Ephemera Videos

10365282 (2009, 1 MB, 14 sec) 10366629 (2009, 7 MB, 1:26 min) Here s the blurb: In a wilderness at the heart of Berlin a strange apparition has landed. Simon Faithfull’s Mobile Research Station no.1 is a curious hybrid – half hi-tech Antarctic Research Station / half rusty-broken-dumpster. Using a standard building-waste container as its basis, the station nevertheless forms a luxurious designer-pod provided for an eccentric set of researchers. Rather than researching the frozen wastes of Antarctica or the moons of Saturn, the invited artist/researchers have begun their investigation into the surrounding wilderness and urban zones of uncertainty that still lie at the centre of Berlin. There initial findings and questions can be found in this blog as and when they happen. I really liked Simon Faithfull s recent show at the BFI. He does something genuinely witty engaging with the kind of play-acted science * that seems to be so in vogue with artists at the moment. This project has similar premises but it doesn t resonate in the same way. Of all the work up on the site these two little movies by Tim Knowles detained me the longest although it s a shame they weren t made with more care (perhaps, though, there s a deluxe DVD edition for sale somewhere along the line..) They do look nice though. * It sounds entirely dismissive but it s not meant to be. Well, not entirely. If I had to enlarge I d say it was an attempt to enlist a kind of sympathetic magic whereby some of the presumed authenticity of science rubs off on the artists work. But of course because we re all ironists now we re all quite aware that there s a kind of Tati-ish, childlike going-through-the-motions-of-science actually going on ( ooh those artists!) presumably it s in this disjuncture that the art purportedly emerges. With Faithfull (and Knowles) the results at least are visually engaging and to an extent affecting if not particularly deep. OK. Fine. But just how many times round do we go before it becomes the most painful of clichés?

Bowl (2009, 2 MB, 1:52 min) Bowl/Glass (2009, 2 MB, 1:01 min) Bowl/Flower/Vase (2009, 3 MB, 57 secs) Little River (2009, 2 MB, 1:00 min) Recommended to us by the sublime Sam Renseiw who, when he speaks, we listen. Nonetheless I had some difficulties in coming to grips with this. Sam tells me it relates to some current You Tube thing whereby people throw ping-pong balls into various receptacles with a high degree of accuracy. Clearly I should stay in more. So in this case the balls are substituted by a species of cookie, apparently known in Denmark as chamberlains . (I asked Sam exactly what a chamberlain was. He says: Chamberlains is an odd translation of kammerjunker that can both be a chamberlain and danish cookie/biscuit. It is usually consumed in summer with koldskål (Fridge buttermilk with vanilla and lemon flavour.)) Here s an interview with Dom Cheverti, here s his site here s the whole sequence.

A slide show about printed ephemera. Trevor Bond of Washington State University's Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections talk about his experience visiting Oxford University and working with English chapbooks. Photos are by Trevor Bond.

Revenge (2009, 13 MB, 1:35 min) by Lernert Engelberts Sander Plug.

1video (2006, 3.3MB, 14 sec.) jimpunk does the loop on Pacino. more jimpunk on dvblog.

Hans Lo How TV Works (2009, 9.7MB, 2:15) Series of educational videos made by Hans Lo for his young niece Sophie.

Charlene Rule Private Screening (2009, 10.9MB, 1:38) Lovely view from Scratch TV.

.mov version