Month: January 2023

Krzysztof Penderecki was an avant-garde Polish composer known in particular for his works Polymorphia, Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, and Symphony N0.3. Penderecki was famous for his use of microtonal clusters, glissandi (silding), and quarter note clusters. His work has appeared in many films like The Exorcist, The Shining (where 6 of Penderecki’s pieces are used),

This week is the first week back after the Christmas break and we are all reunited in class to plan, conceptualise, and talk about the gallery.

This week I’ve planned two practise sessions to experiment with the sound for this project and to create a ground floor to work off for the coming weeks. I have rented out a Zoom H5 dictaphone to record sounds to use in the score. I plan to record industrial/metallic sounds like

When rescoring someone else’s work it is very important to understand the context of the work, what time period the work was made in, where the film was made, and the artist’s intention. If all these go ignored, it feels disrespectful to create your own art on top of someone else’s, because you do not understand the whole context of the movie.

10/65 Self Mutilation has no score, much like all the other films created by the Vienesse Actionists. I personally prefer working with films with no score, as I cannot be inspired in any way other than the visuals. It gives me more free range to compose what I think this would sound like if it had sound. When conceptualising how my composition would sound I made a playlist of music that I played alongside the film. You can see this playlist here. I was inspired by a mixture of drone, noise, and ambient. I did not want this composition to rely heavily on drones, as I used lots of drones in my previous composition. I structured the composition into 3 parts. The first part being more noise heavy to emphasise the pain and distrubing nature of the opening of this film. The second part being more drone based to change up from the heavy noise use in the first half, while still emphasising the anger and torment. The third part will be more ambient to work with the melancholy ending of the film.

There are some great examples of rescores of already existing movies. One of them would be Nicolas Jaar’s rescore of the Soviet-Armenian film ‘The Colour Of Pomegranates’. The Colour Of Pomegranates (released in 1969) is a surreal art film directed by Sergei Parajanov and is about the real-life Armenian ashug (a singing poet/bard) called Sayat-Nova. The film walks us through Sayat-Novas’s life in a very experimental way, instead of using a traditional film where it is primarily dialogue and structured in a typical way. Instead, the film is told in a much more poetic way by mainly using visual storytelling with minimal dialogue. The original sound for the film relies more on sound design than traditional music, but music is featured throughout the film at points. The way Nicolas took this film and reworked the sound to an even more experimental but not overbearing soundtrack was really inspirational to me. Jaar mixes sound design and these mixtures of ambient music and glitchy avant-garde beats that Jaar is known for.

In the first lecture of the year, we discussed more in-depth the logistics of the gallery. We created a document over the break where we could all put in our ideas for the exhibition. During the lecture another document was made were roles/groups were decided. James and I voluenteerd to lead/look over the sound for screen element of the exhibition. We are not dictators or deciding every detail with no input from anyone else, we are here to help guide, plan and work with everyone else in this group. The goal for this group is to have a supportive network of people who are all passionate about sound and screen, who are here to help and inspire one another.

I decided to do some research on showing film in an exhibition setting. Last year at the gallery there was a TV for people with sound for screen work. This is fine and does the job well, but I think there is a way we can make it more immersive/interesting when it comes to using the space. This is something I will discuss with everyone so we can gather ideas to try and utilise the space the best we can. Personally I like the idea of a dark room with a minimal setup using either a TV screen or a projector. I think the idea of a minimalist setup works best as it makes you focus on the work being shown more carefully. If the room is overcomplicated by objects, bright lights, sound from other exhibitions. It can take away from the xperiance of watching a film, which for me should be quiet and immersive. I will discuss this with everyone and we can all gather ideas on what we want the space to be like.

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Bite The Bolster. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25yoKdlopRA&list=PLbFiDQOZHuEQZjnNVd9Cy_Sw4J3nnA_nR

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Yellow Swans – Limited Space. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF3KSYch8dE&list=PLbFiDQOZHuEQZjnNVd9Cy_Sw4J3nnA_nR&index=2

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Angus Maclise – Trance 2. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYKgCR55u88&list=PLbFiDQOZHuEQZjnNVd9Cy_Sw4J3nnA_nR&index=3

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Rakka. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55wSb9RbrfY&list=PLbFiDQOZHuEQZjnNVd9Cy_Sw4J3nnA_nR&index=4

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I do have to give a warning that most of these Action Films contain graphic nudity and violence. These films have a very uncomfortable tone and can make you feel quite unwell. In particular the film 16/67 20. SEPTEMBER, which Id recommend avoiding if you are grossed out by bodily fluids and human excrement.

The Viennese Actionism movement had a strong connection to experimental cinema during its exsistence, In particular with director Kurt Kren who started making action films in 1964. Kren worked alongside Günter Brus and Otto Mühl mostly in the making of these experimental shorts.

I have watched 27 (out of 48) of Kurt Krens movies as of now, which is 56% of his entire discography. This has given me a good understanding of the foundations of Action movies, and Krens other work during/after the Viennese Actionism period. All of these films have no sound whatsoever. Most of these works were shot using 16mm film, which typically does not use sound.

Below are Krens Action Films that I have viewed, these films were created alongside Viennese Actionists Günter Brus and Otto Mühl primarily.

6/64 MAMA UND PAPA 3:57 MIN, – 6/64 Mum And Dad

7/64 LEDA MIT DEM SCHWAN 2:56 MIN,  – 7/64 Leda and the Swan

8/64 ANA 2:40 MIN, 

9/64 O TANNENBAUM 2:56 MIN, – 9/60 O Christmas Tree

10/65 SELBSTVERSTÜMMELUNG 5:19 MIN,  – 10/65 Self Mutilation

10B/65 SILBER ­ AKTION BRUS 2:34 MIN, – 10B/65 Silver Action Brus

10C/65 BRUS WÜNSCHT EUCH SEINE WEIHNACHTEN 2:56 MIN, – 10C/65 Brus wishes his Christmas on you.

12/66 COSINUS ALPHA 9:16 MIN, 

13/67 SINUS BETA 5:58 MIN, 

16/67 20. SEPTEMBER 6:53 MIN

Brus and Mühl‘s collaboration with Kren has led to one of the most popular ways to experience the Viennese Actionism movement, as they have all been preserved and can be found online relatively easily. Most of these films contain the trademark nudity, violence, and chaos that the movement was known for, this is mixed with Krens signature choppy, disorientating and fast editing that makes these films very polarising and disorientating to watch.

Below are Krens Structural Films that I have viewed

1/57 Versuch Mit Synthetischem Ton (Test) (1/57 Experiment With Synthetic Sound (Test)) 1:23 min ,

2/60 48 Köpfe Aus Dem Szondi-Test (2/60 48 Heads From The Szondi-Test) 4:19 min,

3/60 Bäume Im Herbst (3/60 Trees In Autumn) 5:03 min,

4/61 Mauern Pos.-Neg. Und Weg (4/61 Walls Pos.-Neg. And Way) 6:09 min,

5/62 Fenstergucker, Abfall Etc. (5/62 People Looking Out Of The Window, Trash Etc.) 4:48 min,

11/65 Bild Helga Philipp (11/65 Helga Philipp Painting) 2:29 min,

15/67 Tv 4:08 min,

17/68 Grün-Rot (17/68 Green-Red) 2:56 min,

20/68 Schatzi 2:29 min,

28/73 Zeitaufnahme(N) (28/73 Time Exposure(S)) 2:56 min,

31/75 Asyl (31/75 Asylum) 8:26 min,

32/76 An W+B (32/76 To W+B) 7:42 min,

36/78 Rischart 3:02 min,

37/78 Tree Again 3:46 min,

38/79 Sentimental Punk 4:30 min,

49/95 Tausendjahrekino (49/95 Thousandyearsofcinema) 2:40 min

Viennese Actionism was an avant-garde art movement that took place during the 1960s-1970s in Vienna, Austria. The movement was mainly comprised of the artists Günter Brus, Otto Mühl, Hermann Nitsch, and Rudolf Schwarzkogler. During this time these artists would also collaborate with with Anni Brus, Heinz Cibulka and Valerie Export. Brus, Mühl, Nitsch, Schwarzkogler and others would be referred to as Actionists and their work would be referred to as actions. Contrary to being called artists and having work referred to as artwork, it feels like a break away from technical terms and to go against the norm.

Viennese Actionism is an intentionally transgressive art form, including graphic nudity, violence, and the tackling of taboos. throughout the movements short-lived life lots of shocking performances, films, and art pieces were created. Due to the often graphic and extreme nature of their live performances Brus, Mühl and Nitsch have all ended up spending small prison sentences ranging from 2 weeks to 6 months for violation of decency laws. Brus, Mühl, Nitsch and Schwarzkogler did these live performances to shock the Austrian public and government which was at the time