Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Primer

I cannot figure out how to embed video any larger than this, I suggest watching this full screen.


Above is a primer that explains American Post War abstract art in terms of Star Wars (the two line up eerily well). This is part of the video that will be screened at the Philoctetes Center. I heard the score for this the first time today. I could not be more pleased. Hopefully Luke will post it as part of his Year In MP3s project, if and when he does I will link to it so we can all listen to it uncut.

UPDATE:

The screening went really well, and there was a fun question and answer about the project afterwards. Hyperalergic posted a very nice piece about the screening by Zach Cohen HERE

Thursday, May 13, 2010

What Code Will Look Like In My Sequel To The Matrix:

I cannot figure out how to embed video any larger than this, I suggest watching this full screen.

This is an a "fair use valentine" created by the sound and video artist R. Luke DuBois. When I make my sequel to The Matrix (The Matrices - its going to be so cool) this is the imagery I want to use to replace the green code. In the meantime Luke is composing a score for my current video project, the episodic artist commentary Star Wars & Modernism

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Free Screening - Star Wars & Modernism; An Artist Commentary (Video)



Watch the video small or watch it full screen.

On May 20th the composer R. Luke DuBois and the writer Colby Chamberlain will join me to discuss and screen three episodes (about 45 minutes of video) of an artist commentary I began working on this past fall. It’s a free event open to the public (details above, and here). The clip embedded above is an introduction that explains the project. It is a work-in-progress that will round out to be 14 or so episodes, each focusing on ten or so minutes of the original 1977 Star Wars film (A New Hope). I recently began collaborating with DuBois, who is providing an original score for the commentary. He explains his contribution to the project much better than I could ever hope to:

The soundtrack is constructed using the harmonies and melodies of John Williams’ orchestral score for Star Wars: A New Hope, mutated with the rhythms and keyboard performance practice of Philip Glass in his minimalist compositions from the 1970s.
The music is algorithmically constructed and takes the conceit of the mash-up into the realm of musical, rather than sonic, information space.  In the mash-up, an audio artist takes multiple popular recordings and samples them both, overlaying them to create a third, hybrid track.  In the music for this film, I decided to create a mash-up based not on sampling the recordings of John Williams and Philip Glass, but by subjecting their music to computer analysis to deconstruct the essential musical vocabulary of both composers so that I could blend them seamlessly into a new body of music.
The result is an algorithmic, aleatoric work for keyboard that evokes Star Wars without ever sampling it, sounds like Glass without sampling any, and perfectly suits the tone and subject matter of John's commentary.
 All Are welcome.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Spiral Jedi (Video)


This is a short mash up my friend Teddy Gage digitally altered for me. It is a snipet of footage taken from Robert Smithson's film Spiral Jetty. I asked Teddy to "Star Wars Kid" it for me. He digitally altered it just as the original footage of a kid goofing around with a broomstick was altered by countless anonymous animators by  added light sabers effects.
FOr those of you unfamiliar with the original, this is Robert smithson filmed from above as he ran the length of his curling manmade jetty. Teddy has digitally inserted a light saber into Smithson's hand.
This was made as a test. It is a tangential bit from a larger video project I have been working on for the past few months.
I am posting it because I think its hilarious, but also as way to test my skills at posting video. Blogger has been fritzy for me lately. I am curious to see how this works. I am always interested in comments, but would appreciate comments on how this down loads, looks and sounds. If anyone has experience embedding video on Blogger, I am very open to suggestions.
If this works for well for enough of you I will post a sample of the larger project, which is an artist commentary called Star Wars and Modernism. I will screen a portion of the commentary in New York later this month.

Thanks,

JP