Beginning life as a radio series on London’s ResonanceFM, Welcome to Mars is an extensive and deep analysis of post-war American myth-science, science-fact and science-fiction. Ken Hollings and composer Simon James created a dense weave of alien synth drones and prickly social history. The mixing of reality and fiction, hopes and fact in this era is so chaotic and euphoric. The American post-War desire for the ‘Future’ is palpable in Hollings’ delivery, a desire to extend all limits of human consciousness, behaviour and thinking. A truly thrilling and perverse period of mutant growth for humankind. Soaking in the wealth of Hollings’ research can be overwhelming in the radio series mode; the flow of names, affiliations and institutes often requires a rewind to gain a thorough understanding, so I am very happy Strange Attractor Press will be publishing the book of Welcome to Mars in mid-November…

Welcome To Mars draws upon newspaper accounts, advertising campaigns, declassified government archives, old movies and newsreels from this unique period when the future first took on a tangible presence. Ken Hollings depicts an unsettled time in which the layout of Suburbia reflected atomic bombing strategies, bankers and movie stars experimented with hallucinogens, brainwashing was just another form of interior decoration and strange lights in the sky were taken very seriously indeed.

“Ken Hollings shows brilliantly how the extraordinary web of technologies that drove the Cold War have shaped not just our culture but the very way we think of ourselves as human beings. Welcome to Mars offers a rare and fascinating glimpse of the roots of the strange humanoid culture we live in today.” – Adam Curtis

In Hong Kong a compilation of  Sandberg Institute artist’s video work that I curated was shown at Videotage (cheers Alvis and all that turned out) in Xiamen we held a group exhibition with Xiamen Art College students at CEAC and in Shanghai we had a few days off to soak in the big city mayhem.

Christian Marclay’s Screen Play was the final event in Shanghai’s eArts outdoor performance program that also included a performance by legendary Quake re-fixer / modder Feng Mengbo. Held at a temporary outdoor stage in Shanghai’s west, the audience was comprised of young and old, seeing octogenarians and kids dancing up the front was a blast. I’m thinking hard to recall a new media performance event in Europe or Australia that had it’s audience comprised of such varied ages. Marclay’s video score was interpreted by three mixed groups of Chinese and American musicians. Edited within an inch of it’s life, the images were tightly focused in their energy and dramatic flow. Sometimes linked by the motion within the frame, the content of the frame or by the simple colourful animations overlayed on the appropriated film imagery. A great amount for the improvisational performer to focus on, packed with patterns and rules, to break or follow. Sounds included Chinese opera percussion, squirming impro jazz Sax, crunchy MaxMSP processing, self-made breath controlled instruments and an old school Shanghai punk band.

The most successful collaboration in my eyes was the second set, comprised of Bruce Gremo, Ben Houge and Yan Jun. Highly synthetic sounds that closely followed the on-screen score. The artificiality of the sounds complemented the 1940-50’s black and white film stock, playing against the perceived ‘authenticity’ of film grain and documentary form. This set stayed with me long after. Great work.

Leaving Shanghai we heard a loud bang over the right wing just after leaving the ground. I knew something was up. Twenty minutes into the flight there was a discernible hum and rattle. The plane dropped speed and it was clear it was being flown manually. The captain came on the P.A. and told us in an almost too chirpy Dutch accent it was time to return to Shanghai. Highlights of this stressful situation included a group of Romanian men smoking novelty electronic cigarettes in the aisle, coping with stress by creating more stress? Tourists rushing to take photos of the fuel dumping over the East China Sea, the in-cabin monitors showing ‘time to destination: 5 minutes’ when were circling over the sea. I saw the air brakes on the wing extend to lose speed and altitude and I was sure we were destined for a water landing. A tight, choking knot of fear in my stomach. After returning safely to the airport and the round of applause on touchdown we were instructed to stay in the plane while the damage was ascertained. After two hours inside the cabin we were told it was a defective piston on a door near the landing gear. A replacement part was searched for; after another hour it was decided to stay at the airport hotel until the next day. We spent the night in a futuristic Franco Cozzo/Scarface/SpaceAirport hotel from another dimension. The hotel looked about twenty minutes old. Round beds, mirrors on the ceiling, designer fittings and views of the landing jumbos. My favourite Chinese state TV show ‘Dialogue’ was on the plasma, usually two or three guests and a host sitting at a table discussing Chinese geopolitical matters and economics. Refreshingly low-tech after the visual bubblegum of CNN. Like watching a television format from the fifties. People speaking to each-other and a three cameras. After the rigmarole of checking-in a full 747 of passengers in two hours, the flight went very smoothly direct to Amsterdam. Apart from the dodgy tuna sandwich I had at Shanghai airport that made me weak in the plane and sick in Old Europe. So many days on the mainland eating quick, cheap and tasty hawker food cooked by grandmas on the street and what gets me is the last bite, a dodgy sanger from Shangers.

Post-graffiti. Peeling posters. Buff-proof ink. Dirty Canvas. Gallery and street. White walls.

http://www.flu01.com

http://www.upstreamgallery.nl/jeroen-jongeleen

EURO EURO BILLS Y’ALL

Kat Barron and Lara Thoms a.k.a. SPAT’N’LOOGIE a.k.a awesome hybrid performance creators a.k.a Charltons ‘Gangstas Paradise’ Karaoke Champions have quickly moved from their HOLIDAY show during Melbourne’s recent Next Wave Festival to a residency in Rauma, rural Finland.

What are you doing in Finland?

Soaking up the sun. Taking tours of ‘Rauma’s dark side’, inlcuding a date in a car with ‘pussy patrol’ sprayed on the doors. Writing a feature film. Making a cooking show. Hanging out with teenagers. Making videos at the pool. Making paper mache muscle suits and spitting in each others faces. 7 hour dinner parties. Getting into craft – creating heaps of ‘buddies’.

Do the Finns make good conversationalists?
Do you have any Finnish tales or jokes now?

The most popular joke in Rauma is to say ‘Hey, what’s going on in Rauma tonight?’ – funny because nothing is ever going on in Rauma tonight. Also to add a T to the beginning of Rauma. The locals we have met have been pretty good conversationalists, we met two brothers who were satanists and told us they  wanted to make a didgeridoo out of a t-rex bone and come on as guests on our cooking show to cook mock human (soy based). One of them was going to begin a job managing the local nuclear power plant. We are a bit concerned about that.

What’s the greatest thing that’s happened to you during the residency?

Buddies. (shell art). Seeing a young punk with multi colored giant mohawk dive from an 18 metre platform gracefully into the local pool fully clothed. An all-accapella heavy metal band in Helsinki.

Has the constant daylight affected your ability to work or sleep?

In the beginning we were waking up at 2am, thinking it was 2pm, etc. Its getting dark at about 12 now, we still can’t bring ourselves to sleep before 3am.

How did the cooking show come about?

Boredom and hunger and inability to ever eat outside of the house, entertainment for close friends and coconuts.

Have you been to the Finnish outback?

We are in the Finnish outback.  We have seen crop circles in fields nearby. No, Lapland would be nice.

What else are you doing in Europe?

We are planning to visit St. Petersburg and Stockholm during our visit for good times, after the residency we are going Linz to attend Ars Electronica.  Other plans include making a skype video artwork gameshow with you.

Exotic?

Reindeer stew.

Where can I revel in the excitement of candy?

Pick and pay, this is a mall city.

Whats hot this summer?

Roller blading, peroxided hair, sausage dogs, PUA’s

It was 1998 and our film night HIPNOTISMO was just kicking off. Held in the old Theatreworks hall in St Kilda, we were nineteen and full of beans. Amiel, Dorian and I were excited to show Conner’s MONGOLOID, a found-footage music video before music video. We had the reel of 16mm film from the state film centre, the projector was in working order and we had a half-full auditorium of late-night buffs. The 1978 film cuts together post-WW2 science experiments, nuclear tests and monochromatic chemistry animations, all wildly out of context, with the plasticated future-retro new wave of Akron’s favourite sons DEVO pulsing behind the high-school science. All very influential to us young artists and film-makers. We doubled MONGOLOID with MONGRELOID, George Kuchar’s 1978 film of a man and his intimate relationship with Bocko the dog.

In a perverse twist Bruce Conner’s MONGOLOID is unavailable on YouTube, due to a copyright infringement notice. Did the estate of Conner submit an objection? It never ceases to amaze me how precious stake-holders can be with found-footage work, to the point of placing their own copyright symbol on the tail of a video. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. It comes from the unsolicited pile of visual culture around us, it goes back to it, given a spin by the consumer/producer. Value-added organic compost in the electrified slurry of appearances, images and signs.

R.I.P. BRUCE CONNER

DEVO play Australia and Japan in July and August – sing along with MONGOLOID very loud.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZWmf7r_37eA

two audiovisual works caught my eye:

A short documentary by SINA KHANI, an Iranian-born German living in Amsterdam. First he exalts the power of cinema and television, then releases air captured from a Mosque into a Church in a sequence titled EXHALAL, finds a field to recreate a scene from THE SOUND OF MUSIC, meditates on the power of cinematography and celebrates the day’s shooting with a KEBAB and a COFFEE. He is a very comfortable comic performer, openly asking the cameraman if he is overacting or not. The video was installed on a flimsy table next to a plastic DONER KEBAB takeaway sign. A very free and activated use of sound. Interuptions and cuts. Non-diegetic sound and crash endings.

SINA KHANI

A song by Mr. Khani “Let’s not hate the Americans”

May 28, Rode Bioscoop Amsterdam

Danish photographer EVA MARIE RODBRO‘s video ‘FUCK YOU KISS ME’ presents the lives of a group of teenagers living in a snowed-in, northern community, it could be LAPPLAND or ICELAND or NORWAY, i dont know. Black and white DV footage that is about to fracture with iced-out beauty and banality. A scandanavian KIDS with no Harmony K in sight. Mundane activities documented in cabins. Kids trying out new crunk dance moves. Slicing open a polar bear’s chest cavity. Slam dunks on a snow covered court. An observational doco with minimal dialogue, superbly controlled timing and a whole SLAB of atmosphere. i need to see her next work in a cinema not on a stool.

EVA MARIE RODBRO

you are now about to witness the strength of GUUS knowledge.

holland were unimaginative and paralysed by russia, uselessly attacking through the centre repeatedly and being stopped by russias stonewall defense. very classy performance by the ruskis. lovely second goal, tap off the ankle from an extreme cross.

after helping S.KOREA, AUTRALIA and now RUSSIA perform beyond the sum of their parts in big tournaments, GUUS HIDDINK deserves a CUP OF BEER and a VEGEMITE SANDWICH. when will he assist LATVIA to win the world cup ?

now all i want to see is a RUSSIA v. TURKEY final, two non-EU countries in the euro cup final.

i watched the match on a plasma through the window of an 18century pub in amsterdam, sitting in the street while the orange facepaint slowly dripped off the supporters faces, and their plastic hats got crumpled and stained. very sad last drinks.

‘carn the cossacks…

goodbye melbourne community techno unit, hello amsterdam orange plastic hats