Re: Sensory overload suggestion

From: Myron Ort (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Jan 18 2010 - 15:42:33 PST


I am reminded that in the 60s Stan Brakhage's writing, and mission in
part, was to inform "seeing" in these ways. He seemed to feel that
it was necessary to alert the potential viewer of his films that
there was a "teaching" to his approach. I too back then used the word
"vision" in this expanded sense because we had for many years studied
"vision" in the senses that the gestalt psychologists were exploring,
defining, and experimenting. In that sense to be "visionary" was not
some kind of "religious" thing, but rather understanding what indeed
500 years of painting had discovered. Some advanced thinking painters
of the 1920s were excited about applying these insights to film, so
it was a matter of keeping that flame alive. The spirit of dada
didn't hurt either. Cut Ups, for example, is dada among whatever else.

Myron Ort

On Jan 18, 2010, at 3:10 PM, Allen Riley wrote:

> Seems there are two ideas of sensory overload that need to be
> separated here. This is my understanding right now:
>
> Myron Ort's hand-painted films are not "sensory overload" unless,
> as he says, you aren't used to seeing in the way they require. So
> its a kind of film that relies on a different kind of seeing. The
> audience should adapt to it and learn from it. Then it isn't
> sensory overload anymore; they've learned to see in a new way.
> Brakhage's "The Act of Seeing..." is another instance of a similar
> idea of visual learning occurring in a different style.
>
> The other stuff (Brinkman and Marro, Jimmy Joe Roche, EBN, and Ryan
> Trecartin) seems like a response to the entertainment-driven
> loudness wars that go on in various media. Most of this stuff is
> either overtly satirical of entertainment (EBN), ironic
> exaggerations of entertainment (Roche), or post-ironic re-
> appropriations of entertainment (Trecartin) of entertainment.
>
> Allen Riley
>
> On Jan 18, 2010, at 5:34 PM, JEFFREY PAULL wrote:
>
>> Sensory overload seems, to me, to express the idea of too-muchness,
>> not in the sense of being loud, and/or fast-paced or helter-
>> skelter, - or even incoherent, (that's mearly "muchness".
>> But sensory overload describes the feeling (in an individual) that
>> whatever abundance(s) there is - there are,
>> is GETTING IN THE WAY of something else that the person wants to
>> "get" or to feel as fully as they they anticipate
>> they otherwise could.
>>
>> comments?
>>
>>
>> Jeffrey Paull
>>
>>
>> On Mon 18/01/10 15:17 , Myron Ort email suppressed sent:
>>> I was hoping for a "theoretical" definition of "sensory overload"
>>>
>>> rather than another example of a film or whatever that I cannot
>>>
>>> easily access. Even watching 77 minutes of Sistiaga's handpainted @
>>>
>>> sound speed with overloud live punk music, I wasn't really thinking
>>>
>>> "sensory overload", just "unpleasant experience". Even multiple
>>>
>>> screen performances don't seem like "sensory overload" to me, but
>>>
>>> just what they are supposed to be. I was hoping for a definition of
>>>
>>> "sensory overload" that wouldn't need to include "handpainted"
>>> films
>>>
>>> almost by definition. In other words, once I accepted the hand
>>>
>>> painted film, or films where every frame is really (or really
>>>
>>> really) different it seems there can no longer be anything called
>>>
>>> "sensory overload". By "handpainted" I mean the one's where
>>> there is
>>>
>>> not so much figurative continuous action between frames like
>>>
>>> animation or clearly comprehensible anthropomorphic dancing blobs
>>>
>>> etc. As someone who digs "experimental filmmaking" and
>>> phenomena of
>>>
>>> nature, (pre and post psychedelic) I am not sure there is such a
>>>
>>> thing as "sensory overload".
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Myron Ort
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jan 17, 2010, at 4:14 PM, Jack Sargeant wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Although outside the period of the original question
>>> perhaps Balch
>>>> & Burroughs' The Cut Ups could be considered an example
>>> of sensory
>>>> overload.
>>>
>>>> But, of course the very notion of overload would be a
>>> personal
>>>> experience.
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>> Jack
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>> On 5 Dec 2009, at 04:04, Myron Ort wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>>> Now that I think of it, I don't think I have ever
>>> experienced
>>>>> anything I would call "sensory overload" as pertaining
>>> to a film
>>>>> experience. Could someone define this genre for me.
>>> What are the
>>>>> characteristics?
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>> Myron Ort
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>> On Dec 3, 2009, at 4:05 PM, Mark Toscano wrote:
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>> Howdy all -
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>> I've been working out a possible program (or two) of
>>> films that
>>>>>> demonstrate the idea of "sensory overload", and
>>> although I have a
>>>>>> bunch of titles in mind already, I'd love to get more
>>>
>>>>>> suggestions, especially of work from the past 10-15
>>> years or so.
>>>>>> Shorts are preferable, as it's meant to be a diverse,
>>> mixed
>>>>>> program of numerous artists from different eras.
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>> thanks much for any suggestions -
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>> Mark T
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>>
>>> __________________________________________________________________
>>>>>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at (address suppressed)
>>> om>.
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>
>>> __________________________________________________________________
>>>>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at (address suppressed)
>>> om>.
>>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>> __________________________________________________________________
>>>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at (address suppressed)
>>> om>.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> __________________________________________________________________
>>>
>>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at (address suppressed)
>>> om>.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>> 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>.