UNU Fall Conversations

This Fall, I had the privilege to work in collaboration with the United Nations University at the United Nations, New York. I directed and edited the videotaping of this conversation centering around the all day conference "Prevention of Mass Atrocities - from mandate to realization" on October 10, 2007. The conversation is between Jean-Marc Coicaud from UN University, Francis Deng from SAPGMA, and Tori Holt from the Henry L. Stimson Center. Our excellent production team from New School University included myself, Dawnja Burris, Gisela Albuquerque, Jomchanok Aswavibul, Laura Van Schendel, and Laura Thies. Opening titles designed by UNU.

Telescope

I created "Telescope" in the Fall of 2007 with the assistance of Bev Wilson. Bev and I made the N-train trek to Coney Island to collect footage and sounds. "Telescope" explores the fragmentary and mesmerizing nature of memory. Images and words interweave to tell the story of a fixated voyeur from her own perspective. "Telescope" is comprised solely of still images. The vastness and clarity of each image is echoed in the expansive sound of the wind. This is the story of an individual isolated and disjoined from society, from an old lover, even from her own experiences. As the viewer experiences the voyeur's gaze, one comes to understand "Telescope" as the mutable expression of memory. What are our relationships to past experiences? How is memory constructed? Is memory a movement, a frozen image, a fragmented phrase repeated? Or, is memory a landscape altered and haunted by our own sub-conscious? I am thrilled to report that "Telescope" will be included in the NSSR Memory Conference "Is an Interdisciplinary Field of Memory Studies Possible?" to be held February 7-9, 2008 at the New School for Social Research.

(Photos in this post by Bev Wilson)

Shine

Art from Ashes is a Denver non-profit organization. The mission of Art from Ashes is to empower high-risk youth through poetry and other creative therapies that facilitate expression, connection and healing. I created a promotional video, "Shine," for the organization to document the power of the program. "Shine" was shown at the 910 Arts Gallery in Denver, Colorado.

Oceanic

The live VJ set “Oceanic” is a 16-minute reel of footage that I created with Resolume and Vegas. Performing this set live, I wanted to embrace the dynamic and empowering mutability of digital cinema. Merging images, I strove to create a sea of connections. In this living sea of light, I wanted to transform distinct sounds and images into a multiplicity of forms that culminated in the production of a single image. Jordan Belson’s use of screen real estate and his ability to create evocative abstract video influenced the conceptual design of this project. I produced "Oceanic" in the Spring of 2007 for the University of Denver's Digital Cinema, Theory and Practice class taught by Trace Reddell. Some images were taken from the database on internetarchive.org.

The Book Says

The music video “The Book Says” is a contemplation of redemption and judgment incorporating parts of Soul Coughing’s song “$300” and Johnny Cash’s haunting song “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”. In the contrasting of images and themes, I hoped to suggest a leap of faith, a movement: from disbelief to faith, from confusion to clarity, from abstraction to narrative. I produced this video in Final Cut Pro, but used many of the layering sensibilities employed by Resolume. For this project, I was strongly influenced by Neil Postman.

His writings in Technopoly continually return to the concept of a lens or a filter as the source of meaning and direction in the world. In acknowledging the focusing aspects of any lens, I also wanted to question the limiting behavior of any lens, structure, or dogma. I produced this video in Spring of 2007 for the University of Denver's Digital Cinema, Theory and Practice class taught by Trace Reddell. Some images were taken from archival footage on internetarchive.org and from NASA's video collection. The title, "The Book Says," comes from the film Magnolia.