SPECIAL EFFECT from cartune xprez on Vimeo.

US Premier of Special Effect tonight at the Museum of the Moving Image. 

Special Effect US Premier at MOMI

This fall I spent some time with Seabat composing much of the original music for Peter Burr's Special Effect project, a multi-media experimental animation extravaganza inspired by Tarkovsky's Stalker. The show has already debuted at several festivals in Australia, and will make it's U.S. premier January 18th at the Museum of the Moving Image.

 

"Video and performance artist Peter Burr presents a live television show from the future inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky's 1971 film Stalker and its central setting of "the zone": an off-limits place of hope and possibility rumored to make one's deepest desires come true. Special Effect features 20 30-second original works from underground animation label Cartune Xprez, original music from Lucky Dragons and Seabat, and live performances by Burr involving laser beams and a hacked Kinect camera.

Contributors include James Duesing, Amy Lockhart, Yoshi Sodeoka, Billy Grant, Michael Bell-Smith, Ola Vasiljeva, Jacob Ciocci, Andrew Benson, Jeff Kriksciun, Chad VanGaalen, Philippe Blanchard, E*Rock, Luke Painter, Brandon Blommaert, Stu Hughes, Devin Flynn, Michael Robinson, Sabrina Ratté, Ben Coonley, and Brenna Murphy. Written by Peter Burr, Maya Lubinsky, and PFFR. Costumes by Diana Joy. Set by Peter Burr and Elliot Montgomery. Computer programming by Mike Heavers."

This project was successfully funded using Kickstarter.

Immersed in Noise

Immersed in Noise | ხმაურში ჩაძირული
Noise Music in The American Underground and Beyond | ხმაურიანი მუსიკა [Noise Music] ამერიკულ ანდერგრაუნდში და მის მიღმა
Instructor | John Also Bennett
WORKSHOP at Center of Contemporary Art – Tbilisi [Dodo Abashidze Str. 10] Monday, 25.6.12 | Tuesday, 26.6.12 | Wednesday, 27.6.12 5.00-7.30 p.m.

This workshop series, which took place at the Center of Contemporary Art in Tbilisi, Georgia, gave its participants a rich introduction to the sub-culture of experimental and noise music in underground America during past two decades. Consisting of listening sessions, screenings and discussion, the class examined a culture still evolving but with deep roots.

Beginning with an examination of the foundations of noise music with musique concrete and the futurists, the material spanned punk, no-wave, early electronic music and modern day harsh noise. As much a learning experience for the class's facilitator as it was for its participants, the class attempted to find a link between noise music subcultures in America and present day culture in Georgia.

ვორკშოფების ციკლი გაიმართება თანამედროვე ხელოვნების ცენტრში, სადაც ვრცლად იქნება განხილული გასული ორი ათწლეულის ამერიკული ანდერგრაუნდ სუბ-კულტურის ექსპერიმენტალური და ხმაურიანი მუსიკა. მოსმენის, ჩვენებებისა და დისკუსის საშუალებით განხილული იქნება საკმაოდ ღრმა საფუძვლების მქონე კულტურა, რომელიც კვლავ ვითარდება. განხილვის თემები იქნება ხმაურიანი მუსიკის საფუძვლები musique concrete-ით, ფუტურისტები, spanned punk, no-wave, ადრეული ელექტრონული მუსიკა, და თანამედროვე მძაფრი noise. ჯგუფის ფასილიტატორი მისი გამოცდილებით და მონაწილეები შეეცდებიან იპოვონ კავშირი ამერიკაში Noise მუსიკის სუბკულტურებსა და დღევანდელ ქართულ კულტურას შორის.

Mail Art Romance

Mail Art Romance - A Film by John McClintock (1982) from John Bennett on Vimeo.

Mail Art Romance is a documentary about the avant garde poets and artists (and my parents) John M. Bennett and C. Mehrl ("Lady C") Bennett's courtship through mail-art in the late 1970's and early 1980s. Shot on 16mm film by John McClintock, the film is both a document of the DADA / Fluxus related underground mail-art movement of the period and a unique testament to the power of "true love".

The film features interviews with both artists as well as their Columbus, OH post-man, reenactments of collaborative poems by the couple, examples of their mail-art and footage from their July 4th, 1980 wedding in rural Mount Vernon, Ohio.



TIME'S T-BONE - John M. Bennett and John McClintock (1982) from John Bennett on Vimeo.

TIME'S T-BONE is a 1982 16mm film by John McClintock in collaboration with the poetry of John M. Bennett. The film is a excellent realization of the Columbus, OH based avant garde poet's vision, filmed on a blistering hot day in a junkyard off highway 71 with surreal imagery inspired by Bennett's poetry.

Created with the support of the Ohio Arts Council, the film also features John M. Bennett's wife and collaborator C. Mehrl Bennett wearing a plastic mask in the back seat of a junked car.