Some of my experimental Digital Video shorts for your downloading pleasure. Comments are always welcome, my electronic mail address is at the end of any of the downloadable shorts.
Most of this work is hosted on Google video.
As with any video compressed for distribution the web, much of the quality may be lost. Older work is available in full quality DVD, the newest work will not be available untill i have enough for a fourth volume:
Volume 1 DVD of cK 748-753 inclusive.
Volume 2 DVD of cK 754 (Three Questions)
Volume 3 DVD of cK 755-765 no 759.
cK #765 Limited Special Edition DVD.
Prices are 15$each US, mailed to any US address. Feel free to support my work if you enjoy it.
Purchase in quantity & save! Number of DVDs times 10$ plus 10$. so any four for 50$, 7 for 80$, etc.!
If you are familiar with my work or would like the surprise of just watching the short without knowing what is going on, then please feel free to skip the reading & get on with downloading. I'd prefer that.
In true web format, i've reversed the content so that the latest work is presented first & the earliest are presented last.
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Digital version of John Rininger's Scroll video. 16 min.
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CatalystKomics#767 Four Arguments for the ELIMINATION of Television (Part One)
Based on the book of the same title by Jerry Mander, this classic tome was instrumental in my development as a youth. I have considered the possibilities of turning it into a video documentary, which by the nature of the book, is fundamentally impossible. Which somehow i feel is part of the point. 3 min.
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Summer of 2006, my Grandma is 84. May of 2007, she died. 3 min.
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Didn't even try to do this in 3 minutes. Sometimes i just wanna do what i feel like. If people start saying it's too long, I'll consider a 3 minute version. A memorial for a dead friend. 15 min.
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Getting coffee with Candee.
What this video is about & what it represents to me as an
artist developmentally are quite different. Because of my difficultly
in seperating the process from the content i'm having trouble
generating my usual glib discription. My original intent was to
begin to communicate how some of the events in our lives hold
meaning & transformation over time while maintaining a quality
of timelessness. The ritual may include habit, additction, and
memory, as well as function. Every moment is what we make of it,
while my life may not be good television, it's not an image. The
medium steps inbetween, as the observer effects the outcome, the
reality of my communication is obscured in the process. The empty
box may be no less interesting than the gift. So here the viewer
sees the box thinking they are seeing the gift. Why bother with
video when i can write such a discription? 3 min.
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CatalystKomics#763 fur otto SENSITIVE VIEWERS OUGHT TO SKIP THIS ONE.
Due to the content of this video, i did not feel i could distribute it on Google. For this reason i have struggled with the quality & compression in order to get it up at all. By watching this video you are agreeing that you have a basic understaning of art & free expression, are doing so under your own free will & are not offended by pornography "adult" subjects & material or other weird/gross graphic materials. Distribution of this video in any other form is unauthorized and unlawful. You have been warned.
I believe i have this working now, it will not play in a browser window. Try downloading it first. If yer still having problems, i'd love to hear about it.
If you want to know the full story read this:
Based on the work of Otto Muhel, a Vienna Actionist of the late 1960's, i was interested in his penis in the box asthetic as well as his uses of powders & color. Was it just for shock value or was there a deeper undersanding of something else? The use of eggs for example, in combination with testicals & organs of reproduction. I decided to make my own video concentrating on this aspect of his work. My friend Todd volunteered his penis, & although i would have liked an additional slave so i could concentrate on the shoot, i had to rely on myself to take on the rest of the project. The soundtrack was pre-concieved as well, an alteration of fur elise, the famous piano piece, played with the musician on the wrong side of the piano. The projector noise was to be added later. Thus reducing the endevour to a simple near-pun, the title "fur otto." After viewing some 45 minutes of shoot, i was taken with the simplicity & beauty of the whole thing & fought to bring it down to my current self-imposed short subject length, 3 minutes. I figured to sacrifice the high art concept for music video made sence for the project. The original idea was to re-record the piece from a dual projection with 16 mm porn on top of the penis video, this would also add the projector sound to the sound track. It looked like crap & lost the feeling i was after, overwhelmed by the pornographic content. So i reshot the edited sequence in 3 different versions, one from LCD (a quality i loved from #762) & two from projection, one hand held. I was looking for a film feel similar to the Kurt Kren work of this era as well as reduction of the precision & vibrancy of the video for an "aged" look. While iMovie has an applied effect that would simulate this, i was rather dissatisfied, felt cheap, & used it only in a couple segments. Then i stared learning how to use FinalCutExpress & while limited in my knowledge, with a lot help, was able to basically mix down four tracks of video into the short presented here. Special thanks to Stephi & Alli.
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This is my previous short #753 recorded off a friend's computer with a malfunctioning video card. Wish i'd prepared something which needed this effect applied. The effect, of course, is not reproducible at will. So like most things these days, i get what i get. 3 min.
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CatalystKomics#761 The Georgetown Powerplant Museum
Entered in the Seattle Times Three Minute Masterpiece contest & lost. This short has some stunning shoot of the last vertical electric power generator as well as other equipment in the first steel reinforced concrete building West of the Mississippi. Noisy soundtrack.
Where i had started targeting a three minute constraint, this piece really solidified my reduction of projects to this length. 3 min.
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Astute collectiors are wondering where 759 & 760 are.
Well, 759 is an in process 20 year project. So you can expect it a little later.
760 is ONLY available on the Volume 3 DVD.
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At some point the lights come on. 3 min.
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The Hornet is equipped with Sidewinder and Sparrow air-to-air missiles and a 20mm cannon. The aircraft can carry up to 17,000 pounds of mixed ordinance on nine stores stations. The F/A-18 is powered by twin General Electric F404-400 engines with 32,000 pounds of thrust. The first time i heard one i thought the sky had torn open & everyone was going to die. 3 min.
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CatalystKomics#756 Project Conversation
Dual pass 3ivx encoding with aac sound in mov container about 3 min.
catalystKomics #756 "Project Conversation" is a short conversation spoken at three different speeds & then rendered at opposite speeds in attempt to recreate a normal spoken speed. While it didn't work exactly, the girls found it highly amusing. Inspired by "production," catalystKomics #752.
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A brief meditation on the mechanical
beauty of the body as exemplified through two girls playing badminton
& repetition. Culled from many minutes of Mini DV footage,
the short includes two rather tasty artifacts of the camera itself
that contribute not only visually, but also a unique presence
in the soundtrack.
At an even more basic level is the mystery that surrounds "spinehaw,"
this short provides no answer, allowing the viewer to choose &
re-engage the work on whatever level they choose be it amusement,
curiosity, disbelief or awe.
3ivx dual pass encoding, in color, with stereo mpeg-4 audio, opening
& closing credits, 5MB, 28 sec., in mov container.
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catalystKomics #754 Three Questions
56 min.
A Documentary of me walking around asking people in Seattle, Everett
& Portland three questions. In English, contains some curse
words. Available on DVD (Volume 2).
My review form Zaerc:
"I have just finished watching it and i cannot find the words
to express how impressed i am. Neither can i seem to grasp why
I'm so deeply moved by this simple, honest and real-life documentary.
I can't help but wonder what other people feel about it. In my
opinion it's brilliant and I'd recommend watching it to anyone
and everyone."
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"my Kitchen is more interesting
than most people's lives"
a reflection on simplicity& revealing. killer soundtrack.
Spent WAY too much time on this one. ~15min
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catalystKomics #752 production
Brontuku Charm manufacturing as art ~12min
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catalystKomics #751 diffraction
physical phenomena as art, a favortie of most audiences ~2&1/2min
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document of youth ~8min
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visual short with documentary following describing how to build this simple yet interesting device ~9min
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probably boring. or meditative if you
prefer.
what you wouldn't believe is how long this took & how many
edits there are. ~8min
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