, Otherfilm. Noteworthy that this film was made as a single film that runs concurrently through 3 projectors, ie one film, laced to run through 3 projectors one after the other.

Reviewed Lynn’s YouTube documentation of a London performance of Guy’s along with our ‘gash’ telecine (ie very rough video tape of projected film) of Guy’s 1976 super 8 that we made in Brisbane last Aug. We checked out the timings of the three cycles and the position of the roll changes. We double checked our understanding of how the actions unfold. We studied the actions that occur around the roll changes.

12.30 pm
We loaded the camera, measured focus, set tripod, set sun/shade/dapple position on the mirror, set the framing. We selected to wear singlets as the tension in Guy’s body in performing with the mirror is noteworthy. For me, I pondered the implications of the pregnant body by June when this work is shown.

1pm ate minestrone with rocket salad from Petersham garden

Framed up Lucas so we might detect a neighbour in the background. Discussion of where Louise would be visible when the mirror side faced out.

Discussion of the role of the second person turning the camera on and off – not sure if Guy had a helper, we think we detect a second person in the 1976 footage.

We checked the duration of an S8 reel at 18FPS. We enlisted a timer to help with the choreography – a word I really understand now as the placement of action in time.

We filmed Lucas, a most exciting development. Questions about whether the sun moved too far during the 9 mins as by the end the dapple was quite subtle and his face may be darker than we’d like. The dapple of the clothes line and the mulberry leaves was very beautiful and such a sharp autumnal Sydney day.

c. 2 pm
After filming Lucas, we went up to the glazier to get my mirror cut down. We had a long chat with the glazier, who explained the difference between a glazier and a glass cutter, separate trades in the UK but rolled up here in Australia.

We then filmed me. By the third roll I found the mirror very heavy – felt like I had no real control over it, mostly desperation at the weight and lack of inspiration as to what to discover with it given the battle to hold it.

4 pm
We concluded with discussions about staging the work.
- immovable requirement seems to be clear floor space
- discussed possibility of four performance pairs – Louise, mother of Louise, Lucas, father of Lucas
- requirement to carry through commitment to construction of this performance as the work we are exhibiting.

5.18 train Petersham to Central

16 Feb correspondence

drawing 16 Feb 2009 illustration of 'framed' mirror