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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">NOT STILL ART FESTIVAL REVIEW</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Dear friends,</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Here's the news on the 11th annual Not Still Art Festival.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">The international screening attracted a great crowd from NYC and
beyond.  </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">But what the attending artists most appreciated was the interviews!</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">(concensus: the screenings and interviews should be released on
DVD.)</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">PERSONAL EXPRESSIONS - SENSATIONS - PHILOSOPHIES -</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">deep+serious / crazy+wild / cynical+absurd / playful+silly</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">PLUS the *extraordinarily beautiful.*</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">THAT is what non-narrative and abstract work is now -</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">2D, 3D virtual reality, video artists and musicians/composers/sound
artists and poets are doing exactly what they want - without
restriction. They are transcending technology.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">So, with that introduction, here is the Not Still Art Festival review.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Carol Goss, Artistic Director</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">[for pix and links: http://www.improvart.com/nsa/ ]</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">The Not Still Art International Screening opened with “thereabouts,”
a subtle yet tour de force piece by animators Peter Byrne and
Carole Woodlock with Ethan Borshansky’s music.  “thereabouts”
suggests much and confirms little – the aerial shots could be Iraq or
a weekend hike.  The dynamic movement between abstraction and
realism is powerful.  Borshansky’s sound pushes you forward, then
it retreats, erasing something - but you’re not sure what.  There is
something important happening here, but it’s at a subliminal level
which leaves you in suspense.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Particle animation is Stephen Larson's métier.  His work continues
to evolve and ever become more expressive.  “Discord: metal and
meat” sluices through turbulent organic matter – blood is inferred
and eventually becomes a sea.  Metal, representing mechanical
constraint on nature, proves inadequate.  Larson’s music is complex
and rhythmic.  USA.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">“Cycle,” animation and music by Edward Ramsay-Morin, is a 3D
assembly-line nightmare.  Humans play a small role in this black
and grey world of pipes, gears and red globs – which are the
product and life force of the system.  Whereas Larson’s red blood
dominates nature, Ramsay-Morin’s red substance is controlled by
an unseen force. Neo-serfdom is implied. USA.</span></font></div>
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<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">"The Suskind Sisters,” directed and conceived by Kadet Kuhne,
reveals that linguistic inflection and nuance is not limited to voice,
but is conveyed equally by gesture.  We see only the hand gestures
of two sisters conversing.  What we hear is sound triggered by their
hand motion – and it is just as expressive as language – with nearly
all the content. USA.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Marco Villani’s “ReadyMadeLife” takes body language to another
level – that of the surveillance camera.  The blue light of the CRT, in
high and low resolution, reveals human behavior as vulnerable.  The
subjects are extraordinarily relaxed in their unselfconscious state.  A
strange, elongated *silent night* sung in a shopping mall in Genoa
Italy further distances the subjects from their invisible observers.
Italy.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Ruud Vrugt’s “Eyes” whisks by in a moment. Macro eyes, a whirling
globe, Bergman-like trekkers on an icy horizon repete and speed up
to toy-box like music.  This oddly familiar motion implies the gloss of
television advertising without the product-flogging content. Debut.
Netherlands.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Daveed Schwartz works Benjamin Peret’s poem “New
Superstitions” into a marvelous multitasking take on Rene Magritte,
which Magritte, no doubt, would have loved.  Period images are
keyed into frames behind Magritte, who is animated with flailing
arms and heard in French - as we see text in English revealing
inane advice, such as: “For good luck, break your toothpicks after
use.” USA.</span></font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Brit Bunkley, pushes surrealism just over the edge.  His hyper
realistic 3D animation concerns itself with human movement in
relation to architecture and nature.  In “Rural Vignette No.3” we
know we’ve been had when the helical lines on the lighthouse start
to revolve.  But then, he shows us waves crashing on the shore –
and we’re not sure if this is real or Bunkley.  Debut. New Zealand.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">John Hawk’s “Parts Per Million” cuts us adrift as in a daydream.  We
hear the sounds of the wharf, but our eyes are defocused, and
shapes drift by like floaters in our eyes.  It is only when a steely drop
of liquid occasionally plummets from above that our consciousness
is jarred to attention.  This hazy piece reinforces an awareness of
the *moment* that more accurate detail would obliterate.  Debut.
USA.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Lora Petrova Markova, plays with cut and paste like a school child -
a blue girl manages to swim through a 2D world of torn color paper
and zippy pop music. Bulgaria.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Animator, Stephanie Maxwell, finds an admirable collaborator in
Michaela Eremiasova.  “All That Remains” moves at lightning speed
through thousands of abstract and natural images.  Maxwell’s use of
B/W and color forms plays well with Eremiasova’s dynamic
electronic score. USA + Czech Republic.  </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Jaeyoon Park’s 3D animation occupies a white space filled with
mundane objects from traditional Korean culture.  But this space is
more spirit world than daily life.  And in “Evocation” the symbolism of
the carp, the crane and the empty slippers all convey, even to the
uninitiated, a sense of poignant loss.  Junho Yang’s music, with Soo
Myun Jeong’s performance, pushes the piece into the realm of the
ecstatic. South Korea.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Robert Rolfe-Reading’s “Contemporary Mandala” is perfect trance,
and if you’ve never managed to meditate, then this piece is for you.
Spherical perfection transforms into the cosmos and back again.
Debut. USA. </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Yeon Choi’s animation stands up to the considerable challenges of
Jerry McGuire’s music and poetry in “Learning to Play How High the
Moon.”  McGuire is concerned with Nietsche and the inadequacy of
normative modes of thought.  Being “backwards” becomes a
metaphor for Choi’s images of a woman traversing a barren
landscape made of fallen goddesses, perhaps Niuka, the Chinese
goddess who created humans then was indifferent to their petty
self-destruction.  The claustrophobic flooded medieval castle and
caged bird stand in contrast to the soul which is free. Debut. USA.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">INTERMISSION</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">The semicircle is primordial, and we can contemplate it as horizon
or steering wheel.  Ian Wilcox implies the latter with his screeching,
throttling sound design.  But in this excerpt of “Rorrim Pt.1, ” Andrew
Greaves’ barely 3D animation is more ambiguous.  A flat plane is
creased by an unseen instrument, and we are persuaded that we
are observing an imaginary yet tangible space. United Kingdom.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Musicians Scott Smallwood and Stephan Moore of Evidence,
commissioned video artist, Betsey Biggs, to create images for “Path
1.”  The sound design seems ordinary enough until you get deeper
into the piece.  Slowly it evolves and compounds its effect until you
buy into its aesthetics.  Amazingly, Betsey Biggs has created a
video which is as mysterious and layered as the music.  The
semicircle appears again, but this time conveys cycles. USA.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Thomas Liphard pushes the mysterious into the realm of magic.  He
does this in his short piece, “Composition 4,” not with special effects
or special music, but with a levitated look at the moment.  Liphard
doesn’t want to tell you something, he wants to share an
inexplicable moment with you.  It is just a moment, and if he were
not there to point to it, you would most probably miss it.  Debut.
USA. </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">American and Autralian desert imagery, plus cultural artifacts, are
the virtual environment of “Tracer” which Deborah Cornell created
and specially navigated for video on an Immersadesk.  Richard
Cornell, who composes for electronic environments as well as
acoustic instruments, created the score for “Tracer,” performed by
the Boston Music Viva chamber ensemble.  The poignancy of the
violin and piano duet correspond to the pathos we feel for the
remnants of ancient cultures.  This is the excerpted last movement
of the more extended piece. USA.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">“Dust” is the emotional sequel to “Tracer.”  Golden light barely filters
through the semi-opague atmosphere created by Shimpei Takeda in
video that looks more like particle animation.  John Hudak’s
acoustic and electronic music releases partial phrases and
distortions, emphasizing the loss of form.  Debut.  Japan + USA. </span></font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Gerhard Mantz’s b/w “Allegro Ma Non Troppo” is alien life with a
groove.  This anthropomorphized 3D bipedal bot hogs the dance
floor with virtuostic grace.  Mantz’s music is fun as well. An excerpt.
Germany.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Heath Hanlin kicks it up a notch in his b/w 3D “Hell’s Prow.”
Information from Digital Elevation Model (DEM) datasets from the
United States Geological Survery (USGS) output a molecular model
and sound which gyrates to ever faster code instructions.  There is
order writhing through chaos. An excerpt. USA.  </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">László Zsolt Bordos and Ivó Kovács collaborated on this b/w 3D
extravaganza.  Music is by Prxt Krisztián Prokob.  They ratchet us
through mechanical wizardry and optical tricks, leaving us with a
glorious portrait of a young, Renaissance man flying overhead –
perhaps it is a self-portrait. Bulgaria.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Erik Rasmussen's animation<i> </i>"Infinite Range,” a hyper 2D-3D
trajectory, pulses with life without anthropomorphizing movement or
form. Thor Alvarez’s<i> </i>startling super-pop music whips and swings.
USA.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Chris Casady’s wit can always be relied on.  In his flash animation,
"The Rice Song," he punches his images with comic clarity to the
music of John Dentino and The Fibonaccis.  Proof that abstraction
is not without a sense of humor. USA.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">99Hooker, cynical, un-PC poet of our age, sets his cultural
clairvoyance to animated psychedelic bubbles in “Static Ocean”.
Debut. USA.</span></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Brian Evans only make pieces 2:15 seconds long.  “Amazilia” is no
exception.  These 1950s retro-modern mosaics are created from
datamaps, but that doesn’t take away from their lush sensuousness.
USA.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Kevi Louis-Johnson’s video “Blueroom,” with location sound, is a
montage of city streets in a palette from aqua to ultramarine.  The
layered motion creates an abstraction of movement itself. USA.</span></font></p>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">In “Turgator” Marjan Moghaddam has animated blue ectoplasm on
a white ground with audio triggers from Adam Caine’s relentless
electric guitar.  Caine’s trio, with Ken Filiano on bass and Phil
Haynes on drums, punches life into this abstraction.  The interface
is seamless and the result is brilliant. USA.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">******************************************************************************</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Thanks to our magnificent interns - Derek Larson, from Yale
University, and </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Keli Bodle, from Louisiana State Univerity.  Also, thanks to William
Laziza for demonstrating his interactive video art and for technical
support.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Thanks to improvartart.com, telenet.net and the MicroMuseum.com.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Special thanks to the Experimental Television Center's Presentation
Funds program, which is supported by the New York State Council
on the Arts.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">******************************************************************************</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">THE END</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">If you wish to be removed from this list, please reply with "nsa2" n
the subject field.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1"><span style="font-size:8pt"><i>Not Still Art is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts</i></span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">N O T   S T I L L   A R T</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">http://www.improvart.com/nsa/</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">[email protected]   </span></font></div>
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