Matt Johnson 302-003

                I feel as though the sense of community is the key element here when considering the best elements of “Microcinema.” In 302 alone we’ve been nurturing a community with the class by collectively involving ourselves in various projects with various partners. And with the upcoming music video project our collaborations and associations with continue to grow into bigger and better groups!                 Regarding Avin’s article, I enjoyed getting a sense of her idea of Microcinema she that “there was a sense of adventure in seeking out the obscure films shown there…” I can certainly say that while my own exposure to Microcinema is limited, a can totally get on board with this sentiment. Microcinemas have this unique ability to foster a localized film community, branching out from the ciné-clubs out post-War France, or Vogel’s Cinema 16 (40s- 60s) in New York...

            I really enjoyed the more socio-politically driven filmmakers from this week! We really seem to have some elusive vanguards on our hands. It was especially interesting considering Gabby’s presentation of Jen Proctor. It must have been quite a challenge to pool together resources based off a few Interweb videos and a single interview via phone. Though in the same vein, Gabby also had a great chance to really get to know the filmmaker by speaking with her directly. And she really seemed to have a sense of who Proctor was, having described her as an intellectually soft-spoken person; though one more than happy to chat on at length.             I felt as though there was a great deal to take away from Proctor’s philosophy on filmmaking too, as she favors re-purposing footage from home movies and various films. Her way of appropriation, subversion and deconstruction of filmic materials really ...

                To be candid, I’m a bit unsure how I should go about this portrait. I want to find a way to survey myself without being self-serving. Find a means to be self-aware, but not self-conscious. It’s funny how often we tend to be so divided, so dually self-gratifying and self-effacing. I certainly don’t want to celebrate myself, if fact I’m not sure if I truly could. If I can, I would like to find a way to survey myself, but without glorifying or memorializing my image in any way. I would be better if I reflect, better yet, refract my image. These certainly pose some restrictions, but I think that setting boundaries will be a good means a discovering some new avenue to portraying myself. To paint a portrait that both eschews my image, but also refracts it in some way                 Already I’m becoming too pretentious or ...

               Talk about engaging with the class… Dylan was great! So engaging and full of energy!     I really enjoyed his introduction where he asked the class to keep our heads down and eyes closed. Continuing his dialogue he circled the room, rousing this sense of anxiety and excitement  (akin to the nervous feeling as a kid playing Duck-Duck-Goose). And finally… LOUD NOISE!                 He knew what he was doing I did so well. At that moment all of our attention was on him, and served as a nice segue for the remainder of his spirited presentation.                 Jan Svankmajer was such an interesting artist. I love how his sound designs makes the images feel so abrasively tactile. Almost to the point of corporeal perversion. So many tongues! So creative in how he...

Great presentations this week! I feel as though we’re getting increasingly spikier in our experimental aesthetics, and branching off from the home-spun tenderness and grand-fatherly personality of Jonas Mekas. Beginning with Stan I guess it takes a Stan to know one. His presentation on Brakhage did really well in focusing on his artistic charge of exploring human understanding through visual perception. From what I can see, this artistic goal can be seen throughout his decades of work. I really enjoyed the humanist and domestic feel of Window Water Baby Moving ’59, and I am definitely going to finish watching the film at my next convenience. As we have seen in Brakhage’s work, and will continue to see with the Kuchar Brothers, there is definitely this thread of domestic/home-movie filmmaking in the collective body of New York-based experimental artists. I’d be curious to know just how much of Mekas’s personal style and filmmaking philosophy influenced other avant-garde artists,...

                  This was undoubted my favorite project so far! Using limited film stock really necessitates this appreciation for fully considering each shot and engaging with the work. In fact, we had actually met a kind, older gentleman during our galivant through the city, whom spoke to the very same sentiment. Having both a fixed amount of film stock and continually shifting sources of light allowed for us, collectively, to absorb our visual domain and garner this newfound appreciation for subtle nuances of life, much in the way that our sound recordings had also done for us. Also, learning how to double expose on film, was both haphazard and delightful! Working with Ben, Ryan, and Christian on our photography library was nothing short of rambunctious, spirited, and a truly fun exercise. Picking downtown for majority of our shoot, we had this unique, shared experience of not only exploring and ...

     Lynne was not only a wonderful speaker, but a delight to be around. She had that infectious smile that speaks most genuinely to herself as a human being; and too, there’s this subtle and keen way she has in seeing the world. Who else would have have thought to appreciate an hour of reflection/meditation between washing and drying a load of clothes?      I think that her generosity and attention to detail was relayed quite well through her film Drawn and Quartered. In the short we see the spliced frames, like a graph of an XY axis, of inclusive images of naked bodies shifting around atop a NY city rooftop. I enjoyed her thoughts on her editing process, which in many ways reminded me of Mekas. She discussed forgoing preconceived arrangements or order to her edits. She spoke of taking what film developed and splicing it up together as she went, allowing her unconscious to unfold as she rediscovered her work. For Lynne, “meaning came from action as the ...