0503 nascence & glitchy photography

0503 nascence

For a long time I've been interested in what digital cameras do to when struggling with low light conditions. The artifacts it produces sometimes look similar to visual white noise on an old TV, but it's not produced in the same way. When a digital camera zooms in to something it can't quite make out, these blotchy approximations, to me, are similar to what our imagination does when we can't quite hear something clearly. For example, when we are in the shower, and music is playing at a level too low to make out what it is, with all the noise from the shower and the bathroom reverb, our brains seem to fill in gaps in the information and we "imagine" a piece of music that is surprisingly different that what is actually playing. When we turn off the water, the music leaps into focus and the illusory music vanishes.

In the 90s for a time I went through a photography phase. I had an old SLR and bought a couple of lenses and a monopod on Ebay. I did some reading and found that high ISO film was good for shooting in low light, but that I should expect a grainy result. This attracted me bc I love photos with lots of grain. So I took my camera out at night and experimented with shutter speeds, apertures, and 3200(?) ISO B&W film I got from a camera store. After a ton of disappointing results coming back from the developer, I took my camera into a rock club. I was glad I had a monopod bc it didn't take up much space and was easy to move my setup around. There were dancing drunk people all over the place after all. These shots were the best successes I had. I didn't shoot the band much. What interested me were the faces of the goers enjoying the music and having a good time. I set up close to the stage, off to the side and got the camera up as high as I could and shot down at clusters of people. I had a bunch of faces in each frame and I loved the many stories and feelings captured in each frame. No flash, of course. That would pull everyone out of the moment I wanted to shoot, and probably get me kicked out. When those came back from the developer I was super pleased with the results. I stuck with B&W low light especially when my friends came over and drank, etc. For some reason I left all that stuff with other people when I moved to Korea, and then digital photography became affordable, then ubiquitous, then smartphones had it. Now I'm back at it and that grainy aesthetic still intrigues me, even though it's generally considered crummy photography, I like to use it to generate more abstract images and video that (to me anyway) is more interesting than portraits. Give me a cloudy, amorphous trembling blob on an undulating field of blotchy chaos any day.

0502 nearly

0502 nearly

the first of 4 beautiful days with no playing gigs..

I love that I'm playing a lot these days. I love the people I'm playing with (mostly). I love that I'm still somewhat valued in the jazz scene here in Busan. But I need these few days to decompress before the next string of daily gigs hits.

0501 visibility

0501 visibility

thank you to Sebastien Simon for providing today's visual source: a shot through his window at Gwangalli Bridge during a night light show. No other images were used to make this.

0430 quad

0430 quad

Prof. Koshmrl showed us a scene in KOYANISQATSI and Philip Glass's score embedded itself in my head, so I deliberately went with it. It was more obviously a Glass homage before I toned the brass down.

the visuals are further exploration of very simple close-up footage of something unknown moving and using layered digital compositing techniques to get the final result. 

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Today is a big concert (the 3rd) for The Player's Big Band of Busan, so I did this one mostly last night after class. 

0429 piste

0429 piste

riding up and down an escalator w my camera resting on the handrail

0428 filters

0428 filters

Last night at the BISFF, Alaric Hamacher, one of the worlds foremost authorities on stereoscopic filmmaking, showed a wonderful set of eight short 3D films on an enormous screen in full surround sound, 4K at 60fps. It was pretty intense!

That marks the end (save the closing ceremony, which I never attend) of my year's favorite festival.

It was a cue ball break that sent my balls flying in all sorts of directions.. hm.. do I want to go with that analogy? nope.

It was a very catalyzing experience, sparking ideas and shedding light on what can/should/is/isn't done in filmmaking and music. This is why I go every year.

0427 glissando

0427 glissando

The sound source (the only sound source) for this was from a video that Patrick Carle sent to me yesterday. No text accompanied it, but I knew what he wanted me to do with it. Every sound you hear is a manipulation of Patrick running that walking stick (?) over a series of grates in the street.

The image source (aside from Patrick's original video at the end) was me slowly sweeping my phone camera across the floor as a subway came on my way to big band rehearsal yesterday.

Patrick has been contributing to my dailies going all the way back 13 years ago to the 2013 Daily project, only that one didn't include video like this one does.

The films that Pip Chodorov lays before us at his segments of the BISFF are a yearly pilgrimage for me. I learn so much and they are essential to my life now. I absolutely love experimental films and usually their sound tracks are equally brilliant and evolutionary. I feel that part of what draws me to do music is connected to experimental films as well.. more so than performing experimental music live. 

I want to be an experimental filmmaker when I grow up. The problem is: I never will (grow up) and I have so much desire to jump in and do it that (right now) I only give myself one day per piece of music and video. It's a good way to learn, but it does put a cap on how "good" they are. (in my opinion anyway)

In any case, I'm not completely sure where I'm headed, but images are a part of it. Images and sound. So I love films. No big surprise there.

Tonight I'm going to watch a program of 3D films curated by my friend and colleague Alaric Hamacher. He is my favorite kind of maniac when it comes to the intersection of technology and art. He also happens to be one of  THE authorities on stereoscopic filmmaking on the planet. I'm serious. I'll probably never actually make one bc who am I kidding? But one can dream.