A ten minute compilation of a selection of the Direct Language videos will be exhibited at Visions in the Nunnery between 6 - 15 June. The private view is 6:30 - 9:00pm on Friday 6 June, the Nunnery is at 183 Bow Road, London E3 2SJ.With the exception of Outside and Unknown at the Pixelodeon and Screen Dump at cogcollective - both programmes dedicated to works from videoblogs - this is the first time videos made for Direct Language have screened publicly in a context outside of the web.
Usually using unostentatious settings as stepping-stone footage for the videos – from urban settings, interiors, and forests - the subsequently manipulated and precisely choreographed patterns mirror the concern for formal and cognitive visual rigor. Often palindromic and/or surgically sliced into rhythmic, repetitive footage with careful concern for soundtrack implications, the short pieces reveal, at times, surprising short-circuiting attentive observations from the seemingly banal out-sets. A study in the manipulation of the inconspicuous.
Direct Language has long since ended as an abstracted video serial journal project, it can be viewed in its entirety archived at Direct Language and I am also making a selection of the videos available as an unlimited edition DVD series, unostentatiously packaged in a plain cover with a handwritten label. This can be purchased for a nominal amount to cover materials, handling and postage. Email me for details with "Direct Language DVD" in the subject field.
5 comments:
...this is the first time videos made for Direct Language have screened publicly in a context outside of the web....
UM...Direct Language 12 was included in the Screen Dump programme at Cog if you recall.
Great description by Sam though - spot on and evocative - ....
ps
Yes of course Screen Dump had slipped my mind (which also included DL2.7 & DL03), maybe because I think of it as being a screening of specifically web-based works, which Pixelodeon was also. Have amended the post accordingly.
Word re Sam
ok! great!
sign me up for one ( "the unostentatiously packaged in a plain cover with a handwritten label" will be the "must-have-thing" this season
a propos direct long takes: DL4.0 is still unequalled in all its precision low-tech dolly work with a hand held dvcam. a pure, angelic view.
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dear mr ball,
thank you so much for the direct language package, that actually was delivered promptly!
i first had the opportunity to view it calmly this week-end, from beginning to end.(and then again)
it is a very fine experience!
actually, it does not appear as fragments, but achieves something quite remarkable: it becomes a cinematic experience.
within that frame, the semiotics of the seen shift, enabling continuous, different "readings/listenings", as one immerses into the flow.
(i seem to remember that at a certain moment, they where indeed posted as one long piece. then posted again as individual pieces)
the viewing of the first "compilation" did not seem to work well on a small computer screen. on a larger tv set, this then achieves quite a different view. i suppose that this might have to do with part habit(s), part media cognition - or habit again.
projected on a large screen, in a gallery, or even larger, the "fragmentation" of the various parts would probably appear even more smoothed, bringing forth even more oblique readings. maybe one interesting venue for direct language would be some sort of public screen/monitor of a large size, used in a novel way.
anyway: thank you again. a memorable experience!
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