An emergent dystopian scene, or just a rave, and maybe even a type of reversioning or reinterpretation of the Hieronymus Bosch painting, Garden of Earthly Delights, which we discussed in the lecture. The film's disruptive unravelling of the animation process, its shoddiness, particularly at the end is presented as the ultimate horror.
Animated on location at a beach, in snow, and underwater, this stop-motion short details a transoceanic conversation between two characters via objects in a bottle.
Performing Space: Floor becomes wall becomes obstacle becomes seating becomes art object becomes function..... Taguchi spontaneously shifts and documents the contexts of space over time. There is an accompanying text if you follow the link.
I'm becoming more interested in short films that express urban/rural spaces through sound and film. This one from Malcolm Sutherland in 2006. I really love the way in which the birdseye view city flyover just appears toward the end of the film:
The text by Ian Lumsden: 'I confess the concept behind Malcolm Sutherland’s 2006 animation Birdcalls was not immediately enthralling though more fool me because it is such a distinctive, quirky and very enjoyable movie. Using stop motion of pen on paper, it commences with a telephone recording device and note pad on which, after a period of rapid rewinding, the unknown recipient of the calls commences writing down the calls received. On foolscap the language of birdsong is faithfully denoted in algebraic and symbolic form. However it accords perfectly with the birdsong used as soundtrack. The calls gather a life of their own and we are treated to a variety of charming voices, appearing on the bare pad as animated symbols that for all I know are the symbols used to record birds by those experienced in such things. As night falls the pad darkens and the symbols are illuminated. It is only in the closing and opening credits that we are treated to the actual physical presence of the birds as perfectly drawn illustrations. Before that, to provide perspective, in the gloom of night we travel above an urban scene and the noise of the birds is replaced by traffic noise and the hustle and bustle of the city. It reminds us of what we have lost. The cast, other than Malcolm himself, is the nightingale, yellow billed cuckoo and bluethroat. A charming cast and delightful movie. The link above is to YouTube though a better quality version is to be found at AWNtv - Birdcalls or, even more helpfully, via his website [http://www.animalcolm.com/index.html]. I will write on another of Malcolm's animations in the next day or so together with a little biographical detail.'
Source: Boiteaoutils
Here is a short animation film by Generic Life that I found interesting because it happens to take place in the Kowloon Walled City (see previous post). There are extremely few graffiti artists in Hong Kong and making them operate in the Walled City here symbolizes the free zone - and on the contrary of what the authorities were saying, apparently not so dangerous - that represented this incredible densest area in the world (50000 people were living in it).
Kowloon Walled City can obviously not be literally considered as self-constructed. However, this Hong Kong district acquired a kind of autonomy for years and could not stop densifying itself until it was demolished by Authorities in 1993 (See Ryuji Miyamoto's photographs of the empty Walled City, ready to be torn down). The Walled City tackles an interesting problem about the connection such autonomous districts could have with legality. In fact, there has been a strong phantasm of insecurity about it, probably encouraged by the authorities when neutral reporters Greg Girard and Ian Lambot ("City of Darkness") from where almost all remaining photographs are from) affirmed that the district was the shelter of drug addicts but not criminals. Before it was demolished, the Walled City was the home of 50 000 inhabitants reaching an incredible density of 1 920 000 inhabitants per square kilometre.
As far as self-construction is concerned, let's quote City of Darkness:
"With lifts in just two of the City's 350 or so buildings, access to the upper floors of the 10 to 14 storey apartment blocks was nearly always by stairs, necessitating considerable climbs for those who lived near the top. This was partly alleviated by an extraordinary system of interconnecting stairways and bridges at different levels within the City which took shape -somewhat organically- during the construction boom of the 1960's and early 1970's. It was possible for example, to travel across the City from north to south without once coming down to street level." Let's add to this description, the one of this grid placed over the district's temple (right in the center of the Walled City) on which inhabitants having their windows on the courtyards throw away their garbage, transforming the temple's environment into a shadowy underworld.
The United Kingdom was well known for rave music like hardcore, jungle and drum&bass in the 90s. It is argued that some of the best producers/ record labels/ and DJs came from the UK.
The Millenium Complex in Plymouth (formerly known as The Warehouse) was one of the UK's biggest rave venues in the early 90s and people traveled from all over the country to come to these huge raves.
Delta Video Productions documented many parties and rave nights and some of which were right here in Plymouth. This video is documenting a club night called 'Pure Energy' and was shot in September 1993 at The Warehouse.
Those familiar with plymouth may find this very 'surreal' as i have .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmplBTJuki8
A cul de sac (french for "dead end") is an arrangement of houses plotted around a dead end road that branches off a bigger or main road. This is the typical housing arrangement of a housing estate that consists of a main road connecting to many cul de sacs.
The overall purposes of this living system are the control of traffic around residential areas and the control of the residents through schemes such as Neighbourhood Watch.
My mother is part of the Neighbourhood Watch scheme and this entails keeping an eye out for criminal activity or general threats to the health and well being of the other residents. If there is anything that may pose threat or upset the utopian system of the sub-urban living arrangements of our cul de sac or neighbourhood, my mother is obliged to contact the local authorities for further action.
My mother is basically a voluntary, part time human CCTV camera.
-laptop battery is about to 'die' - part2 to come ..
