From: Emile Tobenfeld (a.k.a Dr. T) (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Dec 13 2008 - 13:39:50 PST
James,
Check out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA6NPee4z8E&feature=channel_page
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wunZ88q_uk8&feature=channel_page
and see if it changes your view of the paradigm.
At 4:07 PM -0500 12/13/08, James Cole wrote:
>It seems like there has been an uptick in VJ stuff around these
>parts lately, which raises some interesting questions about how VJ
>media relates to the more established forms of avant-garde cinema
>(although the use of the word "established" is pretty generous even
>in the cases of people like Deren and Brakhage; but that's a
>different discussion).
>
>I tend to not be very charitable in my appraisal of VJ media; for
>several reasons. Primarily, because it seems like it is mainly
>intended (indeed, best suited) to accompany electronic dance music;
>I can't see myself wanting to go into a cinema, sit as the lights go
>down, and watch two or three hours of VJ media. Furthermore, it
>doesn't seem to have much to do with cinema in general; the editing
>is very basic, repetitive, and usually not all that thoughtful. And
>the imagery is even worse than the editing, more often than not.
>The times I've seen VJ performances, the imagery seemed more like an
>extension of a club's usual strobe lights and fog machines; much
>more atmospheric than expressive. Maybe VJing is just bad in Boston?
Since I see you are in Boston, you might also check out one of my
live performances, which I announce to this list.
>
>On the whole, though, when I hear the term "VJ art," it strikes me
>the way people talk about "video game art," or "sneaker art" It's
>obvious someone with a high level of skill made something that
>demonstrates their high level of skill, at times it's pretty
>aesthetically breathtaking, but it doesn't strike me as something
>that anyone will be, or ought to be, interested in a few years down
>the line.
>
>To be totally honest, the video that you sent looks like it could
>have been produced by a computer program; I can't read any thing
>into it, and I can't get anything from it. I'm not trying to be
>nasty; I'd really like to know how I'm supposed to approach
>something like that. It certainly resists the sort of approaches
>one would use at a film by Su Friedrich or Hollis Frampton or Ernie
>Gehr or whoever. Instead, I end up reading it as a type of
>decoration; Christmas lights for bad music, which is probably way
>too dismissive. At least, I'm sure isn't how people interested in
>VJ art would look at it. The fact that you're sort of asking for
>feedback suggests that you see it as more than that (after all,
>people who design Christmas lights probably don't have any desire to
>show their work and ask for feedback).
>
>So I'm asking you, and anyone else who wants to take up the
>question; what am I missing? How should I watch this? How does it
>fit in with the type of film this list usually discusses?
>
>
>-James
>
>On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 3:21 PM, jaime cleeland
><<mailto:email suppressed> wrote:
>
>can be found here:
>
><http://www.archive.org/details/EraseYou>http://www.archive.org/details/EraseYou
>
>
>Thank you for your interest.
>
>__________________________________________________________________
>For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
><<mailto:email suppressed>.
>
>
>__________________________________________________________________
>For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
-- Emile Tobenfeld, Ph. D. Video Producer and Digital Photographer Image Processing Specialist Video for your HEAD! Boris FX http://www.foryourhead.com http://www.borisfx.com My photography can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/22231918@N06/collections/72157603627170351/ My videos can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/Tobenfeld "Don't make book, if you cannot cover bets." -- Tom Lehrer __________________________________________________________________ For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.