Scanner: Cipher

'Cipher’ was shot at Wilton’s music Hall in Whitechapel, east London. Wilton’s was built in 1858 and was the first popular music hall to open in the east-end. After about 10 years of prosperity it went into decline and has been semi-derelict for many years. The building has never been altered or restored, and in its present state retains a fragile, evocative beauty.

The film registers the interior of Wilton’s in a series of tracking shots, leading you through the building before revealing an impossible snowfall. The snow was created digitally, confounding the presumed indexicality of the medium while offering a contrast to the dark, 19th century interior, and a parallel to the early days of film practice and the historical period of transition from Magician’s stage illusions, as popularised in venues like Wilton’s, to ‘magic’ films such as those of Georges Melies.'

Cipher from Neil Wissink on Vimeo.

He calls himself mustardcuffins....I don't know why

Home from mustardcuffins on Vimeo.

Pay and Sit: The Private Bench

PAY & SIT: the private bench (HD) from Fabian Brunsing on Vimeo.

Heidi Elva: Simple Pleasures by Dan Crossley

Heidi Elva - Simple Pleasures from Dan Crossley on Vimeo.

Michel Gondry: Star Guitar (The Chemical Brothers) 2003

This video - horrible quality - but lovely, recursive, seamless journey through urban, topographical space. Reminds me of another video, wait...

Embed Code is disabled, so here's the Youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBgf2ZxIDZk&feature=related

Yaohua Yang: Latent City

Source: Boiteaoutils

'Our friend Yaohua Wang (see his Carbon tower and his interview of Wes Jones, his thesis tutor) from Sci-Arc sent me his thesis project he just presented in a room apparently fully packed ! 
The production of work is simply amazing and the ingenuity of the project is being proven in every rendering. However, a very important part of what makes his Latent City such an amazing projects is embedded in its narration and in this regard I HIGHLY recommend to take the time of watching the 15 min long movie below that explains very didactically why this city is called latent.

The narration implies the architect Foral (aka Yaohua !) finding an agreement with the State in order to build a new city for almost no money. The agreement has to remain secret because it implies a manipulation of big industrial corporations that will own the land for twenty years, build an industrial city according to Foral's plans and therefore providing an important infrastructure. When the city is built, local economic policies forces industries to relocalize their factories outside the city which is abandoned. The state can thus build a new city on the other using the already built infrastructure that has been designed planning on this scenario to occur.

The latent city is thus a palimpsest city whose transformation has been planned since the beginning.'


Latent City by Yaohua Wang from Foral on Vimeo.

Martha Rosler: Semiotics of the Kitchen

Gosh! ... really wish I'd found this in time for the lecture on Phenomenology and Semiotics of the House...oh, well...maybe next year...



Martha Rosler's Semiotics of the Kitchen - 1975

From A to Z, Rosler "shows and tells" the ingredients of the housewife's day, giving us a tour that names and mimics the ordinary with movements more samurai than suburban. Rosler's slashing gesture as she forms the letters of the alphabet in the air with a knife and fork, is a rebel gesture, punching through the "system of harnessed subjectivity" from the inside out.  "I was concerned with something like the notion of Ôlanguage speaking the subject,' and with the transformation of the woman herself into a sign in a system of signs that represent a system of food production, a system of harnessed subjectivity."

—Martha Rosler

...and Semiotics of the Art Student



'This film is a new twist on the classic pice of video art, "Semiotics of the Kitchen" by Martha Rosler. This film pokes fun at life as an art student, and all that is expected from us.'

[This and other videos that are not specifically related to my place/space seminars can be found on my new Youtube Channel Fathomspace.  I set this up so that I could 'store' other videos for various lectures to other groups.]

Two Videos by Tal Rosner: Doppelganger and Without You

Doppelganger



Without You

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Pulse Room

Gil Scott Heron: Me And The Devil

Living in NYC I lost count of how many times this particular city was, and still is, a 'character' in the music business and entertainment industry.  We lived in DUMBO [meaning: Down Under Manhattan Bridge] an underpopulated and 'artsy' area at the time - many, many rap vids were filmed there down my street.  In spite of that and the persistence of Manhattan as film backdrop: the subway/graffiti/homelessness and disaffected youth - all cliches really - this video from GSH is startling in representing these concepts of urban realism in a monochrome, graphic language, replete with Shepard Fairey imagery and skull/Day of the Dead iconography - it's pure genius.  The album is also stunning.

Diller + Scofidio: The Blur Building

Source: Intelligent Agent 5.2

'The Blur Building by Diller + Scofidio whirling above Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland.  Computers regulate the spray of tiny drops of lake water from 31400 jets according to climactic changes of humidity, temperature, wind speed and direction. Liquid architecture that synchronizes its form to the environment and the human body.  As visitors enter the Blur Building, they take on a "braincoat". Besides as protection from the misty environment the coat stores personality data for communication with the building's computer network.'

Above is the Blur Building by Diller + Scofidio whirling above Lake Neuchatel , Switzerland and Below is an interesting interview of Brian Massumi by Thomas Markussen. Follow the link:

http://www.intelligentagent.com/archive/Vol5_No2_massumi_markussen+birch.htm

great video from the world of youtube!

Cool video about the Civic Centre- yes that dreaded listed building in town :-)

is this real..?

wow, what is this? a massive sculpture, photoshop image...? don't know yet. it seems other-worldly, futuristic, awesome...

BERGENOBLIQUSAML by NICOLAS MOULIN, 2008

Marilena Skavara: Adaptive Fa[CA]de

A type of '[Un]Walling' is possibly happening here:
Source: Interactive Architecture.

'Here’s a great project that came out of the Adapative Architecture and Computation programme at the Bartlett School of Architecture. ‘Adaptive Fa[ca]de’ by Marilena Skavara explores the functional possibilities and performative characteristics of cellular automata (CA). In addition to the unique emergent behaviour of CA, a neural network enables a further computational layer to evolve CA behaviour to the context of its surrounding environment.'


Adaptive fa[CA]de from marilena on Vimeo.


Marilena Skavara's Adaptive fa[CA]de at Digital Hinterlands exhibition, London from marilena on Vimeo.

'Building upon the early work of Conway’s ‘Game of life’ and Stephen Wolfram’s extensive research on the wider implementation of CA, ‘Adaptive Fa[ca]de’ becomes a living adapting skin, constantly training itself from the history of its own errors and achievements. For a more detailed description of the project, read Marilena’s article for Vague Terrain.'

Firekites Video

Firekites - AUTUMN STORY - chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber on Vimeo.

Moment: Yukihiro Taguchi

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.

Malcolm Sutherland: Birdcalls

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.'

Skateboarding, Space & The City: Architecture & The Body

This is a highly regarded text by a writer who is also a skateboarder and contemporary, counter-culture flaneur, one might say.  Has insight into the urban jungle as we experience through the body/space/world of the skateboarder.

Jake Dobkin: Abandoned New York

Images are from boiteaoutils blog spot, 'Abandoned New York" by Jake Dobkin. These images are interesting as they reveal layers of materials, deterioration and the decay of media over years and by many seem to have created a place of curiosity. What was there before? Raises questions of use of a space from their original purpose to total abandonment.

Parkour Motion Reel

Graphic Design Undergraduate Work:


parkour motion reel from saggyarmpit on Vimeo.