mia makela

Summarize Mia Makela's five essential elements of Live Cinema, and relate these elements to the Live Cinema Explosion during Avant-Garde Night at the Lumina Theater.

1. Space - The physical area that the event takes place in, the area of performance, and the area which the projection takes place upon.
2. Time - the duration of the "event", i.e. real time.
3. Performance - The actual visuals and sounds of the event.
4. Public - The audience and their participation.
5. Projection - the area and means of projecting images upon a screen, wall, etc.

During the Live Cinema Explosion, we ran into all these elements. Our space was the Lumina, a pretty big area with plenty of spots for projection. The time of the Explosion was about 15-20 minutes, I'd say. The Performance was the use of VJ software mixed with a live DJ and also several projections of loops onto surrounding walls. The Public element was the audience began mostly sitting, with noisemakers distributed beforehand for them to participate in the Explosion. By the end of it, several audience members, came down and joined the Explosion, either on the keyboard or the VJ software. The Projection was a theatre-sized screen along with the walls.

What are the challenges facing "laptop performers" in relation to audience expectations about "liveness" and performance? How are some artists addressing these challenges?

Laptop performers face the challenges are the fact that a lot of the loops and visuals are prerecorded and only mixed live. The audience usually expects liveness, like at a music concert where instruments are played live with no prerecordedness (unless its a rap concert but that's not music anyway). With VJing, an audience doesn't really know what is live and what is not, they could be watching a DVD for all they know. Some VJs have overcome this problem by using dual projectors to display the desktop view and the results of the mixing like "Slub" has done. Others have steered away from using only laptops, like AVCENTRALEN who mix colors and water with a live camera recording it all and projecting it.


Well, that was fun. Maybe I can focus on this analysis thing now.

What I Thought!: Avant-Garde Cinema Night

When we first got the handouts about the AVG Cinema Night, I really didn't know what to expect. I figured there'd be some films that somehow we'd all agree on and really didn't expect much of a turnout. As it... turned out, it was the complete opposite and I was thoroughly happy of the final results, especially the Explosion de la Cinema.

My favorites were Uso Gusto and Light is Waiting. I'd seen most of Uso Gusto online but seeing it with a crowd on the big screen was a completely different experience. The trip sequence, which I somehow hadn't seen, was definitely my favorite part as I love when films just freak out and have acid trips onscreen. All films should be required to have one tripped out sequence. Which brings me to Light is Waiting: totally not what I expected but still awesome. I went into it thinking that it'd be more comical and visual based, but really it was so much more. I really dug how it started like an average episode of Full House until the TV smashed, and then it was like the film was being shown on that smashed TV. Completely awesome. It was hard to focus on the images while looking at the horrified expressions on some of the older audience members' faces, especially the guy in front shielding his face from the screen. Excellent! I almost want to watch it with 3-D glasses because of all the pulsating red and blue light. Definitely a cool choice, whoever chose that...

What I thought didn't work as well was David Gatten's What the Water Said. I was expecting more than his other work I'd see before, but I didn't get that. The images were cool, I'll admit, but with the scratched soundtrack, it just got annoying quick much like his Dividing Line stuff. Does he actually make “films” worthy of viewing? I just don’t see what’s so great about his work.

And of course, I liked the Live Cinema Explosion. The mashing up of different sounds and images everywhere was very chaotic but somehow soothing when it was all happening. I've looked at my footage of it and it really doesn't do it justice, but I think my friends that starred on the screen will get a kick out of it.

And that, folks, is... What I Thought!TM

Lara Croft: She Puppet

What are the general claims about the film as a rejection of modernist aesthetics? (anti-art, feminism, etc.)

The first general claim is that instead of using everyday people or friends (“nobodies”) much like other of her works, Ahwesh uses a well-known video game heroine, Lara Croft, and uses the video game images to comment on the game’s ideals in return. While basically all of the films we’ve seen “star” regular people, not models/celebrities, attempting to act or just being themselves at times, She Puppet uses the basically ideal model of what society(at least the video gaming world) believes a woman should be and look like.

Secondly and more importantly, Ahwesh, by using the gameplay of Tomb Raider synced with voiceover, deconstructs the game itself to exploit its unconscious flaws(i.e. never ending violence, etc.) and also defamiliarizes the audience of mise-en-scene, works of drama, and the gameplay action. By utilizing these two techniques, Ahwesh creates a postmodernist/postfeminist viewpoint of how demeaning pop culture images can be and also how an virtual supermodel heroine can be controlled by the hands of a gamer, most likely a male.

These claims are supported by Wees by stating how things in the film are much different than they normally are in gameplay. Most noticeably, the sound effects and music(I forget if there is any in the game) have been removed or altered and replaced by feminist thoughts and passages read by a woman’s voice. Also, instead of running through the game, killing everything that gets in Lara’s way, the movements of the video game protagonist are altered most of the time to simply stand still to appear like she’s observing the world around her. In other sequences, the character doesn’t even put up a fight and gets killed several times in a row. With these images combined with the voiceovers, it really makes it seem as if we are hearing Lara Croft’s deep feminist thoughts as she runs through a male-dominated cyberworld.

To what degree does the analysis correspond with your own?

My analysis of the film was basically the same as Wees’s. The film really felt like a film to me and not just video game clips. Having played the game in the late ‘90s, I was familiar with the Lara Croft character and the controversy surrounding her image and role in video games. Knowing this, I was surprised that I hadn’t seen something like this before that exploited Tomb Raider’s sexual themes. Viewing the gameplay as a film with voiceovers of seemingly Croft’s inner thoughts, it really made me look at it from a different perspective and gives a whole new meaning to the game. It was actually interesting to see the game “played” differently to give Lara a whole new personality, one of feminine values and not just eye candy for gamers.

"The Offenders: No Wave Cinema" response

What are some similarities and differences between the American avant-garde of the early 1970s and the Punk or No Wave filmmaking in the late 1970s? Address the following areas:

Aesthetic similarities and differences
Production-wise, the films of the No Wave were focused more on producing a finished film, and not reliant on production value, much like Warhol or Ono’s work. Since the filmmaking theory at the time was “fast, cheap, and easy to learn”, the Punk films were poorly shot and acted but easily produced. Much like Warhol who cast his own friends in films, the Punk filmmakers cast mainly musicians of the time since they had already built up a reputation within the community, Lydia Lunch being an example. Exhibition-wise, instead of art houses and galleries, the Punk/No Wave films were often exhibited in music clubs like CBGBs and often shown in between bands setting up. Exhibitions of these films often included an audience who were drinking, smoking, and yelling back at the screen, creating a totally different viewing experience than those of art houses.

Technological similarities and differences
During the 1970s, technology changed a bit, allowing for more people to become filmmakers. The main film stock had changed from 16mm to Super 8, which some felt was too low of quality to be projected onto a big screen. This did not stop the No Wave filmmakers as they seemed to like the unpolished feel that the films ended up having. Super 8 also allowed for image and sound to be recorded at once, allowing films to be made and shown more quickly. Also, since sound was now easier to produce, filmmakers like Vivienne Dick often just put the microphone anywhere, allowing for friendly audio mistakes to be added into the film.

Economic similarities and differences
The Punk/No Wave scene was in no way rich and instead relied on lesser technology readily available to any aspiring filmmaker. For this reason, Super 8 was the perfect medium for the Punks and they used it well. Also, since the filmmakers had little money, they couldn’t and didn’t rely on financial backers to produce their films, allowing for films to get started and completed worlds faster than higher budget films of the time.

Social similarities and differences
The No Wave era was a social reaction to the elitism of the structuralist filmmakers and also to response of the counter-culture against the mainstream beliefs/values. The films contained images and sounds that were directly reflective of the Punk culture and music of the period. Filmmakers like Dick and Kern tried to be as controversial and offensive just to spite the populist crowd. Much like the punk musicians of the time, filmmakers would pick up cameras and shoot gritty films that were in complete rejection of popular culture, but punks recognized the films to be similar to the music. In She Had Her Gun All Ready, the style and clothing of the Punk era is displayed with the main characters’ style.