Finally finding time to edit documentation from A Single Composite exhibition this summer in Berlin.
A Single Composite is a series of kinetic installations and projection apparatuses that stretch, twist, and loop film strips containing declassified and other found reconnaissance footage. Using reconstituted digital printer chassis, this cinematic enterprise is projected on walls, ceilings, and floors, to form a series of individual moments of surveillance and implied violence.
Through A Glass Darkly will be included in an international exhibition next month in Berlin, Germany.
Keine Z E I T / No TIME
Time phenomena. Phenomena of time.
The fourth international, interdisciplinary and topic centered exhibition of G.A.S-station.
48 Positiones out of science, art and literature.
Erik Andersen (Ger), video – Ewelina Aleksandrowicz, Andrzej Wojtas (UK), video – Elisa Asenbaum (A), video/installation – Thomas Bedürftig (Ger), science – Axel H. Bertram (Ger), video – Hubert Blanz (Ger), video – Thomas Born (Ger), fine art – Udo R. Bruening (Ger), performance – Amandine Crozat (FR), fotografie – Franz Embacher (A), science – Oliver Feigl (Ger), video – Volker Frechen (Ger), audio installation – Peter Funken (Ger), publicist – Bruno Goosse (BE), video – John Greiner (US), literature – Stephan Groß (Ger), video – Marion Habringer, E. Asenbaum (A), installation – Heiko Hecht (Ger), science – Anna Elisa Heine (Ger), literature, lecture – Batya Horn, Edition Splitter (A), literature – Helen Acosta Iglesias (ES), installation, – IMAGO e.V., Anne-Katrein Maschke, Ina Krauß (Ger), fashion, performance – Britta M. Ischka (A), video – Grace Kim (US), video – Ina Krauß (Ger), audio-collage – Renate Krätschmer, Elli Schnitzer (A), installation – Till Kreutzer (Ger), science – Verena Kuni (Ger), webproject, lecture – Anna Maria Kursawe (Ger), painting – Team K.U.SCH. (A), video – Wolfgang Marktl (A), science – Owen Mundy (US), video – Wolfgang Neipl (A), video – Julia Nuss (Ger), fine art – Jerzy Olek (PL), fine art, video – Herbert Pietschmann (A), science – Arnold Reinthaler (A), fine art – Hartmut Rosa (Ger), science – Miriam Schwedt (Ger), fotografie – Christiane Spatt (A), fotoinstallation – Renée Stieger (A), installation – Ralf Tekaat (Ger), drawing – Guichard Thibaud (FR), performance – Tomax (A), installation – Mirko Tzotschew (Ger), fotografie – Burchard Vossmann (Ger), fine art – Gisela Weimann (Ger), literature, reading – Peter Whittenberger (US), video
Vernissage: October 7th 2011 – 7 pm
Exhibition: October 8th 2011 until Februar 4th 2012
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Berlin: Thomas STUCK, Fon: 030 221 609 312 Mov: 0160 995 78 158
mail: info@2gas-station.net
Vienna: Elisa ASENBAUM, Fon: 0043 1 533 56 77
mail: elisa@2gas-station.net
I am premiering this “Epilogue” for Through A Glass Darkly today in New York at Flux Factory.
Here is an excerpt from the script:
“In my short film, Through A Glass Darkly, I steer the focus away from the narrative, away from the explosions and violence, away from the masculine overload, and towards the serene landscapes where hollywood produces its fictional wars.
Through A Glass Darkly is a remix of landscapes from popular films that depict conflict. The chronological compilation relies on the influence of cinema to access a collective memory of images of war. While peaceful, they are frightening moments in their original context, used to contrast tranquility with chaos, beauty with destruction, and property with the actions that attempt its acquisition. Seen in this form, they remind the viewer that war is violent and chaotic while questioning the idea that conflict is a means to an harmonious end.”
Geographical and Social Landscapes of Conflict, Both Real and Perceived:
A Special Flux Thursday
Thursday, April 14
8 pm +
Join us for Flux Thursday, our monthly potluck and salon. Dinner starts at 8, with presentations to follow. As part of The Typhoon Continues and So Do You, we are happy to present Geographical and Social Landscapes of Conflict, Both Real and Perceived, a pair of videos curated by Elizabeth Larison. Through a Glass Darkly, a short film by Owen Mundy, brings together over one hundred of the most popular war films edited into a chronologically correct survey of landscapes of conflict, at least according to Hollywood. Untitled part 2: beauty and the east, a documentary by Jayce Salloum, addresses issues of nationalism and the nation state, alienation, ethno-facism, polarities of time – among others – as described in a series of interviews with individuals from former Yugoslavia.
Owen Mundy, Through a Glass Darkly, 2011
VIDEOGUD SPRING 2011
Kultur i länet
Uppsala, Sweden
A collaboration between the county councils of Gävleborg, Uppsala, and Dalarna to show video art in public places – for example in libraries, schools and hospitals.
The theme for this spring’s movies is the human relationship with the city and countryside. Whether the works in the spring program takes place on the coast, in town or in front of a waterfall as they all have in common that they are asking questions about how humans project the feelings and sentiments of the phenomena in nature and in the city.
Common to the five works is that the artists relate to the province or city as the work takes place in. The city or the countryside is not given to the works but its influence is being investigated.
The program begins with Owen Mundy film “Through A Glass Darkly” in which what we normally see as the wings – the landscape now is the focus, Mundy works followed by Hanna Ljungh settlement and dialogue with a waterfall. In Ulu Braun’s film “Atlantic Garden” meet people, landscapes and nature, reality and fiction.
The program concludes with two films “Zwischen” and “The Perfect Hour” which takes place in cities, one in Berlin, the others in Stockholm. In both works, you can choose to see the city as a backdrop or motaktör the main character.
(translated from Swedish)
Through A Glass Darkly is a remix of the landscape of popular films depicting war. Eerily quiet, but also beautiful, creates images at a contrast between stillness and chaos, between beauty and destruction.
The films are chronologically compiled, ie. first clip is from a film about American War of Independence followed landscapes and scenes from movies depicting war and conflicts in the world until today. Taken out of context becomes important landscapes charged in themselves, while they remind us of nature as a battleground. Examples of some films that used in the work are The Patriot, Gone with the Wind, The Thin Red Line and Apocalypse Now.
Through A Glass Darkly is originally an English translation of a verse in the Bible’s Korinterbrev, in Swedish reads: “Now we see in a dim way, such as in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face.” Stanza, Breakthrough A Glass Darkly, has been used in the English translation of Ingmar Bergman’s film “Through a Glass Darkly.”
—Andreas Bjersby
Kultur i länet
Projektledare konst
3 Feb – 24 Feb
Through A Glass Darkly
Owen Mundy, USA
24 Feb – 17 Mar
How to Civilize A Waterfall
Hanna Ljungh, Sweden
17 Mar – 7 Apr
Atlantic Garden
Ulu Braun, Germany
7 Apr – 28 Apr
Zwischen
Diego Aguilló, Germany
28 Apr – 19 May
The Perfect Hour
Niclaz Erlingmark, Sweden
Gävleborg: Sandviken Public Libraries, Silvanum Gävle, Voxna Valley High School, Show Bilbliotek, Gävle Hospital, Hudiksvall Library, Workshops Port Hedland.
Uppsala: Uppsala University Hospital, Formation Center Jan Fridegård Bålsta, Enköping Hospital, Tierps clinic.
Dalarna County: Dalarna Museum, Falun Public Library, Old Meken Smederevo, Hedemora Public Library’s Cultural Right, Vansbro library.
In February Through A Glass Darkly will be shown at 16 different public locations (libraries, hospitals and community halls) in Sweden. More details to follow.
In the meantime, I just posted the full version online. Enjoy.
When converting NTSC digital video to PAL the pixel aspect ratio needs to change from 720 x 480 (NTSC) to 720 x 576 (PAL). Depending on your project the more important problem is the transition from 29.97 (NTSC) frames per second to 25 (PAL).
I found Final Cut Pro and QuickTime both convert 29.97 to 25 frames per second by cutting the five extra frames to make it fit. This results in a loss of temporal resolution, making motion in the footage jerk and skip because the frames which created the illusion of motion are missing.
There are a few commercial applications that can convert NTSC to PAL with smooth motion, but I followed advice on this forum which suggested using Compressor for the standards conversion:
This should give you a 720 x 576 (PAL CCIR 601) with 25 frames per second. Finally, in DVD Studio Pro make sure you choose PAL before you import any footage, and leave all the regions selected which is the default.
TINA-B Festival
Nostic Palace, Czech Ministry of Culture, Prague
October 7-24th, 2010
In the October 2010 TINA-B Contemporary Art Festival in Prague, Owen Mundy and Joelle Dietrick will re-stage their 2006 project The Darkest Hour is Just Before Dawn. Originally developed in York, Alabama, USA, Owen Mundy and Joelle Dietrick borrowed lamps from the residents and installed them in an abandoned grocery store. Each lamp was set to turn on every night, and because of the inexactitude of the timers chosen, did so in an organic fashion, one by one, reflecting not only the participants in the community, but also the history of Alabama’s social movements. In an area where a nearby hazardous waste landfill caused the water undrinkable, the artists and the community collectively revived the vacant commercial space, removing roomfuls of damaged post-Katrina FEMA water boxes and transforming the downtown with the lamps, pulsing at their own pace, human in the imperfections and variety, and more powerful as a collection.
As if a scientific study with controls, the re-staging of the project in Prague and Venice studies the nature of site-specific and community-based art. Both cities provide unusual cross-cultural comparisons about domestic settings and the cultural, geographical and political structures that affect private space. The 2006 installation developed before the U.S. housing crisis, and these 2010 installations will develop as the global economy still recovers from the impact of the current economic downturn. In this context, the simple gesture of gathering of everyday objects and spaces can yield unusual insights into common assumptions about micro-macros shifts—the individual and the state, private spaces and public concerns, local and global.
Howdy, it’s been awhile since I last shared news about recent and ongoing projects. Here goes.
1. You Never Close Your Eyes Anymore
You Never Close Your Eyes Anymore is an installation that projects moving US Geological Survey (USGS) satellite images using handmade kinetic projection devices.
Each device hangs from the ceiling and uses electronic components to rotate strips of satellite images on transparency in front of an LED light source. They are constructed with found materials like camera lenses and consumer by-products and mimic remote sensing devices, bomb sights, and cameras in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
The installation includes altered images from various forms of lens-based analysis on a micro and macro scale; land masses, ice sheets, and images of retinas, printed on reflective silver film.
On display now until July 31 at AC Institute 547 W. 27th St, 5th Floor
Hours: Wed., Fri. & Sat.: 1-6pm, Thurs.: 1-8pm
New video by Asa Gauen and images
http://owenmundy.com/site/close_your_eyes
2. Images and video documentation of You Never Close Your Eyes Anymore will also be included in an upcoming Routledge publication and website:
Reframing Photography: Theory and Practice
by Rebekah Modrak, Bill Anthes
ISBN: 978-0-415-77920-3
Publish Date: November 16th 2010
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415779203/
3. Give Me My Data launch
Give Me My Data is a Facebook application designed to give users the ability to export their data out of Facebook for any purpose they see fit. This could include making artwork, archiving and deleting your account, or circumventing the interface Facebook provides. Data can be exported in CSV, XML, and other common formats. Give Me My Data is currently in public-beta.
Website
http://givememydata.com/
Facebook application
http://apps.facebook.com/give_me_my_data/
4. Give Me My Data was also covered recently by the New York Times, BBC, TechCrunch, and others:
Facebook App Brings Back Data by Riva Richmond, New York Times, May 1, 2010
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/facebook-app-brings-back-data/
5. yourarthere.net launch
A major server and website upgrade to the yourarthere.net web-hosting co-op for artists and creatives. The new site allows members of the community to create profiles and post images, tags, biography, and events. In addition to the community aspect, yourarthere.net is still the best deal going for hosting your artist website.
Website
http://yourarthere.net
More images
http://owenmundy.com/site/design_yourarthere_net
6. The Americans
The Americans is currently on view at the Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, FL. It features a new work with the same title.
More images
http://owenmundy.com/site/the-americans
7. Your Art Here billboard hanger
I recently designed a new billboard hanging device and installed it in downtown Bloomington, IN with the help of my brother Reed, and wife Joelle Dietrick.
Stay tuned here for news about Your Art Here and the new billboard by Joelle Dietrick.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Your-Art-Here/112561318756736
8. Finally, moving to Berlin for a year on a DAAD fellowship to work on some ongoing projects, including Automata.
More images
https://owenmundy.com/blog/2010/07/new-automata-sitemaps/
I’ll be giving a paper about Automata at the upcoming ISEA2010 conference in Ruhr, Germany.
http://www.isea2010ruhr.org/conference/tuesday-24-august-2010-dortmund
Many thanks to Chris Csikszentmihályi, Director of the Center for Future Civic Media http://civic.mit.edu/ , for inviting me to the MIT Media Lab last August to discuss the project with his Computing Culture Group: http://compcult.wordpress.com/
I am very much enjoying the video my friend, Asa Gauen, is working on for You Never Close Your Eyes Anymore, which is installed at AC Institute in New York until July 31.
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