aestheticism

"You bring light in..."

Classic Underworld and this morning's hymn.

When was the last time you watched a video?

The multi-talented and impossibly lovely Annie Clark.  

And a bit about her process...

Of Heaven and Hell...

Civilization by Marco Brambilla from CRUSH on Vimeo.

"Civilization depicts a journey from hell to heaven interpreted through modern film language using computer-enhanced found footage. This epic video mural contains over 300 individual channels of looped video blended into a multi-layered seamless tableau of interconnecting images that illustrate a contemporary, satirical take on the concepts of Heaven and Hell."

I think this piece speaks for itself so I haven't anything to add beyond sharing it.  Obviously, I think it's amazing.  It was commissioned for permanent exhibition in the elevators of The Standard Hotel, New York.  View it fullscreen or find a higher res version on the artist's website...  

http://marcobrambilla.com/civilization.html

There's No Irony Here

I mean it.  And I'm not being ironic by saying I'm not being ironic.  This is not a double negative situation.  I like art that takes me somewhere.  This does that. Besides, I'm over irony.  Seriously.

Hope Springs...

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;

Man never is, but always to be blest:

The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,

Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

-Alexander Pope

An Essay on Man, Epistle 1, 1733

Or, put another way, this video pretty much embodies my eschatological imaginations.  Who's in?

Garden of Earthly Delights

I imagine the afterlife to be a Holy, yet vaguely bacchanalian, Hieronymus Bosh painting meets Coachella meets Busby Berkely water musical, where we know each other's names, and there's a reasonable amount of choreographed swimming and splashing about.

Fun with Scopitone!

"Scopitone films are 1960s music shorts, which were distributed on color 16mm film with a magnetic soundtrack. An extinct technology, the Scopitone film jukebox, was the medium for public presentation. The first Scopitones were produced in France in 1960, triggering a Scopitone craze throughout Europe - particularly in West Germany and England - before crossing the Atlantic to the United States in mid-1964. By the end of the 1960s, they were gone." - www.scopitones.com

"Web of Love" is a classic but, creatively, I really think the director could have gone more literal.

Casual observers would be remiss in dismissing Scopitones as having simply been showcases for gratuitous T&A.  To do so is to deprive oneself of the richness of experience and complexity of the form.  Scopitones also explored deeper themes, such as the human condition, existential crisis, mortality and ethics.  Occasionally, in the same song...  

And at its very, very best, a Scopitone could embody high art...