His destruction of the film is very reminiscent of Basinski’s work in The Disintegration Loops - mirroring the perceived deterioration of society through purposeful artistic ruin. ![]() While synced digital projections have become the norm for large touring artists, the organic and human nature of having a person behind the lens made the concert an irreproducible historical and visual event. ![]() The choice of having a human operator on 16mm film was an important one. And when one thinks it has reached its climax, the projectionist takes a lighter and sets the film on fire, the blurry emulsion of film melting downwards like a chemical avalanche. This is quickly replaced with images from the Soviet Bloc: mysterious Russian blueprints, Brutalist architecture, vacant housing projects, snowy factories - then images of religious fervor: a diagram of a stigmata, sketches of crosses, hurried notes on faith - then the victims of political violence: a dead body in the street, intelligence files and headshots of (presumably arrested) civilians. It grows into a sputtering of blinding film, and a scrawling of the word “HOPE” slowly becomes visible. A film operator, an official member of the band, physically and intuitively flipped these reels to the music in a enthralling and incredibly moving performance.įor example, during the set’s opening song, “Mladic,” named after the Bosnian war criminal, a faint flickering of white light - not unlike Thomas Wilfred’s lumia “color organ” installations - graces the screen. Perhaps the most stirring elements of the show, however, were the projections shot from the back of the venue from a specialized rig: four specialized film projectors on a raised platform, with dozens of reels of 16mm film dangling from racks like the vines of a plastic tree. With the bones of a glorious traditional concert hall, complete with balcony booths and a glass dome, its present owners have left it with exposed brick, gray concrete patches and exposed structural elements, conjuring images of abandonment and repurpose. The venue itself, Thalia Hall, paralleled the music being played. I had the privilege of watching Godspeed You! live in Chicago on Valentine’s Day. This is evident in Godspeed You!’s projections: an overwhelming flickering wash of black and white images operated by a projectionist showing scenes of political unrest, factory plants and deer in headlights. Godspeed You! was born out of the ‘90s resurgence of American left-leaning anarchism - a political movement galvanized by what many understood to be a capitalist world driven by environmental destruction, unchecked corporate power and government overreach. In lieu of any vocals or a front man, samples of police scanners or interviews with homeless Americans and mesmerizing projections serve as their lyrics, putting the performance into an apocalyptic context. Its eight members (not including their projectionist) play in a semi-circle on stage with no singular musician taking precedence. The post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor is part of the unique phenomenon of Canadian bands with a seemingly excessive amount of members, such as Arcade Fire or the now-disbanded Broken Social Scene. While the Cold War era has long since passed, concerns about nuclear annihilation have been replaced with fears of apocalyptic death cults such as ISIS, doomsday financial crashes or the mounting effects of global warming. From “The Walking Dead”, ”The Planet of the Apes” reboot or even post-apocalyptic young adult literature, our present pop culture cannot get enough of the apocalypse. The apocalypse has never been as popular in pop culture than it is today. The first hour-long track is paired with a video he shot from that rooftop the decaying crackling and sputtering of the tape signifying the end of the golden age of the American empire, the horrific destruction of a New York landmark and the birth of a new apocalyptic era. ![]() ![]() These recordings were released in a four album series - The Disintegration Loops. This project was finished on the morning of 9/11, and that evening Basinski watched the smoke rising over Manhattan from his friend’s Brooklyn rooftop. Twenty years later, while trying to preserve by digitizing these loops, Basinski was surprised to watch the tapes literally disintegrate as he recorded them. In the 1980s, avant-garde loop musician William Basinski recorded a collection of loops from a smooth jazz station onto magnetic tape.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |