STEVEN BERKOFF ' Metamorphosis The Play'

Tim Roth has Samas Gergor in Steven Berkoff's Metamorphosis
















I think its only fair to acknowledge the work of Steven Berkoff, who was a visual influence to my using 'Metamorphosis' as a subject matter, the Novel by Franz Kafka was the spark of course, but putting the idea into visual, the credit as to go the Berkoff.

Both the play and rediscovering the book through first the audio tape from a fellow Dyslexic art student and then dusting off 'The Castle' and 'Metamoprhosis' redeveloping a love for the dark world that Kafka seemed to be engulfed by. It is hard to imagine when walking through the streets of Prague that these same streets could compound Kafka to write with such dread, of course the political regime and the dominance of a father's tranny have to be taken into the whole make up of Kafka and his work.


Steven Berkoff's 'Metamorphosis' is inspired by Franz Kafka's renowned story - the parable of Gregor Samsa, a humble, industrious man who, upon waking one morning, finds himself transformed into a gigantic beetlelike insect. His metamorphosis is both physical and psychological, and through his harrowing and absurdly comic journey Gregor comes to represent the quintessential outsider and alien. Directed by Lisa May, Bruiser matchs the wonderful language and dark humour of the text, with fast moving and beautiful visuals. With Bruiser nothing is hidden - stripping the performance down to the essentials: the actors, the space and the audience.

METAMORPHOSIS 'THE MOVIE'

This is a strong image, that has inspired the DVD ' Metamorphosis'. There as recently been a re-editing (Post Production Room 6th Dec) where some images in the series that were more experimental and simply didn't work these images were cut, and the running time including credits was reduced to less than 3 minutes, which I believe is just enough of a time-scale to keep the viewers attention, and stops the piece from becoming contrived and uninteresting.

The presentation of the DVD, which is not essential if the work is being submitted to a gallery, the quality of the work is what will be judged by the curator, judging panel, but for this Movement Image & Sound project, I felt that the cover and the end result needed to convey a professional out put.

Granula Synthesis John Mackey


This is a great piece of work, using Granula Synthesis, and shows a what can be done with simple but effecivet manipulation, there is alot of very badly done granula synthesis around but Mackey shows how you can push the boundaries, keeping an interest and suspension.

Optical Illusion Mirror! - Funny blooper videos are here

Daniel Canogar

Leap of Faith II

Thiry-two fiber optic cables project a swarming cluster of bodies on the floor. These bodies seem to fall through a bottomless pit.


Everyday you find new artists that knock you off your feet, come on this is just the beginning, if you can check out his website at:-http://www.danielcanogar.com/page_in/index.html

In the late nineties Daniel Canogar developed a multi-projection system using fiber optic cables. By means of this technology he produced various installations, including "Alien Memory", "Sentience" and "Leap of Faith". These were done in homage to the Phantasmagoria created by Robertson, a Belgian scientist fascinated by optical illusions. In 1798 Robertson started using magic lanterns to project spectral images of bodies, a proto-cinematographic spectacle that captivated European audiences. In Canogar's work he substituted fiber optic cables for magic lanterns, updating the notion of the technological phantom.
MAGIC LANTERN (top Image)

The Piano By Aidan Gibbson

The Piano - The most amazing videos are a click away

This had me in tears, a great touching experience of past memories and lost love, haunting music.The music is a piano piece called 'Une comptine d'un autre ete', which I think means something like 'A lullaby from another summer.' Its music from the french film 'Amelie.'

marcel duchamp

Metamorphosis 'Self Portraits'(It's simple delicious being seditious)

I feel that working with the theme of Metamorphosis also has a personal agenda that I was perhaps subconsciously not admitting to, it has been brought to my attention that although I am not trying to portray a father & son relationship, the struggle of bereavement has caused a change in my own outlook, this has also been equally evident in my dress sense, the new 'corporate clobber. i.e suits as opposed to my regular seditious attire is a incorporation of working practise, my oeuvre which for the best part of my artist career has been illustration and semi-abstract oil painting, is now focused on video installation and digital manipulation.

This new addition to my working practise as been a struggle from start to finish, it has brought many accomplishments and new avenues that were before untrodden, but it also allowed a freedom of distancing myself from the unavoidable entwining that oil painting had before been so destructive, although I find a freedom in video work i am not like my previous endeavour bondaged to each canvas, I am able to terminate the monitor, to swicth off, to focus on more multi-dimensional planes, without the laborious mechanical shackles that painting demands.

Meta Porncorn morphosis

High Speed Camera - Popcorn

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This just appealed to me, the Metamorphosis from Maize to Popcorn, doesn't have any deep meaning or anything but holds the viewers attention, and for some reason I just like that, we all know what happens when Popcorn is made but to have it there to watch,well gives it a whole new ball game? something about that cloud of maize dust when then thing explodes?

Metamorphoses 2002 - Body Language

I'm hoping to do some audio soundscapes in a similar vein to 'Body Language' using original pioneering synthersizers and moog units...watch this space.

GTA's Metamorphoses - Trailer

Loved this, a shunning piece of work, the water element works a treat, the sound track can often distract from the video but there is some very good camera work that pulls out the best elements of the performers. this also comes with a commentry video, which I also love, getting to find out what caused problems for them and how they did it is always a useful tool. not that I intend working in a pool of water but hey if it came to it I now know how to go about it.

Kafka's The Metamorphosis - Black Moon Theatre Company

The choreography on this video is fanastic and takes the essence of what the Metamorhosis the visual aspect is all about, this is close to how I envisoned my portrayal of Gregor Samas, developing the Steven Berkoff original stage performances and giving a further fluid motion, the back projection is also a great piece of work and adds that human element that we could quite easily forget that the book is about. the Black Moon Threatre Company's insectical performances are wonderful and have been a great inspiration to my pre production to my Metamorphosis short film. Stephan Peter Oates November 8th 2007

face

Good use of the blending process animation, morphing facial features, I thought I might use this process with my 'Metamorphosis' sketches to show the pre-Photoshop workings out.

metamorphosis No2

I like the movement in this piece, I would of liked to see a little more post production than just the aged film, but it brings a real feel of an emotional struggle, coupled with a body aspect, that jarring effect from the performer for me asks questions about humanity and our relationship to our natural feelings, that often get masked by convention. Our inability to break away from what we believe is expected from us, that naked animal instinct within that is trapped.

metamorphosis No1

Not the best of films, but shows the influence of Kafka's work, some of the acting more is strong and emotional but the overal special effects let it down, the suggestion of the 'metamorphosis process' would of been more conducive. the running time is a little too long to hold your attention till the end, althoughI expect that most kafka enthusiasts like myself endure it to the bitter end.

infected mushroom psycho

SOPHIE CALLE COULDN'T CAPTURE DEATH U-TUBE II

JIM CAMPBELL COLOUR BY NUMBERS

JIM CAMPBELL
From the Color Works series
Color By Number, 1999
Two video projectors, LCD screens, custom electronics, dimensions variable

Color by Number involves creating an environment in which a sequence of colors is connected to an image by relying on the viewer's memory and associations. This version consists of 2 large video screens set into the walls of a hallway. Seen on these two screens are slowly changing colored light fields. Next to these dynamic color field squares is an open doorway which allows the viewer to go behind the wall to find the source of the colored light. When the viewers goes behind the wall containing the color fields they see two large beams of colored light, one for each of the squares on the wall. The changing light is created by ceiling mounted video projectors throwing light onto rear projection screens. Behind each color field and below the projector is a video screen mounted on the wall revealing a single video image. When the viewers look closely at one of these video stills they see a single white pixel slowly moving from the left to the right and then down one line, slowly scanning the image. It soon becomes clear that the moving white pixel represents the location of the color that is currently being displayed on the large square rear projection screen. The missing pixel is magnified to the three feet by three feet square of light. The first still image is of a lotus flower and the second image is of one of the Vietnamese monks who set himself on fire during the Vietnam War.

http://www.jimcampbell.tv/

This blog will contain views on artists and works that I find vivifying, and works which I dislike intensely and sometimes blogs on works I hated and then fell in love with, we all have them, sometimes they slowly creep into your life and wear away your hardened veneer,what fat on a chair! you have got to be kidding,an upturned urinal? are you taking the p****?

SOPHIE CALLE COULDN'T CAPTURE DEATH

Sophie Calle. In two stark rooms, viewers are presented with a wall text explaining that she learned that her mother had but a month left to live the same day she received a call inviting Calle to exhibit at the Biennale. In the next room is a video of her mother resting peacefully in her final hours with medical attendants hovering over her; her favorite music, Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A Major, plays in the background as the screen eventually fades into darkness.

I JUST NEED A SCREAM LOVER SO I DON'T HAVE TO SCREAM ALONE

Sample Digital Manipulated Images 'Akemi Takeya' By Stephan Peter Oates

STILL SCREAMING

FRANCIS BACON

Study after Velázquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X 1953

SCAR TISSUE

FRANCIS BACON FACE TO FACE

STUDY FOR THREE HEADS 1962

The powers of a dark prophet, the spiralling demise of Francis Bacon, who left a biography of a tortured soul, a tale of miss-spent youth, and ill judged love affairs, screaming from distorted faces with silent words.

When asked to explain his paintings, Francis Bacon replied "If I could explain them, I wouldn't have to paint them".

But you don't have to be a genius to feel the pain that his work spits out to you , for me a painting by Bacon, speaks of that inner rage, when mania is at full throttle, if anything, Bacon is my Therapist, my pope confessor, a silent confidant, a misty dark mirror that tells the future you don't want to hear. S.P.Oates Oct 2007.

MARCEL DUCHAMP'S LEGACY

MARCEL DUCHAMP

(Marcel Duchamp without whom Richard Mutt's Fountain blog would not exist). It is quite amusing that we discuss Duchamp in such detailed and academic ways, when analysing Duchamp’s influential contribution to contemporary art, it can not be deigned that his unique approach as inspired generations of new artists from Rausenburg to Hirst, and it is also true to say that Duchamp understood as early a 1912-1913, that the opposition between academic art and vanguard art was no longer a valid issue.

For me the majority of Duchamp's works do not work so well visually but engage the mind, I’m sure he would love that his work as been resurrected but his disdain for the academic elitism would leave a bitter taste in his mouth, much as the elitist attitude towards ‘Nude Descending the Stairs’ did when it was rejected by his Cubist comrades, Duchamp brought opposition between Modernism and the Academic to show it as a dead end, he would have been happy that finally the slow unravelling of his work was revealed bringing about the results he had intended, but disgusted had he been alive today to see it taken to the level of high theory by the academia.

(S.P.Oates Oct 2007)

These Fragments I have stored against my ruins T.S.Elliot (Wasteland)1922

Post Script T.S.Elliot was a Sexist, Racist, Bigot and his views do not represent the views of Richard Mutt's Fountain/Three Dollar Haircut or its editor!

Research Akemi Takeya

This video work screams like a Francis Bacon painting of the pope, a purple howling mouth in white scar tissued screams, leaving the flesh that remains, blurred, fragmented features, transparent, deformed in this way or other, forsaken monsters in an already disjointed world.

(Stephan Peter Oates: Oct 2007)

AKEMI TAKEYA

From a few expressions on the face of the performer Akemi Takeya to a frenzied exploration of the alter ego, any known context of meaning ends in the dissolved movements, is stalled in denaturalized redundancy, in machine pain. The semantic void is too loud to be amenable to meditative reception. The frontal images, the rhythmic structures generate contradictory emotions and great strain. Entertainment is offered and almost violently denied. At the highest level of energy, enjoyment reaches the limit." Sample session performed by Akemi Takeya. Edited on various AVID Suites in England and Austria between 1994-96.Produced by: Mike Stubbs, at HTBA (Hull Time Based Arts) in Hull England.Co-produced by PYRAMEDIA Vienna.

http://www.granularsynthesis.info/start/ns/content_ns.php?goto=modell%205

SCREAM MY LOVER SCREAM!

AKEMI TAKEYA: Self Portrait. Employing monumental projected images and bludgeoning sound environments, the multimedia installations of Akemi Takeya mark a new stage in the esthetic of sensory overload.

For those of you who were blown away by Akemi Takeya's video performances with GRANULAR=SYNTHESIS check out her U-Tube video pieces, of which there are many, and while your at it check out Granular=Synthesis's website, you would be daft not to, trust me. 10/10

http://www.granularsynthesis.info/start/ns/