Nicky Hamlyn part 2. Second instalment of a conversation with Nicky Hamlyn (see June 12th 2009). Male porcupines use their urine to soften the female’s quills before mating, while vultures urinate on their legs to cool themselves. I thought we could mention the Douglas Gordon film Zidane; there is an alarming similarity with a film made in 1970 by Hellmuth Costard called Football as Never Before which focusses entirely on George Best for 90 minutes. Your book Film Art Phenomena is as rigorous and precise as your films… (David Curtis writing in A History of Artists’ Film “he would become one of the best writers on artists’ film of his generation”).
Author Archives: jtreg
Wavelength – Theme tune fiasco
| Wavelength theme tune fiasco. The long awaited result of the Wavelength theme tune competition. The original theme tune is ticking and chiming of a clock awarded to William Cross, Sandra’s grandfather, who won many individual and team titles for running with the army and Castleford Harriers in Barnsley circa 1920. The entrants for the competition were whittled down to nine, some of whom were impostors. The judges were James Tregaskis, Richard Thomas and William English. Both of James’s entries were disqualified and Richard lost nothing in defeat in spite of some sleight of hand. The entrants were Peter Shepard, You were served by Patricia 1, Claudia Wasser, Dario Marsh, Sven Kylie, Feng Che the Chinese Cuban and the overall winner: DJ Numpty. |
Outsider In – Casino, waitress at Flippers restaurant, Vernon speaks
Dear listener, in this episode you hear me getting to grips with gambling machines for the first time. This was recorded in a hotel casino on a First Nation reservation in Washington State, five miles from the Canadian border. This is followed by a conversation with a waitress in Flippers restaurant, Vancouver Island. Flippers is a family run business and has the sign of Flipper the dolphin outside. The proprietor is a retired illusionist/magician who used to travel up and down the West coast up to Alaska. At one time he met up with Elvis Presley who was also touring on the road, somewhere along the i5 – he would run into him at another venue, sometimes both of them doing two gigs a night. The waitress, a young, voluptuous woman with a keen interest in tattoos. She had no tattoos but we skimmed through a tattoo magazine together. We end with excerpts by Vernon Howard. Eight beforehand I was visiting Ojai at the Krishnamurti Institute, outside the library, in a cardboard box were lots of cassette tapes with lectures by Vernon Howard. A sign read, “Please Take One” . I took one. Years later, I discovered that he was an advocate of the Fourth Way. Background music: Sunn O))).
Wavelength – Leon Trotsky and Bo Diddley etc.
J.A. da Silva “Audio Poem”(1971) (For Henri Chopin) from OU 40-41.
Leon Trotsky “10th Anniversary of the Left Opposition” (political speech ca. 1938) Original voice of Leon Trotsky probably recorded in Mexico.
Ladislav Novak “Two Poems” (1958-62) from OU 42-43-44.
Bo Diddley “Crackin’ Up” 1958.
Ladislav Novak “La Structure Phonetique de la Langue Tcheque” (1969) from OU 36-37.
Scientist “Time and Place Dub” Rare Dubs 1979-1980.
Arthur Rimbaud “Le Vrai Sonnet des Voyelles” (Reading by him) from OU 42-43-44.
The Red Krayola with Art and Language: “Four Stars: The Ideal Crew” from Sighs Trapped by Liars (2007).
Scientist “Heavenless Dub” Rare Dubs 1979-1980.
Wavelength – Nicky Hamlyn part 1
Conversation with Nicky Hamlyn:
“Professor Nicky Hamlyn studied fine art at Reading University and has
made over forty films, videos and installations since then. His films
have been shown at festivals and screenings around the world and his
book Film Art Phenomena was published by the BFI in 2003. He is senior
lecturer in Video Arts Production and Visual Theory at University for
the Creative Arts, Maidstone, and a visiting lecturer at the Royal
College of Art. His recent work has been concerned with exploring and
trying to refine the relationship between the camera and its profilmic” + Film soundtrack for “The Overcoming of Hazard” by Brad Butler and Karen Mirza, Touch Seven TS3 7″ vinyl side A.
Outsider In – Adam Bohman and Patrizia Paolini
James is delighted to host Adam Bohman and Patrizia Paolini who perform live for your pleasure in 5 movements, unhindered by the sounds of the city in the background. This is a rare treat and should not be missed.
Wavelength – Pistoletto
Michelangelo Pistoletto.
On Saturday 23rd of May, as part of Tate Modern’s Long Weekend, Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto recreated one of his actions from the 1960s, rolling a large ball of newspaper over the Millennium Bridge, around the City and back by boat assisted by his wife and long-time collaborator Maria Pioppi. Pistoletto’s Ball of Newspapers (1966) was one of the artist’s “Minus Objects” that he rolled through the streets of Turin in 1967 during the heyday of Arte Povera.
William English joined the throng which followed the ball and chatted with Pistoletto en route.
+ Wolf Vostell: Elektronischer de-collage. Happening Raum (1968).
Outsider In – UK Uncut & Heathcote Williams
Proving it is hard to learn by his mistakes, James embarks on another series of Outsider In where we may find insight into the world of the ‘outsider’. In the first episode we find James accidentally embroiled in facing off the mainstream media when they assume he represents UKUncut… Heathcote Williams sends James a new anti-government poem which he will read out for the first time and live on air… this is underpinned by more candid UKUncut field recordings and advice on nuclear safety. James hopes you can put aside the 10 O’clock news and listen to something much more useful. Next week, Adam Bohman and Patrizia Paolini use their voices, in a good way….
Turner’s Subversive Boat by Heathcote Williams
The painter, Turner,
Hid in a boat on the Thames
In 1851.
He’d moored it mid-stream
So those taking the Census
Couldn’t question him –
He slyly ducked state snoops
Determined to snaffle up
His life’s last detail
For anonymous
Government authorities.
He preferred to be
Known for dream landscapes;
For ‘The Fighting Temeraire’;
For his red-gold skies;
Stonehenge at sunset;
Salisbury Cathedral’s spire
Wreathed in brooding mist;
Wreckers’ rugged coasts;
Seascapes of Northumberland.
He’d stay out all night
To catch next day’s dawn
Then he’d paint it as timeless –
The light of the world.
He’d beat cold weather
With layers of silk handkerchiefs
Hanging from his hat –
This man in a boat,
J. Mallord William Turner,
Freeborn Englishman –
Choosing to live by
Ignoring the powers that be
And plying his oars,
Looking for beauty
In whatever caught his eye
As well as for truth.
In Turner’s painting
‘The Slave Ship’, bodies in chains
Are thrown overboard
By the slaves’ masters
To be set upon by sharks –
A routine practice
When the slave owners
Found their cargo troublesome,
Or too ill to treat;
Unprofitable to feed,
Or just pining to be free.
The snares of the State
Are now much subtler,
But slaves are still rounded up,
Farmed for their taxes,
Spied on by cameras,
Questioned by nosy strangers
Filling in dull forms
Such as the Census,
So the State may know who’s who
If there’s civil unrest.
Bobbing in his boat
And never to be enslaved,
Turner ruled the waves.
Wavelength – Russian avant-garde sound experiments
BAKU: Symphony of Sirens, Sound Experiments in the Russian Avant-Garde, Original Documents and reconstructions of 72 key works of music, poetry and agitprop from the Russian avantgardes 1908-1942.
The book is released and distributed by ReR… I bought this copy from the Tate Modern bookshop and it can also be ordered through Sub Rosa for about £25…
Chris Cutler is the general editor.
The 72 page book is translated from the Spanish, and includes an essay by Miguel Molina Alarcon providing an overview, summary biographies, bibliography, web research links and the 2 CDs, the first of which is made up of reconstructions including The Symphony of Sirens by Avraamov, and previously lost sound events by Prokofiev, Khlebnikov, Malevich, Burliuk and numerous others, lasting between 9 seconds and 28 minutes.
The second CD is made up entirely of original recordings including Vertov’s Enthusiasm, The Dombass Symphony; a symphony of abstract industrial noise from 1930, followed by contemporary recordings by Roman Jakobson, Khruchenykh, Lili Brik, Esenin, Mayakovsky, Pasternak, Akhmatova, Lenin and Trotsky.
Today I’ve chosen mostly poetic works; and the first track is by Igor Severyanin called Echo dating from 1914, these first tracks are all reconstructions from 2006, the second half of the programme will be original recordings.
Wavelength – Richard Thomas part 2
Continuing last week’s conversation with Richard Thomas, content manager of Resonance 104.4FM.