ShortCuts
Welcome to ShortCuts! Every other Friday, we invite a guest curator to select their favorite events, videos, media makers, and content from around the web.
This week, Warhol Curatorial Fellow Andrea Grover kicks things off with Home Movie Day, an iPhone's adventures in the Earth’s upper stratosphere, the hacking of Ubuweb, and more.
Events
- October 16, 2010
"There's no such thing as a bad home movie.”– John Waters
Before “DIY” or “Maker Culture” had a name, there were armies of home movie makers shooting their own small format epics. Home Movie Day, celebrates the unknown auteurs, the pocket cinematographers, and the moms and dads with movie cameras. This international celebration of amateur films and filmmaking is one of my favorite annual events, and probably happens in your town – locations to celebrate are worldwide!
- October 14-16, 2010
Counter Culture, Counter Cinema: An Avant-Garde Film Festival
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA)You’re sure to tell your grandkids about this screening, with Avant-Garde legends Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs, Carolee Schneeman, and MM Serra all in attendance (on the West Coast, no less)! Co-curated by film scholar David E. James and filmmaker and director of the Film-Makers’ Co-op, MM Serra, this cinema extravaganza “showcases the long-term alliance between experimental cinema and counter-cultural activity. Covering 50 years, these films and videos explore sexuality, politics, communal experiments, and transgressive film appropriations.”
Videos
In celebration of home movie day, I have chosen an amateur movie that is outta this world. Literally. With an iPhone, an insulated capsule, a weather balloon, some hand warmers, and a tiny parachute, this father/son team were able to send an iPhone into the Earth’s upper stratosphere, and have it return safely with video footage. What’s next for the self-described, “Brooklyn Space Program”? The Google Lunar X-PRIZE?
News
There was a collective, “Oh no!” heard across the internet when UbuWeb, the indispensable online database of the Avant-Garde’s greatest hits, was hacked earlier this week. As of today, the Sound and Film sections of the site are back up, thanks to the indefatigable efforts of UbuWeb founder and poet, Kenneth Goldsmith (spouse of the conceptual artist Cheryl Donegan).
Wildcards from the Web-o-sphere
- Imagine Science Films October 15-22
- Steven Johnson and Kevin Kelly in conversation Live from the NYPL October 18
- Alternative Histories at Exit Art through November 24
- New book on Peter Fischli and David Weiss
- Vintage Mobile Cinema
- Salvador Dali on What’s My Line?
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Andrea Grover is a migrant curator, artist and writer. In 1998, she founded Aurora Picture Show, a now recognized center for filmic art, that began in Grover’s living room as “the world’s most public home theater.” She is presently a Warhol Curatorial Fellow at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.
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