NEW YEAR.....NEW VOC!

Hello Video Friends!

VOC is back in January on a new day....SUNDAY! Come along to Corsica Studios, London on the 16th Jan for a Sunday of films and videos by some of the most exciting artists in our midst! 2011...HERE WE COME!

For the new year we'll be showcasing more great video, film and performance! Artists are invited to talk about their work and share the inspirations behind their creation. All screenings will be followed by group discussions so GET INVOLVED and let us know your thoughts on what you've seen, ask the artists questions, debate and ENJOY!

In January we have…

London and Germany based visual artist MAX HATTLER coming in to screen a couple of his videos and talk about his experiences!http://www.maxhattler.com/


Plus films and videos by:

MORGAN BERINGER, SMPTE Violence, 3:00, UK, 2010

GIADA GHIRINGHELLI, Newly Risen Decay, 7:00, UK/Switzerland, 2011
http://www.giadaghiringhelli.com

ABDUL HYE , Apophenia 6.2, 2:16, UK, 2010
http://www.abdulhye.co.uk/

IAN PONS JEWELL, video for Crystal Fighters' 'Follow'
http://www.ianponsjewell.com/

ANDERS WEBERG, Dualism, 2:15, Sweden, 2010
http://www.recycled.se/

DAVID TERRANOVA, Spooker, muic by JPLS, 9:00, 2010
http://blog.davidterranova.com/

OLGA KOROLEVA, Unbelievable, 7:31, UK, 2010
http://www.olgakoroleva.com/

SHIRA KLASMER, Successions, 4:19, UK, 2009

VOLKAN ERGEN, Small Octopus, 3:37, Turkey

There will be installations by film artist RACHEL RAYNS www.rachelrayns.com and Manchester based artist MAGNUS QUAIFE will be exhibiting work fresh from the Liverpool Biennial!!

Get creative with MARIA ANASTASSIOU who will be coming in and continuing UNRAVEL. The project which aims to create the longest hand painted film in Britain!! UNRAVEL was formed by Maria Anastassiou and Chris Paul Daniels whilst studying at the Royal College of Art, Unravel is also comprised of OKO Lab of Leeds (Mark Pickles and Jo Byrne) and, Manchester based, Kelvin Brown.

We also have a special DJ and drumming performance by FARI B and MORG!! Plus visuals by old VOC friends!

Read up on some of the great artists involved in January's VOC here: Video Is The Only Constant Sunday 16th Jan 2011

Brain train

Some wise words from Maya Deren.

Enjoy and be inspired.

Bathtubs and Desert Islands

Bathtubs and Desert Islands from Christina Millare on Vimeo.

Video Is The Only Constant 29th Sept 2010

SUBMISSIONS OPEN FOR SEPTEMBER VOC at CORSICA STUDIOS!

We are now open for submissions for our September Video is the Only Constant at Corsica Studios, 29th September, London!

Each month we are in search of fascinating videos and films of any genre up to 10 minutes in length. Artist/filmmakers are invited to talk about their work and answer questions from the audience. We want to know what has inspired you to create your work, what you aim to achieve with your moving imagery and ultimately understand the very essence behind your CREATION! Or something along those lines...

If you would like to get involved please send your submissions to: theonlyconstant@ymail.com

Please include the following:

Title of the work:
Running time:
Genre:
Country:
Synopsis/description:
Stills/bio attached or link to download
Format: PAL or NTSC (PAL preferred)
Aspect ratio:
Preview url (for us to review):
Screening Copy: A download link to the video file or on a data DVD (.mov, .avi etc) via mail to: Morgan Beringer, Flat 2, 38 Dunlace Road, London, E5 0NE, UK. Direct downloads MUCH preferred.

The deadline to be included in our September event is Friday 10th September!

Please note we are unable to return dvds so please do not submit your master copies!

We look forward to hearing from you

- The VOC Crew

The Golden Fleece

DREAMING OF...

I have made a blog about my current video projects, rants and inspirations.

You can read all about them here: http://christinamillareisdreamingof.wordpress.com/

I've also popped on there some stills from a new video project I am working on which I will be screening at a forthcoming VOC!

6 MONTHS...

since my last video and I've finally finished filming my next video project. It would be good to know how everyone else gets out of a creative slump. ...I can't seem to get out of the fog sometimes. For the next couple of weeks I will be editing until my eyes give out and sleep takes over.

I'm one of those people who find it only possible to work towards some sort of deadline. The last was, a 3 week finish or my thumbs fall off. Thumbs intact, this time round it's 4 weeks max or bad luck for 7 years. Will I make it in time?

Stills coming soon!

VIDEO IS THE ONLY CONSTANT - WEDS 23RD JUNE @ CORSICA STUDIOS

Read all about the artists involved in this month's VOC here!

Video Is The Only Constant- Weds 23rd June 2010

She's really clever and intelligent but she kinda like failed her GCSE's

Insightful, painful and humorous.

Mum, I heart you but...'now go in and make me my dinner'.

Behold, Gillian Wearing's '2 Into 1'.

The short video projection 2 into 1 (1997) features a mother and her two sons, one generation lip-synching the dubbed words of the other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36WUgFMDY-M

BLANK SPACE (Y)OUR SPACE @ TOGETHER OUR SPACE GALLERY, OLD ST.

Caught me completely off guard...

If you have about 5 minutes. Best thing I've found on Vimeo in ages.

http://www.vimeo.com/6671502

Video Is The Only Constant @ Corsica Studios - April 7th 2010

The Only Constant 20100407 Catalog

Video Is The Only Constant April 7th 2010: Wiracha Daochai

'Meditation', UK/Thailand, 6:00

Meditation is mind contemplation. A holy Buddhist monk is approaching death with a contemplated mind and eventually comes to the conclusion of his spiritual journey, even when he encounters the sacred sin of commitment suicide.

Wiracha Daochai:
"I spent my childhood as a Buddhist monk for 8 years. During which time, I had to meditate for 8 hours per day. I had to imagine one circle in my body and looked fixedly at it. My master told me, Buddha said that meditation is process of mind into wisdom. In this state of my life, I seriously question this process and really want to show this piece to both Buddha and my master."

http://www.wiracha.com

Video Is The Only Constant April 7th 2010: Sarah Carrea

'Petrella Tifernina'

Petrella Tifernina is a short documentary exploring my romanticised view of Italy and contrasts this with my grandmother’s stories of the country and her reasons for moving to England. I travelled to Petrella, the village where my grandmother was born, to discover more about my Italian heritage and to understand why she left.
The film explores the struggle of Italy’s poor agricultural workers, as there were many Italians that came to Britain in search of work in the late 1950s; many later returned to Italy, but for her own reasons my grandmother did not.

The film begins with a letter which my grandmother wrote for me after she found out I was making this film. As she could not travel with me, my gran sends a message to her brother in Italy, who she has not seen for twenty years. The film combines moving image with still photography, black and white with colour, and old with new, to compare my perceptions with my grandmother's memories.

Video Is The Only Constant April 7th 2010: Morgan Beringer

The Yud, 9:38, UK

A short document of abstract painter Xiana Wolfram's installation / performance in Highgate Wood last Autumn. The Yud is an ongoing project revolving around the installation of a massive canvas in various contexts. This video documents the Yud at a particularly playful halfway point in its overall development.

Morgan Beringer is an American video artist based in East London. Having spent and continuing to spend much of his life in transit between different countries, the thrust of his creative concern stems from the dilemma of living in-between cultures. An academic background in both philosophy and art pushes these concerns further into the realms of linguistics, performance, and film/video art.

Video Is The Only Constant April 7th 2010: Paul Kindersley

Star, installation

'Star' consists of hand made screenprinted cushions of a random womans face, the way it is done and the Warhol references make her look like a famous person allowing each viewer to have their own interpretation...is it Yoko Ono, is it Sharon Tate Etc....It shows the stalker, obsessive nature of fandom, and the saturation of popular culture in our lives. What we see on the cinema screen, becomes part of us, and we can no longer separate between reality and fantasy. The 'star' becomes an empty vessel for us to project our fantasies onto.

Paul Kindersley is an artist and curator based in London. After having lived and worked in Berlin, Cambridge and London, Paul graduated from Chelsea College of Art & Design with a First Class Hons BA in the summer of 2009 and was awarded the Transition Gallery Prize which resulted in a solo show, 'She wanted his soul, but he could only give her his blood', last October. He has exhibited widely in London and Europe.

http://sites.google.com/site/paulkindersley/

Video Is The Only Constant April 7th 2010: Michael Marczewski

14.7 Metre Psycho, 4:40, UK

14.7 Metre Psycho is a redelivery of Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller; stills from the film have been reconstructed into a long three-dimensional set,which has then been filmed with an unedited tracking shot.

http://www.mmarczewski.com

Video Is The Only Constant April 7th 2010: Monica Elkelv

KAOS, 3:48, UK

'Kaos' is a film based on the earliest condition of the Universe, before matter and the lower atmosphere that surrounds the earth: the great void of emptiness within the Universe. The film symbolizes the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction, and shows the relationship between the body and the natural environment representing the extremes of emotion by the loss of the body. Kaos is a paradox, between body and nature, and universe and matter: the space or gap between heaven and earth.

Monica Elkelv combines dance and film as an art form, pushing the art of modern dance into the forefront of the experimental film world. Movement and its manipulation enable her to create a space, which has no reference to time, transforming the body in a depersonalized figure. Through her films, she approaches the relation between the human and the natural world upon a metaphysical level, exploring the connection between mind and matter and the transcendental state of consciousness. In her dance films, we see the limits of the dancer’s body in contrast to the unlimited experimentations the filmmaker can have by using the body as a material, as an object. As an object, the body can be accelerated, without limits. The result is the creation of another imaginary space through a multidimensional perspective, resulting into an impossible dance.

Video Is The Only Constant April 7th 2010: Dustin Grella

Prayers for Peace, 7:38, 2009, USA

Prayers for Peace is a narrative stop-motion animation confronting the memory of the artist's younger brother killed in the current conflict in Iraq. Drawn entirely with pastels on a slate chalkboard, the materials used to create the animation become a metaphor for the impermanence of life.

Dustin Grella was born in North Carolina, grew up in Ohio and lives in New York City. In May 2009 he graduated from the School of Visual Arts with an MFA in Computer Art, having received scholarships from the department and the Alumni Association as well as the Paula Rhodes Award for Excellence in Computer Art. His animated short, Glimpse, won awards in international underground festivals including Best Animation, Audience Choice and Best Experimental film. Dustin’s first solo show, in 2007 at Summit ArtSpace in Akron, OH, was the first solo show in ArtSpace’s history. His work is the subject of a documentary film scheduled for release in July 2009.

Grella develops artifacts and events that explore the human experience through the passage of time. His work focuses on the design and creation of systems that gather the thoughts or feelings of individuals at particular moments. Through animation, installation, and even the postal services, Grella combines equal measures of sincerity and absurdity, structure and improvisation. By highlighting seemingly mundane tasks, he focuses on the importance of the moment. Notes To Self [2002-], is a ongoing series of over twenty-five hundred letters that he writes and mails to himself daily. These letters occasionally surface as objects in his work.

http://www.dustystudio.org

Video Is The Only Constant April 7th 2010: Alexandros Pissourios

Non-Fiction, 10:04, 2009, Cyprus

Does one ever stop remembering?
In 'Non-Fiction’, the aim was to go back to a personal archive and excavate images from events in order to come to terms with, or even relinquish them. In a sense, by remembering, what is remembered is then subjected to decay :
"Things in the past are in some ways nurtured if kept forgotten. Forgetting, like burial is a preservative. A kind of storage".
Perhaps what is at play is the contingency of memory as it is enacted in a dialectical opposition between sound and image. Truth and truthfulness become distinct from one and other, corresponding to ideas around immediacy (the belief in what one is being presented with as true) and mediation (the acknowledgement of art as art).

Alexandros Pissourios (born Cyprus 1982) graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2009, following a BA in Performance (Music) and Visual Art from the University of Brighton, 2007. Recent screenings and performances include Acoustic Images, BFI, London, 2009, Equator Project, St Lukes, London, 2008, Ars longis vita brevis, University of Brighton, 2006 and Urban Soul Festival, Nicosia, Cyprus, 2006. Alongside his practice he works as a sound and visual designer producing music videos (Floating Points, Mr Fogg) and alternative performances (A Man to Pet).

http://www.alexandrospissourios.com

Video Is The Only Constant April 7th 2010: Marianna and Daniel O'Reilly

Delivery, 14:00, 2008, UK

J-P Sartre once stated that the only free man is the man in chains. Stemming from an attempt to develop this idea, the film ‘Delivery’ wrests its suspense structure from two cases of men seeking meaningful performances within confined parameters; the now infamous chess game between Garry Kasparov and IBM computer ‘Deep Blue’, and the case of Anthony Blunt; art historian and KGB double-agent. Central to this attempt is the production of a synthetic universe in which contrived scenarios, filmic devices, edits and sound loops constantly refer back to the process of ‘reality production’ and the parameters by which individuals engage in producing images. ‘Delivery’ consists in a deconstructed journey of the image of free choice and the absurd quest for a meaningful existential performance both in front of the camera and behind it.

Marianna was born in Russia and Daniel in the UK. Having met undertaking their Master Degrees in Fine Art in London (Royal Academy of Arts and Chelsea College of Art respectively) they have developed multi-media installations, published artist’s books, participated and curated art exhibitions, screenings, debates and performances.

Since 2008 they have worked exclusively in video using their relationship as the basis for a series of protracted studies on subjectivity. These symposia focus primarily on the relationship between human freedom and individuality, the operations of self-deception, frustration and alienation, and a critical re-examination of identity. By employing a variety of incognitos and pseudonyms to articulate conflicting points of view, they have attempted to produce a synthetic reality occupied exclusively by these characters, placing them in extreme situations in which the dynamics of force and freedom enter into a critical relation.

http://www.mariannaanddaniel.co.uk

Video Is The Only Constant April 7th 2010: Tom Estes

Storm, 1:39, UK, installation

Estes' latest video work, 'STORM' is a true companion piece to his existing practice of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work. 'STORM' deals with the Biblical tale of Noah and the Ark- in the style of the Keystone Cops on acid. The work, is a re-recording of a film that is being projected onto a Bible. The Bible is open on the page of the account in Genesis 6-9 which details how God sends a great flood to destroy the earth because of man's wickedness and because the earth is corrupt. Estes’ choice of projecting fast-motion slapstick comedy directly onto the Biblical text is a deliberate mitigation of surrealist shock. The speeded action alters the tone of what seems a traditional childrens story- but with the mad attention urges of a Play Station gamer.

This updated version references the latest of shock art and horror film and so serves up a re-evaluation of the grim tale in which God in a final act of violence, decides to extinguish all life, (with the exceptance of Noah and a few choice animals). It is this element that drives the intellectual engine of the fantastic. As images flash by they become signs referring to an earlier reading of the Biblical text as well as a twisted view of our new millennium.

Times change, and so do people's outlooks. Today's audiences are gorged with violent spectacle, which though still shocking and frightening, can no longer traumatize to the degree that it once did. And yet in real life we probably have a greater distance from, and abhorance to, violence than in any other time in history. STORM is able to penetrate the audience's inner fears and mirror their masochistic desires. Even as religion, magic, alchemy and the occult seem to be on the wane in our culture, they preside over the gestation of science fiction and invest STORM's gothic subject-matter with an aura of comic gloom. In an age of global warming, the grimoire of the Magus becomes the mad-scientist’s user manual or the bad-science of popular opinion. Estes above all, wants to communicate with this audience; their pity and fear matter to him. With a condensed expression of these mental states, the tragic drama remains here on a level of emotional liquidation and dark indifference. The final success of STORM must be attributed to the risks it takes in revealing Estes' maverick artistic vision, and in Estes' final presentation of the work as still photographs.


"As a creator of multi-media performance & installation, my work has been hung, played, performed and installed in a few of the world’s right places and a couple of deliciously wrong ones. I am interested in the role of Anthropology in the study of human behaviour. My area of research is based on issues surrounding longing and desire, and so often intermingles elements of personal stories with wider historical and social narratives. Most scholars consider modern Anthropology as the study of the 'other' and as an outgrowth of the Age of Enlightenment and the first European colonization wave. I attempt to reverse this relationship, turning the anthropological eye and placing particular emphasis on the perspective and impact of long-term, experiential immersion, often known as 'participant-observation'. The central premise of my research is that fantasy and illusion are not contradictions of reality, but instead an integral part of our everyday lives."

http://www.myspace.com/testes2

Video Is The Only Constant April 7th 2010: Vivienne Todor

Contact, 1:13, UK

This short animation aims to explore the idea of micro and macrocosms; how details can be mistaken for being much larger structures than they are and vice versa.

Vivienne Todor has been brought up in London. Her interest in creativity came from a consistent influence from both her parents who encouraged a love for fine art and music. It lead her to study Photography, Music Technology and later, Animation at the London College of Communication.
She continually strives to produce work that engages and entraps the audience with rich textures, intriguing lighting and concealed subject matter. There is an ongoing fascination with ideas of perception, both visual and cognitive but there is a particular interest in the relationship between sound and image.

Video Is The Only Constant April 7th 2010: Sebastian Lindberg

A comedian, 7:40, Finland

A man practises for a stand-up comedy competition that will be boadcast on TV. But he forgets his jokes and what was meant as comedy turns into something else.

Sound, camera, editing, actor: Sebastian Lindberg
Music: Dmitri Shostakovich, violin concerto no. 1

Sebastian Lindberg is an artist from Helsinki. He has graduated from the Finnish academy of fine Arts in 2008, and has worked mainly with video and installations, in forms that are more or less narrative.

http://www.sebastianlindberg.net

Video Is The Only Constant @ Corsica Studios - April 7th 2010

The line up and flyer for the next VOC night at Corsica Studios on April 7th is now online. Feel free to download/print/distribute it. A higher quality copy can be found via the link below.

High Quality Copy of Flyer

The Octoclub

A new blog attempting to chart the development of an artistic venture by a group of WSA graduates around the concept of the noble octopus. Please follow or email me for access if you would like to contribute!

http://www.octoclub.blogspot.com/

News: First Teaser From Yuasa's YOJOHAN SHINWA TAIKEI

News: First Teaser From Yuasa's YOJOHAN SHINWA TAIKEI

The Exquisite Corpse Video Poject Vol 1, London Premiere

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10150090071690533&ref=mf
http://www.16mm-soho.com
http://www.myspace.com/braziliality

Phillip Osborne & Ian Pons Jewell at The Cube

Video Is The Only Constant - March 3, 2010 - catalog

The Only Constant 20100303 Catalog

Video Is The Only Constant March 3rd 2010: Matthias David Huser

Dogs, UK, 30'00

A car dealer who believes he is a cowboy. A man in a suit who has been looking for his dog for years. Two illusions and one band. - A roadmovie.

Matthias David Huser (born January 1979 in Zurich, Switzerland) trained as a photographer and non-professional basketball player. From 2001 until 2005 he studied at the University of Arts and Design Zurich Switzerland and University of New South Wales/CoFA, Sydney Australia in the departments film and time based art. Lives and works in Zurich and London as a director/writer and first assistant director.

Video Is The Only Constant March 3rd 2010: David Terranova and James Mountford

Afterlife (a requiem), 2009, UK, 3'40

A view of life, death and the afterlife, with Nick Cave's son Jethro and his girlfriend Sophie Willing each performing on two separate sets at the same time, using a projector to blend the two sets into one. An experimentation of light and shadows. Wonderland magazine approached James to make this piece for them. With a basic idea of shooting a model with projected images James asked David to bring his video skills into the mix, and working on the idea together lead them to the concept of using two characters, one of which being projected onto the other in real time.

James Mountford - “British born, I started taking photos while living in Italy. Since returning to London I have shot for a range of magazines including Dazed and Confused, Dansk, Wonderland, Elle, Tank, i-D.”

http://www.jamesmountford.com
http://iheartkrackney.blogspot.com

David Terranova - Born in Rome to an Italian father and English mother. After moving to London at the age of 16 I became a Flash Developer working at various advertising agencies around London building websites and games for large gaming and film brands. Three years ago I started a web-video series called RebelRave.tv, an artistic reportage view of the parties and music of an underground international record label. This lead me into making more video promos for other musicians and lately for fashion related content, often experimenting with the relationship between sound and vision.

http://blog.davidterranova.com

Video Is The Only Constant March 3rd 2010: Ulf Kristiansen

The Tiger and the Lamb, 2009, Norway, 2'30

Based on 2 poems by William Blake, animation by Ulf Kristiansen.

Blake is building on the conventional idea that nature, like a work of art, must in some way contain a reflection of its creator. The tiger is strikingly beautiful yet also horrific in its capacity for violence. What kind of a God, then, could or would design such a terrifying beast as the tiger? In more general terms, what does the undeniable existence of evil and violence in the world tell us about the nature of God, and what does it mean to live in a world where a being can at once contain both beauty and horror? The open awe of "The Tyger" contrasts with the easy confidence, in "The Lamb," of a child's innocent faith in a benevolent universe. By letting the tiger recite "the Lamb" , the tiger appears somewhat mephistotelian even though the lamb is not letting herself be seduced. The tiger is also less than impressed by the lamb?s poetry reading and seems to be planning his next meal.

Ulf Kristiansen (b. 1969-11-03, Norway) is a painter and video-artist. Ulf Kristiansen is currently living at Nesodden, a peninsula outside of Oslo, Norway. While starting out as a figurative painter, Ulf is now mainly focusing on 3d animation and machinima. His films have partaken in numerous international video festivals and exhibitions.

http://www.ulfkristiansen.com

Video Is The Only Constant March 3rd 2010: Barry Gene Murphy and Shaun O Connor

Disembodied #1, UK, 1'31

An exploration of human form using structured light 3D scanning techniques.

Barry Gene Murphy is a moving image artist, who works across the spectrum of visual media. From directing music videos to creating gallery based experimental work to live performance visuals, Murphy's work explores filmmaking techniques and touches on subjects such as landscape, micro macro worlds, complexities of experience, Musique concréte and Psychogeography. Murphy's short films have shown in major international film festivals.

http://www.barrygenemurphy.com

Shaun O Connor aka PRICKIMAGE's irreverent work is full of fantasy, humor and intrigue. Working as a full time VJ and video artist at many of London's underground & major club night's and art spaces with a residency at FABRIC with WYS, monthly performances at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) with G*Y BINGO and Video Consultant/Contributor for GLASS MAGAZINE blog. Invited to perform at 6 established festivals in 2009 including Glastonbury, Latitude, BLOC Weekend & Big Chill, utilizing quirky video/photography techniques, audio generative video and animation, each unique production telling an oblique story.

http://www.prickimage.com

Video Is The Only Constant March 3rd 2010: Daemiane

Flight, 2009, UK, 2'12

‘Flight' is about hope and self expression during dark days.

Daemiane is an experimental video/performance artist based in the UK. Working with video visuals and live performance, Daemiane’s vision is darkly cinematic and often beautifully melancholic.

http://www.daemiane.com
http://www.youtube.com/daemiane

Video Is The Only Constant March 3rd 2010: Sharlene Bamboat

57 Ways, 2009, Canada, 5'00

This short film is about a girl who is obsessed with her vaginal odour. She tries different common methods of getting rid of her odour to no avail. In the end she decides to take drastic measures.

Sharlene Bamboat is a film and video artist, who has recently graduated from York University in Toronto with a Masters degree in Cinema and Media Studies. She creates work exploring themes of diaspora, queerness and the body. Sharlene currently lives and works in the UK

http://www.sharlenebamboat.com

Video Is The Only Constant March 3rd 2010: Paul Burt

Loops, UK, 2'14

A short experimental animation that explores the relationship between sound and moving image.

http://paburt.com

Video Is The Only Constant March 3rd 2010: Marcus Orlandi

Never Better, UK, live performance

A lonely chair, a broom on the floor and a white cloth folded twice neatly on the back of the chair. A man is forced inside for no reason but his own. Time places him within two scenarios both of which he’d rather give up on. “The outside is dead and coming closer” he retorts and tells us of the mindset that got him there.

Inspired by the words of Samuel Beckett and Stephen Sondheim, Never Better is a “Live Radio Play” - an invitation for audiences to piece together a time-lapse story and be unsettled by the constant stress of strict timing and opportunity for mistake.

Marcus Orlandi has performed in London and Liverpool, specialising in script based new media productions working with choreography, film and sound.

Video Is The Only Constant March 3rd 2010: Laura Bridges and Lauren Willis

Documentary (Repeat), 2010, UK, live performance

In this video installation a performer holds a black box TV playing footage of the last time the work was performed. The performer holds the TV for up to 30minutes, and the only rule is that they cannot put the TV down. For longer periods of time, the work sees the performer squirm, struggle and shift to keep the TV from being put down. In a shorter time, innovative ways of holding the set are explored to suit the setting. The performance will be filmed so that this footage can be played on the screen at the next showing of the work. Conceptually this work marks a big shift in the way that we have been working collaboratively, as our practice has in the past remained ephemeral. To film the performances and then to use this as the core aspect of the work at its next performance allows a more intricate and layered way to use documentation than the simple YouTube/website route.


Laura Bridges and Lauren Willis are collaborators working across a variety of media and disciplines aiming to explore the authority of the artist/creator within collaborative practice. Laura studied Contemporary Dance at Leeds University and has recently completed her Masters in Choreography at Middlesex University. Lauren studied Fine Art at Central

http://www.lauraandlauren.co.uk

Video Is The Only Constant March 3rd 2010: John Bradburn

Distance, 2010, UK, video installation / Limits, 2010, UK, video installation

John Bradburn is a lecturer in Film Technology at Staffordshire University as well as a journalist for Vertigo Magazine on experimental cinema. His first feature Kyle (2007) was shown at the Seattle International Film Festival, West County Los Angeles Film Festival and Flatpack film festivals. In 2008 he co-directed The Gloaming a UKFC digital short with Andy Paton. He is interested in the power of the image to communicate in non rational, subliminal and dreamlike forms. He firmly believes that cinema/video is the only art form that exists inside our consciousness as every night we dream we represent our lives to ourselves as film/video.

Video Is The Only Constant March 3rd 2010: Amy Brooks

With CD Ride you are the star, hijacked!, 2009, UK, loop

A theme park ride is displaced by two masked, stocking-balaclava-bandits! The Ride is literally and abstractly hijacked; stolen and reclaimed illustratively as well as conceptually. A jarring occurrence is captured, caused by disrupting the absurd excepted norm of theme park rides with a subversive act of interception. The footage parodies the hyper real of the everyday and in doing so begins to unravel the bigger facade; Hanging on the idea that theme parks are more real than 'reality' itself, as they do not claim to be any more than a lie.

A further hijacking, occurs within the technical production of this art work. Whereby the novelty/ souvenir footage, which automatically records the ride day-in-day-out, has captured this performative stir. The 'ready-made' evidence has been appropriated, hacked, re-hashed, and put into slow-mo. These consciously DIY inflictions footprint extra perversions onto the kitsch novelty home movie. This not only further enforces the feeling of uncanny and unlocks themes of hyper-reality, but also blurs the line of artistic authorship and craft. Thus becoming part of the 'internet-video' soup, situating the film inside and outside of the world it seeks to 'un-mask!'"


Amy Brooks - “Using varied methods of realisation and superficial ‘surfaces’ my practice hints at a life of lies, banality, poetry and hyper-reality. Rules, boundaries and philosophy thrown up by existing conventions govern my practice. I recontextualise and reorder kitsch social artifacts in order to reveal poetic truisms about our times."

Video Is The Only Constant March 3rd 2010: Maria Anastassiou

Fail again! fail better, UK, 2’30

The title is taken from a famous Beckett quote. A series of investigations into objects and actions that have a clear indication of a goal to be completed and the visible effort to achieve that goal.


Maria Anastassiou was born in Cyprus in 1982. She lives and works in London. She works with time–based media and is currently studying for an MA in communications art&design at the Royal College of Art.

VIDEO IS THE ONLY CONSTANT @ CORSICA STUDIOS - March 3rd

The line up and flyer for the next VOC night at Corsica Studios on March 3rd is now online. Feel free to download/print/distribute it. A higher quality copy can be found via the link below.

High Quality Copy of Flyer

London, I Hate You

www.londonihateyou.com

Brainwash Film Night

Another event to show your work at that might be appealing...

http://www.facebook.com/brainwashlondon

Glimmer - Morgan Beringer

Simon Panrucker

Enough fine art pretense. Natural film-making talent here combined with humor, original stories, experimentation, and a host of other unexpected talents thrown in that make you remember the fun side of the medium. Below is his latest film but be sure to check out his Vimeo account for more.

Pen-Ek Ratanaruang

Everything I've seen by this director is golden. Specifically the films:
Last Life in the Universe
Ploy

'Digital Spectrum of the Body' by Caroline Rodrigues: about 'Tropic of Capricorn' by Kika Nicolela.

Digital Spectrum of the Body by Caroline Rodrigues
About Tropic of Capricorn by Kika Nicolela.

North-American Minimalism brought up to modern art the possibility of radical changes in the observer's point-of-view, according to the space in which the art work is inserted. From this though some of the most creative fields of nowadays' art emerge: Public Art as an existence outside galleries and Video-Art as the nature of digital moving image inside these institutions. When the spatial configuration is changed, the time of perception is also transformed. Therefore, the central point of the discussion is the possible transformations in the phenomenology of perception inside the observer-art interaction.

When the same digital image is yet converted into different media, its nature stretches. That is how Kika Nicolela works, an artist that browses trough the possibilities of the digital world stretching the borders between observation and experience. Tropic of Capricorn presents itself as the paroxysm of this choice. Kika invited four transsexuals from São Paulo to expose themselves trough images produced in a cheap hotel bedroom. Despite being the working place of the majority of them, the performance here demanded was about talking about what the situation brings to mind: stories, desires, fears. The camera is high and vertical positioned like the bedroom lamp, lighting the centre of the bed, where they lie themselves down, one by one, and stay for a while, alone with the cine-eye. Jéssica, Jennifer, Márcia and Samara gift the curious observer with erotic stories full of fabling.

The environment turns different between each one of them and the camera, who acts as a hole in the lock, sexual partner and confidant; but in the course of the image production, the atmosphere warms up in each body with the simple talking about it. And despite the monochromatic bodies pasted in the video image surface, the underground becomes deeper, a delusion of self-knowledge through desire indeed found in the last moment of shooting, when Kika asks Jessica: “Was it good for you?”, and after a quick smile comes the answer: “Wonderful”.

The edition of thirty minutes is an intense documentary about the desires' underground. Observed inside an art gallery it may fit as a glance at this distant world, and at the same time intimate in anyone's skin. But from this voyeur observation an experience has been proposed: in the installation with the same name, Kika rebuilds the scene where the images emerged in a bedroom with a simple bed, where the image is returned to by the projection in realistic dimensions. The transsexuals’ spectrum inhabits now the bed exposed to public. The bed is not only initial work place of the transsexuals; it is future and potent media of being someone else in a dreamful sleep or in full immanence sex. A possibility of action is brought up here: who lies down in the Tropic of Capricorn's bed may become another, may become the other's fetish, the other's dream, the other's pain, whether lying aside the projection as an accomplice, whether receiving in the own body the hot skin of the projector's light, feeling transformed by the trans-sexuality phantomized into art work.

Who lies in Tropic of Capricorn's bed joins skin's surfaces and spectral image, moistures the reality of documental representation and the reality of experimenting a body's spectrum. This can surely lead us to the discovery of the self with Lygia Clark's relational objects. By means of rocks, plastic bags full with water, sand and several textures placed in the interactor's body, Clark proposed an intern diving. And couldn't digital projection be a contemporary relational object, as a self diving through the spectral self of someone else?

Expanding her images to different possible media with digital technology - photography, video-art, cinema, projection - Kika not only shows that her work has a multiple character and a liquid autonomy like the Zigmunt Bauman's liquid society wishes, but presents a kind of image liquidness that transmutes into horizons of subjective-universal glances. In this way her work streamlines an issue still locked in documental and plastic representation of the other in a Brazilian contemporary art, stretching this other's conceptual existence until its inexistence, trough the double spectrum of projected digital image.

Video Is The Only Constant Feb 3rd 2010: catalog

TheOnlyConstant_20100203

Video Is The Only Constant Feb 3rd 2010: Justin Harris

Justin Harris, Pinhole Video

Technological convergence has altered the characteristics of existing media creating a massive field of availability through a single screen. Within this interface there is a parallel between the structures of content and the formal qualities of the medium itself. This relationship has developed as both content and format have changed from analogue to digital. In general the removal of distance produced by the varying boundaries of the screen could be said to relate to the complexity of the merge of various types of digital content. In older lens based media all parts are exposed simultaneously. The image has since moved on to being produced through sequential scanning, circular in radar and a series of interlaced lines in television. This reflects a change from the static to variable image in digital representation.

A graduate from Kent Institute of Art and Design at Canterbury, Justin Harris works in visual effects and traditional art media. Commercially he started in web graphics after his degree, changing over to CG as he became more interested in incorporating 3d elements into his videos. In 2007 he worked as a junior artist on a Walden Media film before moving to a Young and Rubicam Agency as a modeler and texture artist. This was followed by an opportunity to work as vfx supervisor on a short film which he chose not to pursue in order to continue working on 3d and personal projects.

http://www.justinharris.org.uk
http://www.behance.net/justinharris
http://video.saatchigallery.com/artist/profile/23081/Justin+Harris/JustinHarris.html

Video Is The Only Constant Feb 3rd 2010: Ian Pons Jewell

Ian Pons Jewell, Dreamt In Flesh, 2009, UK. 2'43

Ian Pons Jewell is a Spanish-born, currently London-based film professional. He has worked variously as a director/producer for two plays, numerous short films and music videos, including sound design for short and feature film. Ian spends some of his time illustrating, with some of his drawings being exhibited in Seattle later this year. He believes film is the most powerful means of expression with which to reach audiences on a truly visceral level.

http://www.ianponsjewell.com

Video Is The Only Constant Feb 3rd 2010: Morgan Beringer

Morgan Beringer, Abstraction 27, 2009, UK, 5'43

Morgan Beringer is an American video artist based in East London. Having spent and continuing to spend much of his life in transit between different countries, the thrust of his creative concern stems from the dilemma of living in-between cultures. An academic background in both philosophy and art pushes these concerns further into the realms of linguistics, performance, and film/video art.

Strongly influenced by early Structuralist filmmakers, (such as Michael Snow, Kurt Kren, etc.) Wittgenstein, and Gaspar Noe's film Enter the Void, Morgan's abstract work explores the expressive possibilities of the middle ground between still and moving images as a revelatory experience of aesthetic and linguistic ambiguity. An ongoing series of what will be sixty-four short films, the abstractions are constructed entirely of still photographs that are then melded to give form to the movements between each image rather than the image itself. They frequently use photographs referencing mass media, spirituality, and the landscape.

His other projects revolve around similar themes and media, studying movement to reveal the conceptual spaces between forms. He has exhibited in various creative contexts across the UK, America, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, and Hong Kong.

Best sexy vampire film to date...

Forget all your crap American television shows / films... This is how it's done...

Thirst (Bakjwi)

Directed by Park Chan-wook, widely known for Oldboy and I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK.

Video Is The Only Constant Feb 3rd 2010: Kika Nicolela

Tropic Of Capricorn, 2005, Brazil, 30'00

Four transsexuals are brought in to a hotel room on the same night. Each trans woman is asked to lay on a bed in an empty room and reveal herself to a camera mounted on the ceiling. As the film progresses, their stories blend, separate and overlap in a beautifully constructed collage of multi-colored images. They share with the camera their fantasies, hopes, questionings and experiences in the streets of Sao Paulo.

Written, Produced and Directed by Kika Nicolela
Cinematography: Ching C. Wang
Editing and Post-production: Kika Nicolela
Assistant Director: Fran Freire
Song: “Rough Metaphors” by The Soundscapes

Kika Nicolela (b. 1976, Brazil) is a Brazilian artist and experimental filmmaker. Her works include single-channel videos, installations, performances, experimental documentaries and photography. Graduated in Film and Video by the University of Sao Paulo, Kika Nicolela also completed film and photography courses at UCLA University. Her works have been screened and awarded in festivals of more than 30 countries, such as: Videoformes New Media & Video Art Festival, Kunst Film Biennale, ACA Media Arts Festival, VAD Festival Internacional de Vídeo i Arts Digitals, International Electronic Art Festival Videobrasil and Exis Experimental Film & Video Festival. She has participated of about 60 solo and collective exhibitions in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Poland, Portugal, UK and US. She was the recipient of several grants, and was shortlisted for the EMPAC Dance Movies Commission, Sergio Motta Award of Art and Technology, Rumos Itau Cultural Award, among others. Currently Kika Nicolela also curates and coordinates the Exquisite Corpse Video Project, a collaborative series of videos that involves more than 60 artists from 25 countries. She was recently selected for the Rondo Studio Program 2010, in Austria.

http://www.dilemastudio.com
http://www.vimeo.com/kikanicolela