Anne Walton on Long Film

long film 2pm
[above: the light at 2pm on Friday during Long Film For Ambient Light]

[The following is a short series of excerpts from an interview with Anne Walton, recorded by Lucas, Friday 16th March 2007, 2pm. These quotes are cut from a longer conversation. The full transcript will be more interesting!]

I felt a smoothness… like I was entering into something very smooth […] the light has something to do with it. And all the grey tones in this place. […] A slightly clinical feel. […] I couldn’t help noticing the curtains. Some kind of notion of theatre. Although I quickly realised they were just here, already a part of the space. I felt myself a part of the structure. […] As far as this being an event […] the physical structure and the structure that you… that this event is… it resonates with the notion of intervals and spaces.

When there isn’t much that’s been put here, I start to want to look at what’s been put here already… The little dotted recesses… in the concrete…

I quickly felt some kind of a longing – to be here, for much longer. … It’s a long film, and I’m only here for just a quick glimpse. So I feel…regretful.

[If I stayed longer] I imagine some of the initial romance and positive feelings would start to be challenged…

I started wondering whether lots of conversations will happen – is it a social space? A meditative space? Conversation can be great way to pass the time.

I feel as though if I stayed here longer… I’d do a lot of writing… from a state of relative emptiness… not useful writing, just a flowing writing…

The lightbulb … it is very electric… the thingness of it is very strong… it is a very sharp point in the centre of the space. It’s really crackling…

The time chart and the statement – made me feel supported in being here… they’re a kind of explanation. It helps to frame the experience for me… and give…not clues, but it reinforces…particularly the long scroll…somehow preparatory for my time here…

It’s quite zen …very zen … just attending to the present moment … I can imagine, having been I’m going to go away and take it with me…a consciousness of this slice of time in the space has been carved out, and it’s here, and I entered it for a brief moment, it’s almost like I dipped my toe into a stream and when I go away I know the stream’s there and others are going to come to the spot that’s been carved out for getting right into it … immersion…

Louise was struck by the austerity of this…I said yes, although for me austerity has a harshness about it, I don’t feel yet… There’s more of a sense of generosity in this space…

I’m glad to see it at this time, when it’s still pristine and unspoiled by human … habitation …

Reel Rescues – Film in the Library

Our friend Sally Golding of Otherfilm is presenting this great programme up in Brisbane:

Reel Rescues at the State Library of Queensland

Reel Rescues is an exhibition of home movies, silent films and original newsreels, acting as a time capsule of Queensland life from the 1920s through to the 1970s in moving image form. The show is co-curated by OtherFilm’s Sally Golding (along with Bryony Nainby) and features Golding’s conservation work, with detailed studies of beautifully deteriorated film frames. Reel Rescues also features contemporary film works dealing the broader notion of ‘the archive’ by artists Jim Knox and Kerry Laitala, and a new sound piece ‘Sonic Projection’ by OtherFilm’s Joel Stern.

Reel Rescues, SLQ Gallery, Level 2, until Dec 2nd 2007. Free Entry.
http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibit/cur

expansive cinema at the agnsw

wim wenders film

passing along this info!

Programme at the AGNSW for all fans of experimental cinema
Saturday 16 June 2pm
Saturday 23 June 12noon
Saturday 7 July 12noon
Saturday 21 July 2pm
Domain Theatre, Lower Level 3

This series focuses on the enduring traditions and lasting influence of experimental and avant-garde filmmaking. This is so-called formalist cinema, using film in ways that are comparable to the aims of modern painting and sculpture, foregrounding the medium itself, emphasising the film strip, the frame, montage, projection, and even the chemical and technological processes. The rejection or subversion of Hollywood-type storytelling generates works with a loose or non-linear narrative, making unexpected dislocations of time and space, permitting personal explorations and poetic or ironic juxtaposition. Taken together, these journeys of colour and sound demonstrate the sheer dynamism of experimental cinema over the past 85 years.
Continue reading “expansive cinema at the agnsw”

Research on moving image art in Japan

Some information I have discovered while here in Yokohama:

MIACA – Moving Image Archive of Contemporary Art
http://www.miaca.org/english/news/index.html

Videoart Center, Tokyo
http://www.vctokyo.org/j/about/
(Japanese – Google for a web page translation Japanese to English)

Art Autonomy Network
http://www.a-a-n.org/top_e.htm

And for the Expanded Cinema heads, Jun’ichi OKUYAMA For example:

Cut-Off movie, 1969 16mm 9min. A film 9 minutes in length was cut in several places beforehand, those severed places covered with tree leaves and condoms and the like. When projected, naturally those places cause an interruption in projection, and the filmmaker himself explains why the accident occurred. This projection/ performance was first shown in 1969.
http://www.geocities.jp/okujun16/page016.html

Reference for history of Japanese experimental film – 2004 film program at the Pacific Film Archive, LA
http://ieas.berkeley.edu/events/2004.10.19-26.html

MIKE LEGGETT: expanded screen, performed film, structural film 1970-1981

mike leggett screening at acp

[update – there is a review article of this event at Realtime magazine here.]

Teaching and Learning Cinema presents:
MIKE LEGGETT: expanded screen, performed film, structural film 1970-1981
Saturday 28 April 6.30pm-10pm

[view installations of Unword and Vistasound from 6pm-730pm, film screenings from 730pm-9.30pm]

Australian Centre for Photography (ACP)
257 Oxford Street, Paddington NSW 2021
T: 02 9332 1455
F: 02 9332 6104

The TLC continues its work drawing out the primary sources in artists’ film in Australia with an evening with Mike Leggett. Linking Sydney to the heady days of seventies London where he was a founding member of the London Filmmakers’ Co-op, this event explores Leggett’s 1970s structural films, his 1980s media-performance works and his ongoing interactive art research in Sydney.

More Information: louise[at]teachingandlearningcinema[dot]org

read below for full info…
Continue reading “MIKE LEGGETT: expanded screen, performed film, structural film 1970-1981”

Remoscopes

Last night down at the ourmedia film screenings, they played some excellent “remoscopes” by a Japanese collective. The idea of remoscopes is to follow the “lumiere rules”:

Lumieré Rule (six conditions)
no effect
no edit
maximum 1 minute
fixed camera
silence
no zoom

Some beautiful works came out of it, full of consciousness of time passing and the beauty of the ordinary. I’d love to see more, and it’d be so easy to organise a night of home grown remoscope!

THIS TIME: TLC Screening at SYDNEY

tlc this time flyer

The Teaching & Learning Cinema invites you to “THIS TIME“, a film screening this Sunday, April 1st, 2007 6.30pm for a 7pm start at ˜Sydney”, Cleveland St (next to Fatima’s) (see http://officialsydney.com)
The screening follows along from a residency that Lucas Ihlein and Louise Curham have been doing in the majestic Track 12 at Performance Space’s new home at Carriageworks.
Continue reading “THIS TIME: TLC Screening at SYDNEY”

Mike L: notes from Long Film

long film image from mike L

A few folks who we invited to experience our private “screening” of Long Film for Ambient Light have begun to filter back with their thoughts after the event.

Mike and Deborah visited in its last half hour, late Saturday morning the 17th of March.

Mike sent us these thoughts: Continue reading “Mike L: notes from Long Film”

Flemo: notes from Long Film

lucas and flemo
[Lucas and Flemo about 9pm on Friday 16 March, photo by Peter Shaw taken from outside Track 12]

A few folks who we invited to experience our private “screening” of Long Film for Ambient Light have begun to filter back with their thoughts after the event. First cab off the rank is Flemo.

Thanks for the invite to say something, although – at this stage – I’m unsure I have anything to say except thanks for the invite to say something. I was serious, by the way, about the idea of a “natural screensaver.” As much as applications have progressed, screensavers are still about the most interesting things computers do. Arriving late at night (-or late for me, a confirmed father and nerd), didn’t seem to bear out the screen-saver intuition. Perhaps this would have been different were I to have come during the day. So what of the film(ing), as I saw it? The experience of being in the space seemed to have an almost-sedating effect on me: there was something chruch-like – simply in the size of the space, the darkness I found quietening (and provided a kind of ‘cover’: a way of being non-selfconsciously alone with other people present); there was, I think, a kind of alteration of time and space that I can’t quite describe… or perhaps I don’t have the patience, now
mindful of having to leave my computer and get somewhere else soon.
Continue reading “Flemo: notes from Long Film”