February 5, 2007

Viewings:
Theme Song (Vito Acconci, video, 34 min, 1973)
If Every Girl Had A Diary (Sadie Benning, pixelvision on video, 9 min, 1990)
Birthday Suit - with scars and defects (Lisa Steele, video, 13 min, 1974)
Children's Tapes (Terry Fox, 29:36 min, 1974)
Selected Works Reel 6 (William Wegman, video, 19:38 min, 1975 - 1976)
The Amateurist (Miranda July, video, 14 min, 1998)
Everyday Bad Dream (Fred Worden, video, 6 min, color, sound, 2005)

I have had the opportunity to check out "Theme Song" by Vito Acconci (video, 34 minutes, 1973, Black and White w/ sound). I found this video rather unsettling. I realize that Acconci is just experimenting with a type of media. He uses the frame of the video as if he was right next to us, curled up with us. He keeps talking about this as well. When I first saw this, I remember thinking that this was a "digital letter" to an ex-girlfriend or maybe a wife that left him. I think this film is a little over the top though. He reminds me of a person at the end of a drug binge, teetering on the edge of sanity. It does have that raw feeling to it, it's just a little weird. There were times when I just wanted to say "Dude, could you scoot back a bit?"
I have also spent some time checking out some of the films from the Cog Collective cogblog. These films look like they are fairly bare and simple films, much like I have seen in class. I like them because they make me feel like I could make one. There are lots of different films on this site that one can view. There were a couple that I particularly like. One of these is SadEyedAnimeGrl by Brookers. I just like the way her eyes look so big. The film looks kind of like an anime or cartoon. The eyes must have been the reason this was called Anime Grl because anime eyes tend to be pretty big for the most part. The film called "2 minutes of noise" by louisunderwood is another one I like. It's a simple camera set up, an amp, some other machine, and an occasional arm. I like any kind of experimentation, and this is just that. It's an experiment with sound and it is all original with elements of being "live."