Lillian Schwartz: computer-mediated art pioneer
"Produced by Larry Keating for AT&T. 'THE ARTIST AND THE COMPUTER is an excellent introductory informational film that dispels some of the 'mystery' of computer-art technology, as it clarifies the necessary human input of integrity, artistic sensibilities, and aesthetics…. Ms. Schwartz’s voice over narration explains what she hoped to accomplish in the excerpts from a number of her films and gives insight into the artist’s problems and decisions…. I would recommend THE ARTIST AND THE COMPUTER for all grade levels, in classes on filmmaking, art appreciation, and human values.' - John Canemaker, Film News, Animation, Jan.-Feb. 1978. Cine Golden Eagle 1976; New York Film Festival; USIA - Animation and Education 1977; Annual Creative Problem Solving Institute, 1980. Recent screening at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, December 10, 2012."
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Chasing Ice: a call to action about climate change
"Chasing Ice is the story of one man's mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers.
As the debate polarizes America and the intensity of natural disasters ramps up globally, Balog finds himself at the end of his tether. Battling untested technology in subzero conditions, he comes face to face with his own mortality. It takes years for Balog to see the fruits of his labor. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. Chasing Ice depicts a photographer trying to deliver evidence and hope to our carbon-powered planet."
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Documentaries were always forms of re-presentation
"But as a strategy and a form, the interview-oriented film has problems of its own. ... the film-maker with intertitles, making patently clear what has been implicit all along: documentaries always were forms of re-presentation, never clear windows onto 'reality'; the film-maker was always a participant-witness and an active fabricator of meaning, a producer of cinematic discourse rather than a neautral or all-knowing reporter of the way things truely are."
(David MacDougall p.260, 1985)
MacDougall, David. "The Voice of Documentary", in Movies and Methods: Volume II, Bill Nichols ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
Fig.1 Dana Perry and her son Evan Scott Perry, at age 3, HBO documentary "Boy Interrupted" [http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/boy-interrupted]
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Landfill Harmonic: creating music from recycled materials
"Landfill Harmonic tells the story of 'Los Reciclados' - 'The Recycled Orchestra' - a youth orchestra in Cateura, Paraguay, whose instruments are made out of the very trash that the town is built on.
WHEN FAVIO CHAVEZ AND LUIS SZARAN came to Cateura to start a music school, they realized that they had more students than instruments. Thanks to the resourcefulness of Cola, a Cateurian garbage picker, an orchestra came together, now featuring violins, cellos, and other instruments artfully put together from trash. Los Reciclados de Cateura, now an independent orchestra, recently performed in Brazil and Colombia under Chavez's direction."
(Nina Mashurova, 12 December 2012, Matador)
Trailer for "Landfill Harmonic". The project is being created by Alejandra Nash (Founder and Executive Producer), Juliana Penaranda-Loftus (Producer), Rodolfo Madero (Executive Producer), Jorge Maldonado (Co-producer), Graham
Townsley (Director) Jennifer Redfearn (Consulting producer), Tim Fabrizio and Neil Barrett (Directors of Photography) and Monica Barrios (Production Consultant).
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Art Photo Index: important fine-art and documentary photography
"Art Photo Index (API) is a visual index of important art and documentary photographers, their images and their websites from throughout the world.
Our goal with API is to become the most useful index and search engine for discovering and exploring fine-art and documentary photography. Unlike other general purpose search engines where pertinent information is buried within the less relevant, the Art Photo Index search tool focuses only on a vetted art and documentary photographers and their work, making it the ideal search engine for our discerning audience of curators, gallery directors, publishers, editors, picture researchers, collectors and others who love art and documentary photography.
The photographers included in Art Photo Index have been selected as a result of their accomplishments in the art or documentary photography field. Many of those included have been published by major photobook publishers or serious art photography magazines. Some have received awards given by art and documentary photography organizations. Others are represented by major art photography galleries."
(Photo-Eye)
Fig.1 Meighan Ellis (2009). "The Assistant", Te Aro, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, from the The Sitters series.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
