Baghdad in No Particular Order by Paul Chan (2003) was also pretty interesting to watch, since people around the world do not have information about how people in Baghdad are faring apart from through what they see and hear in the news. It was a compilation of video clips showing the lives and surroundings of people in Baghdad; showing that they are just like other people, trying to live their lives after war. A wide range of languages are used now and then, perhaps to reach universal audiences. It shows a different perspective from the stereotypes shown to us by the media.

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We watched some videos afterwards:

1)  John Smith – The Girl Chewing Gum (1976)
- Prescription vs description
- Different ways of looking at something
- A narrator telling the audience what to pay attention to

2) Hollis Frampton – Gloria
- Silent
- Sheets describe what would happen in next shot. No actual shot is shown on screen.
- Continuous, rhythmic…Past and present are blended. (Things from the past, the photographs, are present in the present moment)

3) Pierre Huyghe – The Third Memory (2000)
- 3 different perspectives on the same story

4) Stan Douglas – Win, Place or Show (1998)
- Predetermined selection of shots (by computer). Shots can be combined any way to change the story.
- 2 cameras

1. Still Life by SamTaylor-Wood (2001)

This video shows a platter of uncut fruits rotting over a period of 9-weeks, but sped up to fit into a video of a duration of around 3 minutes. There is also a pen in the video that does not change, juxtaposing the changes that are happening to the fruit.

2. Black/White/Text by Gary Hill (1980)

This was a highly repetitive and somewhat disorienting, even hypnotic. The black and white rectangles change sizes, and eventually shapes as the narrator’s descriptive speech is overlaps. It is hard to focus on one thing because of the changes in the image and the overlapping of the speech.

3. Ancient of Days by Bill Viola (1979)

There’s an emphasis on audio and video editing throughout ths film, as well as compressed vs real-time modes.

4. Prisoner’s Dilemma by Richard Serra (1974)

This video is based on a very interesting idea, the prisoner’s dilemma, but filmed in different situations (a police show, and a gameshow). Trust is an important factor in making the better choice.

The “Phenomenal Project” is due next week. I will need to think of an idea, and film a non-edited 1-hour piece.

It was interesting to see what kind of ideas people had. It was not obvious whether or not the videos were expanded or compressed most of the time. Some were even classed as both.

Here are my videos for the project:

We watched some videos today including:

- Boomerang by Nancy Holt/Richard Serra: where Holt was listening to herself talking through her heaedphones with a slight delay. She herself said that the delayed audio was making it hard for her to hear herself think.

- Left Side, Right Side by Joan Jonas: where there were various images of Jonas on the screen, telling the viewer which was the left side and which was the right side. It became confusing at times.

- Time-Delay Rooms by Dan Graham: where people were able to walk from one side of a room to the other, in time to see themselves start the walk on a television screen. This was done by delaying the images by around 8 seconds, the amount of time it took to walk from one tv to the other. It was interesting to see the people’s amusement.

• Gary Hill: Blind Spot (2003)

This video was slowed down, and the screen flashed black between each frame. As the video was slowed down more and more, the blinking became less frequent. It became harder to understand what was happening because it felt as if we were just viewing a series of photos and it was difficult to remember what happened in the frame before.

• Michael Snow: SSHTOORTY (2005)

This video was extrememly interesting. It showed a scene in 2 different orders, layered over one another. It was hard to follow at first, but as it was repeated over and over again, it was easy to see that there was an obvious storyline.

• Martin Arnold: Alone: Life Wastes Andy Hardy (1998)

The artist took clips from an old Andy Hardy movie, and edited it so that it jolted and repeated the same actions several times before playing normally, and then jolting again. It was intriguing, and the artist seemed to be aiming to create themes that were not present in the original.

Videos viewed:

Charlemagne Palestine – Four Motion Studies (1974)
- Steadiness of voice depends on the motion of rides
- Similar layout on all 4 videos
- C# on rollercoaster, B on spinner (runs out of breath at the end), D on rollercoaster, waves crahing on rocks; crackling sound; suddenly spins quickly & wails
Peter Campus – Double Vision (1971)
1. Copilia – cameras swing to and fro; far apart
2. Disparity – steadily turning; close together
3. Convergence – person walking back & forth, moving cameras each time
4. Fovea – translucent white circle with person in the middle
5. Impulse – one camera plugged into oscilloscope, measuring amount of light in video. Overlapping.
6. Fusion – facing one another
7. Inside the radius – aimed at TV. TV screen shows what’s being filmed behind it

Lynda Benglis – Now (1973)
- Pre-recorded video plays in the background
- Person repeats the actions
- Layers of video

Gary Hill – Around & About
- flashing images in time with speech; showing every day items
- effects – showing small part of image + color alterations
Dara Birnbaum (1978) – Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman
- Repetition
- Original clips were not available to public at the time

AntFarm & TR Uthco – The Eternal Frame (1976)
- Re-enactment of the assassination of JFK
- Reactions of the audience varied

Project 1 ideas:

• dripping tap
• rollercoaster’s
• smoke from chimney
• clouds
• metronome
• ticking clock
• bouncing balls
• lagging video
• runner
• strobe lights