Hungu (animation)

A video inspired by the African legend where a mother is resurrected by her son in the form of a musical instrument, the Hungu.

Fela Kuti (musician)

Fela Anikulapo Kuti (1938–1997), Fela for short, was a Nigerian musician and composer, pioneer of afrobeat music, human rights and political activist. See the interview in the second video about his political influence.

Fela in performance (1971) filmed by Ginger Baker


The Broadway show Fela! shows his music and his political roots

Click HERE to access the Broadway Show site. You can watch some video in the Fela's Music Re-release tab on the right.

(Below: interview from the Colbert Nation. Afterwards have to click on the performance in the video to see the dance and hear the music)

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Bill T. Jones
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

Michel Camilo - Caribe

Michel Camilo is a pianist and composer from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He is known as a great jazz, Latin and classical pianist with superb technical ability, and has played and recorded with many world-famous musicians.

For more, incl. free audio and video, click on his home page HERE

Michel Camilo All Star New York Big Band from "Live in Altos de Chavón" concert playing "Caribe" in 2 parts:
Part 1


Part 2


Same tune, only solo, from the 40th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival, June 18, 1993.

January 2010 Calendar

Please click HERE to open the calendar page where you can download and print the page.

Mister Cok (animation)

An animation by Franck Dion (2009).
Looking for efficiency and profit in his bomb factory, Mister Cok decides to replace his workers with sophisticated robots, but one worker is not discarded so easily.

LINK to homepage (you can watch the video from there) or click on the arrow below:

Android Heads Talking

I've seen these before, but now they made it to a major art show: Art Basel Miami Beach 2009, where they sell for $75,000. To me they look pretty dead in expression and manifestation, however, the possibility of being confronted with one of them (like at a border or something) seems possible in the not so far future. The heads are connected to computers behind the 3D faces.

2 x 2 = 4 (+ or - something)

So, next time someone insists on a fact, like 2x2=4. ask them to explain this fact

Watch an animation HERE

Liu Bolin (artist)

One of Liu Bolin's art is Human Camouflage. Being Chinese he makes a political statement with being "invisible" as he blends into the pictures. It's done in a time consuming effort by painting the background on his clothes and face.

But he also has other ways of expressing himself, as you can see in the second picture posted.

See more HERE

Desiree Palmen (artist)

Desiree Palmen, a talented Dutch artist, uses camouflage techniques to capture incredible photographs of people blending into their surroundings.

For each photo, the artist designs a new camouflage suit, which again and again has to be made with the greatest precision, or the illusive effect will not work.

Find more of her work HERE

Ivan Maximov (animation)

Russian animation written and directed by Ivan Maximov

David Lynch in Vienna

A passion for the doing ...and he also discusses "time" and how he sees it, "happiness", "movement", "consciousness" and many other issues. The first minute of part 1 is in German, then everything else is in English. Each part is around 9 minutes long and the discussion is based on unscripted questions from the audience.

On November 11th 2007 David Lynch visited Vienna, Austria. In the cinema "Gartenbaukino" he answered questions on his films, work and doing, his method of catching ideas, Transcendental Meditation and his projects "Invincible University" & "The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace"

LINK Part 1 of 8
LINK Part 2 of 8
LINK Part 3 of 8
LINK Part 4 of 8
LINK Part 5 of 8
LINK Part 6 of 8
LINK Part 7 of 8
LINK Part 8 of 8

If I screwed up witn a link please try to find it HERE, and I would also like to thank Director Christian for putting this on the net!

Who is Bobbito Garcia?

Kool Bob Love or DJ Cucumberslice: Basketball player, radio host, author, DJ, actor, consultant, TV host... Maybe the more fitting question is, who isn't Bobbito Garcia? One of Hip Hop's true gems, Bobbito paid a visit to the RH offices while in Chicago last month. Here he talks about his history in Hip Hop, favorite memories from the Stretch and Bobbito show, his perspective on life, and much more.

Filmed and Edited by Anthony Shane and Virgil Solis Interview by DJ RTC via Rubyhornet.com

RH TV: Who is Bobbito Garcia?

Sidenote: This vimeo video is over 200 meg in size

Bobbito's homepage

Paul Jenkins (artist)

The paintings of Paul Jenkins have come to represent the spirit, vitality, and invention of post World War II American abstraction. Employing an unorthodox approach to paint application, Jenkins' fame is as much identified with the process of controlled paint-pouring and canvas manipulation as with the gem-like veils of transparent and translucent color which have characterized his work since the late 1950s. Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1923, Jenkins was raised near Youngstown, Ohio. Drawn to New York, he became a student of Yasuo Kuniyoshi at the Art Students League and ultimately became associated with the Abstract Expressionists, inspired in part by the "cataclysmic challenge of Pollock and the total metaphysical consumption of Mark Tobey." An ongoing interest in Eastern religions and philosophy, the study of the I Ching, along with the writings of Carl Jung prompted Jenkins' turn toward inward reflection and mysticism which have dominated his aesthetic as well as his life.
(credit for above text: Dr. Louis A. Zona, Director, The Butler Institute of American Art)

Homepage

December 2009 Calendar

Click this LINK to open the download page.

The quote: "The nine unknown Gods are the keepers of the Divine Flame of Wisdom." is from the Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad. Art: UEK Multimedia Artist

Electricity pole September Waves

Directed by foreign art director experimental video and design Leo Tsouo a French immigrant to Norway and the northern lights sends out beautiful videos available as well as a DVD provided by Abstract Sound with Leo's own visuals for outtakes, a collections of films commisioned by the band and produced by Leo's experimental views of modern art world, textures of experimental videos and art objects.

(16:43 min. video)

BLU animation

Get more BLU here

Defining Freedom

Quote by Eric Hoffer:

A Color Box by Len Lye 1935 (kinetic movie)

Len Lye was a New Zealand-born artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. He was a pioneer of direct-animation, and also a highly innovative painter, photographer and poet, as well as an important figure in kinetic sculpture. Born in New Zealand, Lye left home as a young man in search of film activity and the stimulation that would satisfy what he called his preoccupation with art and movement. Inspired by the primitive imagery of South Sea island art and film’s power to present dance ritual and music, Lye’s experimental – and often revolutionary – camera-less techniques attracted the attention of John Grierson and Alberto Cavalcanti of the General Post Office Film Unit in London, which sponsored Colour Box and other films. Although Lye’s filmmaking had nearly ceased by the late 60s, he continued to speak of his belief in cinema as “the Cinderella of the fine arts. Her beauty lies in her kinesthesia… The fine art film requires urgent consideration.”

Jym Davis - White Space

White Space was created as a variation on the theme of Creation. The work uses the Creation story of Adam as a guide ("formed man from the dust of the ground"). A human head appears as animated 'dust' as it emerges from and descends into a chalky white pool. While the non-narrative short film can viewed as the original "man" being created by God, there are also references to science-fiction and the head takes on a ghostly ethereal quality...like an alien being from another planet. Influences of David Lynch as well as the repetitious music of minimalist composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich can also be seen. In addition to directing the video, Jym Davis also appears in the work.



Jym's Homepage

Solar [the film] (animation)

Solarthefilm is a short film by Ian Wharton and Edward Shires telling the tale of the sun, moon and two characters who inhabit a world that relies on day and night. Music by Skoud

LINK click on WATCH THE FILM where you can watch it there online or download it ...
or play the 4:17 min. YouTube below:

Black Noise - Jackin My Fresh Feat. Lex One

I like the animation in this video.

China Power

China Power is a Pia Getty Film about Chinese art today.

Art Now After Mao
LINK
(3 minute video trailer of the whole film)

Some of the artists in the feature film:
Ai Weiwei
Yue Minjun
Zhang Xiaogang
Fang Lijun
Cao Fei
Yang Fudong
Ou Ning
Liu Ding
Qiu Anxiong
Gu Dexin
Kan Xuan
Wang Guangyi
Wang Jianwei
Zhang Peili
Chen Shaoxiong
Zhao Bandi
Xu Bing
Huang Yong Ping

Yellowtail

Draw a line, a swirl, anything and it will do the rest for you. You need to enable JAVA in your browser.
LINK

El Bocho (street artist)

The video shows El Bocho with a mask interviewed (in German). He has a show in Cologne, and shows a bunch of his work in the street as well as in the gallery.

El Bocho @ ArtyFarty Gallery.

LINK to his web site.

Nicholas Roerich, painter, poet

Study of Clouds. c. 1936–47

Born in Russia, Nicholas Roerich was a Renaissance man who lived from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. He was an accomplished painter, archaeologist, scientist, teacher, explorer. Roerich traveled to India and to the Himalayas where he learned from the religions of the area.

Roerich also wrote poems:
"Brother, let us abandon
all that rapidly changes.
Otherwise we will not have time
to turn our thoughts to that
which is changeless for all.
To the eternal."

Irina Corten writes about him: “At the core of Roerich's belief system is the Hindu concept of a beginningless and endless universe which manifests itself in recurring cycles of creation and dissolution of material forms caused by the pulsation of divine energy. On the human plane, this means the rise and fall of civilizations and, in terms of individual life, the reincarnation of a soul ...”

I think the knowledge of life-cycles and Soul shows in his art.

Kanchenjunga. 1936

Mount of Five Treasures (Two Worlds), from “Holy Mountains” series. 1933

Milarepa, the One Who Harkened, from “Banners of the East” series. 1925

PopRally: Silent but Deadly | You Look Nice Today: "The Noises Rest"

3 guys (Evan Stephen, Tiborg, and Lanolin Sparks) explain sound in "The Noises Rest" which was for a PopRally event Silent but Deadly: An Evening of Comedy Shorts, January 6, 2009 at MoMA.

Quote from the video by Lanolin:

I see that at the center of the beauty of film is a richer center, which is the beauty of sound -- and the center of sound is really silence.

More Soon

A rotating ball with color texture that runs from top to bottom.

It runs all day if you let it: LINK

Art in ECK

This is just a short message to let you all know that Art in ECK has moved to HERE

November 2009 Calendar

Click this LINK to open the download page.

The quote: "He who has the true knowledge knows that in the lower worlds there exists both creative sounds and destructive sounds, and he who can produce both, at will, can create or destroy." is from the Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad. Art: UEK Multimedia Artist

HU, the sound of all sounds

"The sound of HU is the source of all sound, and sound is as close to the source of life as we can get. Any living being can experience sound first hand by vocally participating in it, but we can only experience light by being exposed to it. That is because we can make a sound with our vocal cords, but we can not make a light with any organ of our physical body." (From this blog)

"Singing HU draws us closer in our state of consciousness to the Divine Being. This is its purpose. It is for those who desire spiritual love, freedom, wisdom, and truth." (From the Eckankar web site)

This is only an artistic rendering of the vibrations of the sound of HU ... thank you for visiting! ...and thank you Hueater!

Transphormetic

More of Paul Prudence's work can be seen HERE

Sequitur by Karlheinz Essl

Karlheinz Essl is a modern day musician using the human voice, conventional as well as electronic instruments. They complement each other in his compositions. His music reminds me somewhat of the one of Robert Fripp (King Crimson) or Eno. Fortunately Essl is very open in sharing his music.

If you need an in try Sequitur IX (2008) for voice and live-electronics (mezzo-soprano and live electronics, in about the center of the page of the first link below), or Sequitur I (2008) for flute and live-electronics.

Sequitur is a series of compositions for solo instruments and live-electronics written for outstanding soloists. The aim is to create various pieces which use the same computer program -- the so-called Sequitur-Generator written in MaxMSP. It generates a complex 8-part canon from the instrument's live input as an accompaniment. Unlike traditional canons, the individual canonic layers do not enter at regular intervals but in a sort of acceleration which results in an increasing structural density. Moreover, the single canonic layers are getting gradually distorted - as if they were decaying. And at last, the 8 parts do not always play together, but are constantly cross-faded by using random operations which results in every-changing and unforeseeable structural interactions where the canon can vary between 1 and 8 voices.

Link with many recordings to listen to or to download much more here, including videos, scores and MIDI.

Essl's Main Page

A State of Consciousness ...

... is a State of Acceptance. --Harold Klemp

Optical Illusion

What you can do with a bunch of simple lines



another one here:

Fifty People One Question

Look what happens when a camera is pointed at 50 people in the street and the same question is put in front of them. It's a nice art project, and should be proof that listening works.

Vimeo

The Art of Listening

This is a rather long podcast about "exploring what it means to listen." Kevin Quigley (producer) and Adam Asnan (composer) discussing how they approach listening. The program comes from the UK Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Whoever takes the time to listen to the podcast will find that it's not just the listening but also the story-telling that keeps us interested. The way Morton Feldman, Glenn Gould or Filter Feeder do it. The moderators' approach to listening in this program is through detecting and consuming exterior sounds, unlike spiritual listening, where the inner rate of vibration creates the sound. Never the less, I do think this podcast offers a valuable tool to learn to understand someone else's approach to listening. (From ica.org.uk)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 1:
Partial description from the site:
The art of listening: a closer listening, using a mellow sharp ear -- a middle ear that concentrates on every pitch of sound, bringing one closer to a fuller absorption of life. For the next two podcasts, we have a special 'slow winter edition' where we will be exploring exactly what it means to listen to sound, and therefore music.

What is the 'art of listening'? Is there even an art of listening? If so, what is involved in the art of listening? Why is it important for us to understand and explore sounds: is a act of survival, part of our being, or something more this that we can not explain or understand? (From ica.org.uk)


Click here to listen/download part 1 (95 minutes, 98.1 MB in size)
To get to the main site to read about the music and more click on the picture. There are also links to the respective artist's sites.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There is lots of verbal discussion on how composer Adam Asnan sees music, not much actual sound to listen to in part 2.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2:
Partial description from the site:
"The art of music is no longer limited to the sounding models of instruments and voices. Electo-acoustic music opens access to all sounds, a bewildering sonic array ranging from the real to the surreal and beyond." Denis Smalley, electro-acoustic composer. (From ica.org.uk)

Part 2 of the art of listening flows into the ambiguous nature of electro-acoustic music, a world of infinite reflection, indeterminacy and transformation.

Click here to listen/download part 2 (62 minutes, 65 MB in size)

Gerry Judah (artist)

Gerry Judah was born in Calcutta, India.

He studied at Barnet College of Art before obtaining a degree in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College and post-graduate Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.

In the last twenty years Gerry Judah has built a reputation for innovative designs for films, television, theatre, museums and spectacular public installations for many clients including the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Opera House, English National Opera, BBC, British Museum, Natural History Museum, Imperial War Museum, Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin, Ridley Scott Associates and Expo. (more in LINK below under Biography)

Pix credit

You can click on FILM to see him work, the 9 minute file is just over 50 MB

LINK

The spectator makes the picture (Duchamp)

Marcel Duchamp, by Octavio Paz
The Castle of Purity, page 85:

One of Duchamp’s most disturbing ideas is crystallized in an often-quoted sentence: “The spectator makes the picture.” Expressed with such insolent concision, it would seem to deny the existence of works of art and to proclaim an ingenuous nihilism. In a short text published in 1957 (“The Creative Act”), he clarifies his idea a little. He explains here that the artist is never fully aware of his work. Between his intention and realization, between what he wants to say and what the work actually says, there is a difference. This “difference” is, in fact, the work. Now, the spectator doesn’t judge the picture by the intentions of its originator but by what he actually sees. This vision is never objective; the spectator interprets and “distills” what he sees. The “difference” is transformed into another difference, the work into another work. In my opinion Duchamp’s explanation does not account for the creative act or process in its entirety. It is true that the spectator creates a work that is different from the one imagined by the artist, but between the two works, between what the artist wanted to do and what the spectator thinks he sees, there is a reality: the work. Without it, the re-creation of the spectator is impossible. The work makes the eye that sees it—or, at least it is a point of departure; out of it and by means of it the spectator invents another work. The value of a picture, a poem, or any other artistic creation is in proportion to the number of signs or meanings that we can see in it and the possibilities that it contains for combining them. A work is a machine for producing meaning. In this sense Duchamp’s idea is not entirely false: the picture depends on the spectator because only he can set in motion the apparatus of signs that comprise the whole work. This is the secret of the fascination of the Large Glass and the Readymades. Both of them demand an active contemplation, a creative participation. They make us and we make them.

Pix credit

Marcel Duchamp. Bicycle Wheel/Roue de bicyslette. 1913. Readymade: bicycle wheel, diameter 64.8 cm, mounted on a stool, 60.2 cm high. Original lost. Replica.

HERE is a video (55 min.) about Duchamp: A Game of Chess, in French with English subs

John Whitney (animator)

John Whitney (1917 - 1995), was an American animator, composer and inventor, widely considered to be one of the fathers of computer animation. The video below is from 1972, before computers were used widely to create animations.

LINK
(10:34 min Youtube video)

Pix source

Emma Kunz (artist and healer)

Emma Kunz was a researcher, healer, and prolific artist, who also discovered the healing rock powder AION A, which has helped thousands of people on their path to recovery. 
She was known for her exceptional healing powers and worked with a pendulum that had a spherical weight on each side, one of a light-colored jade, the other of silver. During a consultation with a young patient, as she watched her pendulum oscillate over the boy's head, Kunz claimed she could cure him with a special powder that would be found in his immediate environment. With her pendulum in hand, Kunz navigated the quarries owned by the young boy's father. Here, at the Roman Stone Quarry in Wuerenlos, she found a rock with potent healing powers. Kunz instructed the boy's parents as to how the rock should be quarried, cleansed, and milled to powder to be used for healing. After a few weeks the boy's legs grew stronger and within months he could walk and run with the other children.

LINK to slideshow and bio
Picture credit: 1, 2, 3

 

For it was not ...

Source