[spectre] Final Program "An Archaeology of Imaginary Media"
Eric Kluitenberg
epk at xs4all.nl
Mon Feb 2 17:06:37 CET 2004
Dear Spectrites,
Herewith the final program of "An Archaeology of Imaginary Media" the
program at De Balie in Amsterdam, 5 - 8 February 2004.
All talks will be streamed live via the internet at: http://www.debalie.nl/live
The time schedule of the talks is below.
Late aditions to the program:
- Filmmaker John Akomfrah will complement Bruce Sterling's talk on
imaginary media with an Afro-futurist perspective.
- Francois Ducat screens a new film based on Raymond Roussel's
imaginations about a new watery communication medium.
regards,
Eric
-------------------
F I N A L P R O G R A M
An Archaeology of Imaginary Media
Excavating mankind's dreams of the ultimate communication medium
February 5 - 8, 2004,
De Balie - Centre for Culture and Politics, Amsterdam
http://www.debalie.nl/archaeology
An Archaeology of Imaginary Media is a mini-festival in De Balie in
Amsterdam around the eternal return of mankind's desire for the
ultimate communications medium. Will technological progress finally
resolve the human communication problem? The mobile phone mania
demonstrates a compulsive attempt to arrive at an affirmative answer
to this question. Digging in the history of human communication and
its media provides ample grounds for serious doubts.
De Balie will bring together a distinguished selection of artists,
filmmakers, authors, theoreticians, and especially media
archaeologists, to undertake a thorough investigation of the utopian
visions of the ultimate communications medium. In a variegated and
highly diversified panorama, the visionary perspectives of
technological dreamers throughout the centuries will be excavated and
held up to the audience.
Talks...
Already for some years, cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling has been
collecting dead media. Media that have withered and are mostly
forgotten (much like Dutch tv comedians van Kooten & De Bie predicted
the demise of phillips' cd-i many years ago). Erkki Huhtamo has been
digging up the pre-history of interactivity from the caverns of
forgetfulness. Edwin Carels discovers in the pre-history of cinema
the bizarre concept that moving image and sound might be a medium to
establish contact with 'those in the hereafter'. Siegfried Zielinksi
also finds death in media in the (delusional) conceptions of the
media-engineers. Edison created a machine to communicate with the
"sprits", and Zoe Beloff made a film about it. She will cast a light
on the matter. And wasn't cyberspace the ultimate means to abolish
the borders of race and gender? Away with the body!!! Who still
beliefs that today? John Akomfrah (tbc) will investigate what this
question means within Afro Futurism. What is it that inspires men
time and again to believe in their own machines? Maybe literary
scholar and media-sociologist Klaus Theweleit can shed some light in
the dark?
On Imaginary Media....
Multi-talented artist Peter Blegvad created a theatrical performance
"On Imaginary Media" specifically for this program. A philosophical
drama, a multi-layered collage of meditations on the sublimity and
tragedy of imaginary media, of the dream for the ultimate
communications medium. Musicians John Greaves and Chris Cutler, with
whom he has previously realised many avant-gardistic music projects,
and Dutch actors Christine van Stralen and Kees Hulst accompany
Blegvad during the performance.
Peter Blegvad became famous as a musician because of his involvement
with cult-bands such as Faust, Slap Happy and Henry Cow in the early
seventies, after which he went through a remarkable solo career. As
an avant-gardist he appeared in New York in the environs of people
like John Zorn (Locus Solus). Simultaneously he established himself
as an extraordinary cartoonist with his series Leviathan, widely
regarded as an important innovation of the cartoon genre. He also
produces a series of radio-plays for BBC-Radio, called "Ear-toons
from the Verb".
World-Première: Thursday February 5 / 20.00 hrs / Grote Zaal
Second Performance: Saturday February 7 / 20.00 hrs / Grote Zaal
Narrative Space
The idea for a narrative space was developed together with Peter
Blegvad: A visual space where the visions and conceptions of
imaginary communication machines are presented. A number of
cartoonists and artists have been invited to contribute their visual
imaginations about imaginary media in the form of drawings or short
cartoons. During the entire weekend these visions can be viewed
continuously in a simultaneous three-channel projection in the public
vide in De Balie.
Participating artists:
- Thomas Zummer
- Jonathan Rosen
- Peggy Yungue
- Sasa, aka Aleksandar Zograf
- Gary Panter
- Dick Tuinder
- Neal Fox
- Les Coleman
- Ben Katchor
- François Ducat
- Peter Blegvad
to conclude....
Richly illustrated lectures, films, discussion, a narrative space
with works by cartoonists and artists, the philosophical theatre of
Blegvad and an extensive film program, together paint the contours of
an eternal dream that manages to hold people time and again under its
sway, from Heinrich Suso's late-medieval Horologium Sapientae to the
unfolding debacle of 3G**.
(**3G: third generation mobile phones)
________________________
Further background information, essays, information about the
presenters and web links can be found in the dossier "Media
Archaeology" on the website of De Balie:
http://www.debalie.nl/dossierpagina.jsp?dossierid=10123
________________________
Overview of Lectures & Presentations:
Speaking will be...
Friday, February 6 / 15.00 - 17.30 hrs / Grote Zaal:
Siegfried Zielinski - Deep Time of the Media, an anarchaeology of
hearing and seeing through technological means.
Klaus Theweleit - on the soccer game as an imaginary medium.
Friday, February 6 / 20.00 - 22.00 hrs / Grote Zaal:
Edwin Carels - on pre-cinema and the iconography of death.
Zoe Beloff - on spiritist media and stereoscopic cinema.
Saturday, February 7 / 15.00 - 17.30 hrs / Grote Zaal:
Bruce Sterling - on dead media en never realised media histories.
John Akomfrah - on Afrofuturism and imaginary media.
Sunday, February 8 / 15.00 - 17.30 hrs / Grote Zaal:
Erkki Huhtamo - on the archaeology of the dream world of interactivity.
Timothy Druckrey - on the archaeology of the present in the works of
media-critical media-artists.
________________________
Short Biographies:
John Akomfrah is a filmmaker, founder of the 'Black Audio Film
Collective' and a prominent thinker within Afro Futurism, one of his
more recent films is "Digitopia".
http://www.slate.uk.net/john_akomfrah_cv.htm
Zoe Beloff is a film maker and media artist, originally from
Edinburgh, she lives and works in New York.
http://www.zoebeloff.com
Peter Blegvad is cartoonist, musician, writer, and the creator of the
cartoon series Leviathan. He also produces radio plays for BBC radio,
and lives in London.
http://www.leviathan.co.uk
http://www.ibiblio.org/mal/blegvad/amateur.html
Edwin Carels is a freelance curator and writer, who is especially
interested in the relationship between visual arts and film, video,
and photography. He writes a.o. for "Andere Sinema".
http://www.debalie.nl/persoon.jsp?personid=10263
Chris Cutler is a musician, sound artist, and writer. He is also
involved in various independent music-publishing initiatives. As a
percussionist he has appeared in numerous avant-garde music ensembles.
http://www.ccutler.com
Timothy Druckrey is a curator, writer, and editor concerned with
issues of media history, representation, and technology. He lives in
New York.
www.debalie.nl/dossierartikel.jsp?dossierid=10123&articleid=10430
http://users.rcn.com/druckrey/
John Greaves is a musician and gifted song-writer. Operating in a
variety of avant-garde music settings, not least with Peter Blegvad
and Chris Cutler, he has always stood at the crossroads of several
musical traditions,
http://perso.club-internet.fr/stellast/greaves/greaves.htm
Erkki Huhtamo is a Finnish Media Researcher, Curator, Writer and
Professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
http://www.debalie.nl/artikel.jsp?articleid=10104
http://www.mediamatic.nl/magazine/8_2/Huhtamo-Armchair.html
Kees Hulst is an actor. He appeared in many Dutch movies and
television productions, a.o. "De Avonden", "Snapshots", "Somberman's
Actie", "Eenzaam.nl" and many more. He also appears frequently on
stage, formerly with the Toneelgroep Amsterdam, and independently.
http://home.hetnet.nl/~hfilmglorie/inKees_Hulst.html
Bruce Sterling is a writer, mostly renown for his cyberpunk fiction
oeuvre. His publications include Schismatrix, The Hacker Crackdown en
The Difference Engine (met William Gibson).
http://www.well.com/conf/mirrorshades/
http://www.deadmedia,org
Christine van Stralen is a Dutch actress,who plays among others with
the theatre group "Mug met de gouden tand", she appeared in numerous
films, recently a.o. in "Necrocam", and "Dunya & Desie".
Klaus Theweleit is a writer, literary scholar, and cultural theorist.
He is the author of a.o. the monumental series "Buch der Könige"
(Book of Kings) and "Der Pochahontas Complex".
http://www.debalie.nl/persoon.jsp?personid=10353
http://proxy.arts.uci.edu/~nideffer/Tvc/reviews/18.Tvc.v9.reviews.Mladek.html
Siegfried Zielinski is a media researcher, the founding and former
principal of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. He teaches and
researches on the history, theory, and praxis of audiovision; his
special field of interest is media archaeology, and he has published
numerous books and articles on the topic.
http://www.debalie.nl/artikel.jsp?articleid=10116
Further Reading and Browsing:
More extensive biographies and links to other resources can be found
via the person's pages of all speakers and presenters, linked from
the program pages at the Balie website:
http://www.debalie.nl/archaeology
________________________
Film Program An Archaeology of Imaginary Media:
- Main program 22:00 Thursday, February 5:
My Browser, Orij, Stel & Verhagen, nl, 2002, betacam, 4'
A web browser imagined as a person's alter ego
Orphee, Jean Cocteau, fr, 1949, 16mm, 112'
Modern translation of the Greek myth ab
out Orpheus a
nd his wandering in the underworld, where a radio becomes an
indispensable device to communicate with the after-world.
- Main program 22:00 Friday, February 6:
Shadow land or light from the other side,
Zoe Beloff, usa, 2000, 2x16mm, 32'
Stereoscopic film about the connection between technology and
imagination, presenting a mental projector to communicate with the
dead.
In Absentia, Quay Brothers, gb, 2000, 35mm, 20'
Many visual illusions in a hybrid animation film in which the
thoughts of a woman writing a letter are visualised. Soundtrack by
Karl Heinz Stockhausen.
Out of the ether, Kerry Laitala, usa, 2003, 16mm, 9'
Handmade 16mm film, composed on an optical printer, tells about dark
techno forces that attempt not only to invade or bodies, but also our
minds.
Gothic Aztecs, Jonathan Rosen, usa, 2003, dvd, 21'
A demonic reliquary of Medusa-Quetzalcoatl gives godly and demonic
visions to a young woman. Gothic Aztects is a film in which the
viewer is projected into the brain of the female priest, and in doing
so experience her artificial mediatized delirium.
- Late program 23:30 Friday, February 6:
Anatomy of time, Dick Tuinder, nl, 1995, 35mm, 17'
The waving to the camera of filmmaker and time-traveller Arthur
Dauphin, obscure contemporary of the Lumière brothers, who already
knew a century ago that behind the seemingly lifeless machine of the
camera a new secret future world was hidden.
Out of the present, Andrei Ujica, ru, 1996, 35mm, 96'
Russian cosmonauts leave the Soviet Union for space station Mir.
Meanwhile the Soviet empire collapses, leaving the cosmonauts in
limbo. Out of the present contains the first breathtaking 35mm
footage ever made of planet Earth. Due to technical problems the
majority of that footage and a 35mm camera were set overboard before
the last crew returned to earth, leaving the pictures of the earth
encircling it forever.
- Main program 22:00 Saturday, February 7:
Aqua Micans, François Ducat, be, 2004, dvd, 5'21"
A hommage to Raymond Roussel.
"Thanks to the combined properties of the aqua micans, the Eryhtrite
pill and the mental cone that concentrates energy on the nervous
tissues, we can from now on HEAR Danton (because I've learned to
lip-read)..."
Conceiving Ada, Lynn Hershmann, usa, 1997, 16mm, 85'
Programmer Emma wants to get contact with the long since passed away
Ada Byron King, pioneer on artificial intelligence and daughter of
the poet Lord Byron. Emma manages to establish contact by emerging
her body into an experimental DNA memory-coding device. The narrative
of the film is structured along the spiral of the double helix of DNA.
- Late program 23:30 Saturday, February 7:
More, Mark Osborne, usa, 1998, 35mm, 6'
Clay-animation in which a lonely engineer invents an apparatus that
makes live in the industrial age bearable
again: 'Happy product', though without happy ending thanks to the
management of the world.
"Surprise from the Sixties", dvd, 97'
Subway construction is immediately halted when bones and sculls are
found. A well-known professor discovers that the bones and sculls are
enclosed within the rotten structure of an ancient spacecraft.
- Main program 20:00 Sunday, February 8:
Anamorphosis, Quay Brothers, gb, 1991, 35mm, 15'
Esoteric illusions of the Quay brothers within an 'illustrated'
reading about physical and mental perception.
Eye like a strange balloon, Guy Maddin, gb, 1996, betacam, 4'
A drawing of the French Symbolist painter Odile Redon is taken as the
surreal inspiration for a story about the triangle relationship
between a father, his son and an orphan girl during a strange train
travel.
Retrospectroscope, Kerry Laitala, usa, 1997, 16mm, 5'
Like Plateau's disk, the 'retrospectroscope' can be seen as a
procession of flickering phantasies and fragmented lyricism; its
existence today lies hidden within the processes from which it has
created itself.
videØvoid, David Larcher, fr, 1993, betacam, 34'
Contemplation about the apparent void of time and space as
communication vehicles for thought and matter.
- Continuous screening of documentaries,
6, 7, 8 Februar
14:00 - 20:00 hrs, among others:
The man who wanted to classify the world,
Françoise Levie, be, 2002, betacam, 56'
Documentary about the Belgian visionary Paul Otlet, who, long before
Ted Nelson claimed and invented the term hypertext, imagined the so
called 'Mundaneum', a kind of proto Internet aimed to become a
worldwide information system to support and establish world peace,
but obstructed by WWII.
Alle kennis van de wereld, het papieren internet
IJsbrand van Veelen, nl, 1998, 23'05'
Dutch documentary on Paul Otlet's Mundaneum. See also description of
'The man who wanted to classify the world'.
(Dutch subtitles)
Archaeology of the Moving Image,
Erkki Huhtamo, fi, 1996, betcam, '90
Three issues of a Finnish documentary series about the archaeology of
the moving image.
(English subtitles)
________________________
Tickets and reservations
Ticket prices:
Lectures: E 7,- / with reduction: E 5,-
Film screenings: E 6,25 / with reduction: E 5,-
Passe-partout: E 25,- / with reduction: E 20,-
Opening hours ticket office:
During working days from 13:00 till 18:00 hrs. or till the start of
the program.
During the weekend from 1,5 hour before the start of the program.
Reserving by phone: +31.20 5535100, during opening hours, till 45
minutes before the program starts.
Address:
De Balie
Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10
1017 RR Amsterdam
Tel +31(0)20 5535151
Fax +31(0)20 5535155
Reserve: +31(0)20 5535100
Balie at balie.nl
http://www.debalie.nl
Accessibility
- Tram 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, en 10
- De Balie is accessible for wheelchair users, and is equipped with
audio systems for hearing impaired visitors.
________________________
COLOFON
Editors:
Eric Kluitenberg, concept and final editing
Lucas Evers, coordination production, editing, film program
Design:
T(C), H&M, Felix Janssens.
The Book of Imaginary Media:
Alongside the program a book and DVD will be published by Uitgeverij
De Balie, including contributions by all presenters in this program.
During the weekend of 5 - 8 February it will be possible to pre-order
this publication.
Special thanks:
Edwin Carels, Carel Alphenaar, Elly Ludenhof, Peter van Hoof, Peter Sep
Supported by:
VSB Fonds, the Mondriaan Foundation, and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.
More information about the SPECTRE
mailing list