From: Myron Ort (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Dec 06 2008 - 08:52:49 PST
hmmm, if Chris had been a little less casual about it, we might be
calling the continents North and South Vespuccia. The United States
of Vespuccia. The good old USV.
mo
On Dec 6, 2008, at 6:18 AM, James Cole wrote:
> I really like the image of La Region Centrale on Venus. You should
> send a proposal to Nasa. I'm only somewhat joking.
>
> I think it was Brakhage who said they should have sent artists to
> the moon, because the photographs they took look like ridiculous b-
> movie sets and postcards. He said that Columbus was smart enough
> to bring Amerigo Vespucci on his journey, and we named the damn
> country after him.
>
> -James
>
> On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 9:26 AM, Tom B Whiteside
> <email suppressed> wrote:
>
> No, definitely not a test-tube. I strongly believe that artists do
> what they do "in their own time" and in many cases the larger
> culture catches up later. (Of course in other cases the rest of the
> troops don't follow the direction set by the avant-garde.) The
> rapidity of editing that began in the 1920's has not slowed down,
> but it is no longer radical. It is commonplace.
>
> I don't think any points were missed, James. I think that art is
> made and studied for its own sake, and the larger culture grows
> from that. Of course it's not a straight line, it's a great big
> tangled up mess. I'm not talking about the fact that some Hollywood
> films now have title sequences that look like Brakhage, but things
> such as the use of tiny "cameras" inside people's bodies during
> operations, images sent back from Mars, etc. - Vertov would be
> jealous, right? Painting and drawing ruled our constructed visual
> universe for centuries, but it's hard for us to imagine much about
> the early years of those media. Things are happening more quickly
> now, and as you study the history of the changes - technological,
> aesthetic, cultural - you understand the world better. I don't see
> experimental film separate from this world of change, instead I see
> it playing a substantial role, even if most of the general public
> doesn't know who Maya Deren was or why her editing was innovative
> in the 1940's.
>
> It might be hard to convince the average undergraduate that Michael
> Snow is important in his/her life (or Mahler, or Picasso, for that
> matter) but it is worth it to teach the art form, to show the
> films, to research the history. Maybe the significance becomes
> clearer to that student thirty years down the road, working on the
> robotic camera for the exploration of Venus, "Hey, remember that
> film we saw in college.......?"
>
> - Whiteside North Carolina
>
>
>
> James Cole <email suppressed>
> Sent by: Experimental Film Discussion List
> <email suppressed>
> 12/03/2008 10:57 PM
>
> Please respond to
>
> Experimental Film Discussion List <email suppressed>
>
> To
> email suppressed
> cc
> Subject
> Re: Teaching film [Was: Experimental films showing at various
> Universities]
>
>
>
>
>
> "One thing to keep in mind is that the study of experimental film -
> its history, its methods - is the study of the exploratory edge of
> motion pictures. How has this language developed over the last 110
> years, what were the innovations at different points in time, how
> have they been received, what does it mean in different cultural
> settings?"
>
> I don't know that I agree with this, although I'm not 100 percent
> sure what you're saying. I don't think that framing experimental
> film as an attempt to mine new territory for mainstream film is a
> very accurate way to look at it, and I certainly don't think you're
> going to garner much serious interest for the avant-garde as
> serious venue for artistic expression if you frame it as a test-
> tube for the mainstream. I agree that the avant-garde has been co-
> opted by advertisers and Hollywood filmmakers, but I don't think
> that's the main accomplishment of experimental/avant-garde
> filmmakers. Forgive me if I'm missing the point, here.
>
> -James
>
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 11:14 AM, Tom B Whiteside
> <email suppressed> wrote:
>
> One thing to keep in mind is that the study of experimental film -
> its history, its methods - is the study of the exploratory edge of
> motion pictures. How has this language developed over the last 110
> years, what were the innovations at different points in time, how
> have they been received, what does it mean in different cultural
> settings? Without question, motion pictures are important in many
> different fields - politics, medicine, and yes, video games and
> other kinds of storytelling. It probably doesn't matter what field
> that young person enters, there will probably be one portion of
> that field where understanding how to be creative in motion
> pictures will be important. And this understanding begins with the
> study of framing, camera movement, editing, sound/image
> interaction, etc etc.
>
> In my lifetime, the influence of experimental film on mainstream
> media has been tremendous. This will continue for quite some time.
>
> - Whiteside North Carolina
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.