Architects rethink urban movie theaters

Here's an interesting article I came across from Architect Magazine.

http://www.architectmagazine.com/design/coming-attractions.aspx

Contemporary Art's play with cinematic time: Christian Marclay's The Clock and Douglas Gordon's 24 Hr Psycho

This piece (which played in New York over the summer) is a really interesting investigation of both new disjointed forms of cinematic spectatorship (re-cuts, mash-ups, supercuts) and the kinds of temporal issues that come up in Friedberg.  The whole film is 24 hours long and is projected in real time (i.e. if you go at midnight, all the scenes take place then, if you go at 8:10, all the clips mention 8:10, etc.).

More on the piece here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/apr/07/christian-marclay-the-clock




Douglas Gordon's piece is much harder (well, impossible) to sit and watch!  It has been in many galleries (I've seen it twice), but I've come across one screening that's particularly interesting to our class here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/tiff2010/2010/09/douglas-gordons-stunning-24-hour-psycho-update-screens-at-tiffs-lightbox.html

Major films to help us understand film theory

Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

Major Soviet Avant-Garde film that re-imagines the city film (a common silent documentary film in the 1920s).  This film, following the lead of Russian Constructivism and Productivism, continually reminds the viewer of the process of its making and exhibition - precisely what Baudry and Mulvey see as the concealment that's so problematic in narrative film.  Baudry explicitly mentions one clip that pull us out of the diegesis and to the materiality of the film.  It starts around 22 minutes (and goes for around 5 minutes after that).  I recommend this entire film, though!




There are also some great parts of Grindhouse, the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino double-feature of Planet Terror and Deathproof that do this in order to re-create the lost exhibition venues their films harken back to.

Peeping Tom (1960)

One of the first real slasher flicks of postwar British film, this movie follows a psychopathic serial killer/photographer/filmmaker who is in search for the ultimate face of fear.  The opening credits are a great parallel to the scopophilic and voyeuristic drives Mulvey discusses in her feminist analysis.  The opening scene is below, but I recommend watching the entire film - it keeps you on the edge of your seat and does some fantastic things with sound later on (in addition to a very climactic ending).




I also recommend Hitchcock's Rear Window for its play on voyeurism and immobility.

Lacan 101

Excellent breakdown of some of the main concepts of Lacan's psychoanalysis, which I will be introducing to you in class.  Good resource if you choose Baudry or Mulvey for your critical response essay.

http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/psychoanalysis/lacandevelop.html

http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/psychoanalysis/lacanstructure.html

Underground Advertising/Restaurant Surveillance

Multiscreen advertising for a new show about using screens,  Restaurant Stakeout, at the Herald Square subway station.  The whole walkway was plastered with print ads, making this more dynamic display (which seems to address the passersby directly) a culmination of the entire adscape.

Video here:

Posting now available!

Everyone registered for the class has now been invited to be an author on the blog, so let's start sharing info!

Alternative screening venues

Nice list of some alternative screening sites from Monica.

http://beersandbeans.com/2012/07/04/world-cinema-must-see-screens-around-the-globe/

Eclipse: Jonah Bokaer and Anthony McCall at BAM

Anthony McCall, who we will be looking at a lot during our studies of Expanded Cinema and Installation Art, will be at Brooklyn Academy of Music starting tomorrow night for a collaborative piece with choreographer Jonah Bokaer.  Tickets are $20.



http://www.bam.org/eclipse

Screens while you wait for chicken

These buzzers at Kyochon chicken on 5th Ave and 32nd St come equipped with video ad space. (mine just had the ad company, but someone else's was working).
Will upload video later



UPDATE:  Video below

Welcome New Students!

This is our class blog where we will share information, links, and relevant sources pertinent to the class.  This is a free space where everyone will be able to post.  You are expected to follow the blog regularly and be ready to comment online and discuss in class the material on here.

Submissions relevant to each week's topic are welcome, as are casual encounters with ambient and spectacular screens in your daily life!  Each student will be granted posting permissions after the first class.

Hiroshi Sugimoto, Movie Theater, Canton Palace, Ohio, 1980

Occupy Wall Street meets public projections

For those of you who weren't there on the bridge tonight, here's a fantastic use of the power of projected images in public space.  I need to find out more about who was behind this, but it was pretty fantastic.

More 3D architectural projections

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=XVTga6GmbGw&vq=medium#t=74 [Thanks Michael!]

Spencer Finch on the High Line

An interesting site-specific piece that becomes an illuminated screen at certain parts of the day.

Animated Facade of the Chanel Store in Tokyo

Thanks Hye Won!

More Zoetropes and 3D Animation

Check out this local artist's work: http://snakemonkey.tv/ . [Thanks Ciara!]

The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria

This artist does some really amazing things with LED lights mounted on a wall to look like lo-res filmic images.  This installation at the Museum of the Moving Image seems like a great excuse to get out to Queens to this great museum!  Unfortunately it closes tomorrow...

http://www.movingimage.us/exhibitions/2011/08/26/detail/jim-campbell-exploded-view-commuters/

This exhibition also looks interesting to members of our class (and also, unfortunately, ends tomorrow):
http://www.movingimage.us/exhibitions/2011/07/18/detail/christopher-baker-hello-world-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-listening-and-love-the-noise/

Great resource for experimental film and video

Ubu Web has thousands of clips and films for you to watch, and a number of informative articles.

http://www.ubuweb.com/

Expanded Cinema

See an interview with Anthony McCall about his piece at Creative Time's PLOT09 on Governor's Island:




Recent retrospective on Stan Van Der Beek (maker of the Movie Drome, not Dawson's brother):
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/10/137709813/stan-vanderbeek-film-on-the-cutting-edge

Krzysztof Wodiczko

Here are some links to videos and information on Wodiczko's latest work with veterans of war.

War Veteran Vehicle: http://sap.mit.edu/resources/portfolio/projecting_voices/

Veteran's Flame:



...OUT OF HERE

http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/exhibit/wodiczko/

Also, here is the episode of Art: 21 that I screened in class:
http://www.pbs.org/art21/films/power

Baseball and Social Media [unrelated to screens]

You asked for it, so here it is:

http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/imr/2011/10/26/tagging-fans-tweeting-beards-major-league-baseball-social-media-and-body

Some of you may want to poke around this site to find potential ideas for your papers.  There are a lot of weeks on media arts and non-traditional cinemas.