League of Musical Urban Robots
perform
Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
7:30 and 10:00
$10
Man with a Movie Camera is a visionary silent documentary by Russian director Dziga Vertov. The film presents a gestalt portrait of life in Odessa in 1929: day breaks, the citizens file into factories, machines machinate, and the wheel of life spins, with all stops detailed and deconstructed by the omnipresent cameraman.
Vertov deploys a stunning range of cinematic inventions: double exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, Dutch angles, extreme close-ups, tracking shots, footage played backwards, animations. (At one point he whips out a split screen tracking shot with opposite Dutch angles - money!)
This film - which investigates the ecology of humans and industrial machines - is appropriately accompanied by League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots, and ensemble of artists and technologists who create robotic musical instruments. Founded in 2000 by musician and engineer Eric Singer, LEMUR creates exotic, sculptural musical instruments which integrate robotic technology. LEMUR's philosophy is to build robots that are new types of musical instruments, as opposed to animatronic robots that play existing instruments.
For this screening, six composers have created original scores for LEMUR:
Zemi17
Leif Krinkle
Luke DuBois
Zach Layton
DJ Olive
Jim Coleman
for more information, music and video, visit
http://www.lemurbots.org
Curated by Sam Zimmerman
http://www.actiondaddy.com
Link:
http://www.monkeytownhq.com/april2008.html
Sam is a multimedia producer and was one of the owners of Monkey Town (http://www.monkeytownhq.com), where he curated video art programs. Since 2003 he has been a frequent collaborator with Genesis P-Orridge and with partner Jeanne Angel creates projections for Psychic TV and Thee Majesty. In 2011, Sam collaborated with Jason Van Anden to create the Android app "I'm Getting Arrested."
Since 1995, Sam has developed CD-rom games, radio programs, and produced over 100 websites for clients ranging from Fruit of the Loom and First USA, to Smith Barney and Sotheby's International Realty. From 2004 to 2009 he was a producer and Creative Director for Plum TV.
Prior to his work in new media, Sam was preoccupied with music and performance. In the early 90's, Sam lived in San Diego and was a member of Crash Worship. After moving to New York, Sam formed Action Daddy, which performed between 1996 and 2003, originally as pomprock spectacle, and in later incarnations featuring video sampling and junkyard midi gear.
Sam's video artwork includes: community movie-making projects "Bacchanale" (2006), "Mago" (2007) and Vena Virago's "Honey Bunny" (2008) @ Monkey Town NYC, production for Claude Wampler's PERFORMANCE (career ender) @ the Kitchen (NYC 2006), museum installation with Genesis P-Orridge @ Kunstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin 2004) and Centre Pompidou (Paris 2009), audio design for assume vivid astro focus @ Deitch Projects (NYC 2003), and music videos for Pink&Brown and the Rolling Stones.
"Bacchanale" has screened in the 2007 New York Underground Film Festival, the 2007 Mission Creek Film Festival (San Francisco), the 2007 Chicago Underground Film Festival, the 2008 Pornfilmfestival Berlin, the 2009 Rated X Festival (Amsterdam) and Symposion Pornonom (Vienna 2009).
marc garrett