Quark Nova (Tumbled): Archive

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Quark Mobile!

All the videos at Quark Nova are now available to play back on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad (as well as other excellent mobile devices). I’ve tested them, and I’m completely thrilled with it. Go now and engage your cell phone data plans with experimental film! (For those who care about the details, Vimeo finally released an embeddable HTML5 player, only 8 months after they first...

Aug 19th

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The Age of Slack?

This article is from March, but it bears examining months later as financial data expands and paints a clearer picture. How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America Original Article

Aug 19th

Sharing data works? That’s unpossible. →

From the NYT: “Rare Sharing of Data Leads to Progress on Alzheimer’s” But how can we keep the current system of capitalizing on discoveries alive if these assholes are focusing on HEALING?

Aug 13th

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Sharing data works? That's unpossible.

From the NYT: “Rare Sharing of Data Leads to Progress on Alzheimer’s” But how can we keep the current system of capitalizing on discoveries alive if these assholes are focusing on HEALING? Original Article

Aug 13th

Camera Lens Mug →

If anyone needs any birthday ideas… The Camera Lens Mug (actually, please don’t give me this. I am the very person who would accidentally pour coffee onto the front element of my actual lens.)

Aug 10th

Welcome to UFVA 2010! →

August 10, 2010 I’ve been looking forward to this since last August. As I write this, members of the University Film and Video Association are convening in beautiful Burlington, VT. Just walking…

Aug 10th

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Welcome to UFVA 2010!

August 10, 2010 I’ve been looking forward to this since last August. As I write this, members of the University Film and Video Association are convening in beautiful Burlington, VT. Just walking down to help install art in the New Media galleries, I ran into friends I’d not seen in a year… a few I hadn’t seen in even longer… and I remember why I keep coming back to...

Aug 10th

UFVA Social Media →

The University Film and Video Conference is an academic gathering, so when it comes to social media, you might expect us to have some strange choices. This is, after all, the industry that not only…

Aug 10th

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UFVA Social Media

The University Film and Video Conference is an academic gathering, so when it comes to social media, you might expect us to have some strange choices. This is, after all, the industry that not only spawned the dreaded Blackboard, but continues to use it. So what’ll it be? Plurk? LinkedIn? Friendster? Wrong. It’s pretty standard and widely-accepted stuff: Twitter: use the hashtag...

Aug 10th

UFVA 2010 Conference Site →

Looking forward to seeing many of you at this year’s University Film and Video Association Conference next week. This is my first conference as the Conference Vice President, so I’m a little anxious…

Aug 7th

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UFVA 2010 Conference Site

Looking forward to seeing many of you at this year’s University Film and Video Association Conference next week. This is my first conference as the Conference Vice President, so I’m a little anxious for everything to get rolling, but the team at Champlain College has done to fantastic work, and it should be an outstanding conference. The NEW UFVA website is live. And actually alive,...

Aug 7th

Blend Modes →

Instant pattern sex. Opacity + Photoshop Blend Modes = Pattern Magic

Jun 10th

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Don't hate the player

…hate the game. Funny line, and a strong take on today’s discussion: alex-reid.net

Jun 10th

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Rest Stop Emergency

Emergency, originally uploaded by SimonDaPieman. In the men’s room at the welcome center rest stop crossing into North Carolina on I-95. I can’t really express how much self control it took for me to not push this. Original Article

Jun 9th

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Bloggy McBloggerson

My new intern, Rachel, is great. I’ve had a lot of luck with undergraduate interns this year… Cecil, Matt, Brian, Danielle. Each has made production easier in one way or another. Typically, I’m not very good at delegating, assigning tasks that have meaning is more difficult than you’d think. It’s immoral on one hand to assign menial tasks (coffee, etc), and it’s...

May 30th

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UFVA 2010 (May 24 update)

This is the most recent revision for the 2010 University Film and Video Conference schedule. This May 24 revision addresses all prior errors and conflicts. New to this revision: New Media, Caucus Meetings, grad student work, and some events. Still not listed: descriptions, locations, some events and parties, basketball games, golf. To find where you are scheduled, use your browser’s “Find”...

May 27th

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"Best" "Films" "Direct to DVD" in "2009"

I disagree with most of this list (would it be a year-end list if no one did?), but it’s an important point to make. Read it at the “Independent” Film Channel. http://www.ifc.com/news/2009/12/2009-direct-to-dvd.php Original Article

Dec 23rd

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Shaking the Money Tree

Shaking the Money Tree, 3rd Edition Just in time for Spring semester. I’m making this a key textbook for my graduate seminar. SUCH a great book, and a new version coming out just at the right time. Original Article

Dec 22nd

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Protocol Society

“Economic change is fomenting intellectual change. When the economy was about stuff, economics resembled physics. When it’s about ideas, economics comes to resemble psychology.” (Found at David Brooks - The Protocol Society - NYTimes.com) This sentence cracks open a lot of nuts, gives a lot to think of for artists, and their respective holding companies (recording industry, movie...

Dec 22nd

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Tagline for a decade?

“…wholesale flight from truth” (Via Tiger Woods, Person of the Year - NYTimes.com)Original Article

Dec 20th

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Phantom Menace Review, or Lesson of Cinema?

Watch this. All of it. I’m officially going to require that all film students I ever have from now on will be required to study this. I’ve made a playlist of the entire series of seven reviews, it’s about 70 minutes. Original Article

Dec 20th

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Diegetic Time == Real Time

SEVEN HOURS of gorgeous HD train landscapes, with a Creative Commons license? Yes please. “…every minute of the scenic train ride between Bergen on the Norwegian west coast…” (Via Download Bergensbanen in HD)Original Article

Dec 20th

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Giri Chit

Giri Chit (2009, 14 minutes) Cosplay girls, urban farming and a Zamboni. The subtle trace of irreconcilable worlds. GIRI CHIT tells an epic tale. A worker driving a mobile sweeper in hypnotic circles across an already immaculate surface. The high drama of cosplay aficionados clamoring to be seen. A cast of thousands toiling hundreds of feet above the street. Giri translates as ‘duty’ in...

Dec 1st

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Best of the Dicketies

Because, you know, the Kaiser stole the zero. Best of lists are designed to piss off everyone that didn’t write them. That’s why they crack me up. Also, fair warning, I hate it when people say the decade is ending when there’s still a year left in it. That said: these are my favorite albums of the years that start with “2-0-0” Welcome Interstate Managers by...

Nov 24th

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Duct Tape R2-D2

Now that duct tape comes in white and blue as well as silver, there’s really no reason to buy a Halloween costume. Original Article

Oct 31st

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U101

USC is widely known for its first year seminars (University 101). We wrote the book on it. Every semester I get interviewed by a freshman for one of these and this semester was one of the more esoteric sets of questions, so here’s what I wrote to this particular student. What are your favorite things to do outside of the classroom? The strange thing is that the work I do outside of...

Oct 19th

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Great Dubble8 tracks that happen to be free

Dubble8 did the music for an epic VJ battle that I had with Art Jones one night in Ithaca. It was tremendous, and now he’s putting material out there for people for free. He says: “i keep trying to get the word out about this source for a wide swath of my musical projects (at various creative stages) that i’m trying to share with people over the internet. the notices i put up...

Oct 13th

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Don't try to pronounce CaFCPUG

I always wondered what people do at the various (Final Cut Pro User Groups) FCPUGs, since I’ve never lived in a place that had one until now. I imagine a sort of a sweatlodge, a dozen people purging toxins, huddled around a 17-inch MacBook Pro, debating why the gods of Auto-Conform are displeased. “But I sacrificed a goat and have RT-Extreme turned on! WHYYYYY???” Probably a...

Oct 13th

Aug 23rd

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Meaning Creeps In

I’ve been reading George Orwell’s blog for almost a year now. Oh sure, he was a blogger. Actually not even close. To be sure, he kept journals, and the Orwell blog reposts his journal entries with each entry occurring sixty years to the day after we wrote them. It’s an interesting twist on reading published journals; usually you have access to the whole body of writing at once,...

Jul 19th

Mow.

I still say that there’s a serious problem in choosing to cultivate a plot that only wants to grow and reproduce just like the rest of us, and then basing your relationship with that plant solely on trying to keep it from doing as its Creator intended. Grass is beautiful, lawns are dumb. But, if you’re going to get a ticket for not mowing, might as well make a project out of it,...

Jul 11th

Concealment

[Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project - NYTimes.com] Gee. You think?

Jul 11th

Fishes, barrels.

twopointouch | Surrender! Foucault and Twitter: “Creating knowledge, creating information is a form of surrender in this model.” It’s too easy to get all panoptic and whatnot when thinking about social media, but this is a smart one.

Jul 9th

I miss the moral high ground.

[From China Requires Censoring Software on New PCs - NYTimes.com] Sigh. I guess the sad part is that I assumed they did this already.

Jun 8th

Twitter, bane of blogging

@oprah notwithstanding, Twitter is beyond wonderful. Problem is, it kills things like blogging for some of us. I find that once I can distill a thought to 140 characters, I have very little patience to elaborate further. I also Tweet for my dog @spammydog because he has no thumbs, and for the neglected Martian rover @MarsSojourner because he’s stuck next to a rock. Fascinating subcultures...

Jun 2nd

Krisol nails it, quits?

Wait a minute. Bill Kristol writes one of the more thoughtful, gracious analyses he’s ever allowed to spout forth from his head, and now he’s quitting the NYT?

Jan 26th

Rudolph Trauma

We accidentally traumatized Caspar today by letting him watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Not the Bumble, not the lack of Jesus, not the Death and Resurrection of Yukon Cornelius… When it was over, my boy lost his shit and was sobbing because everyone had been so mean to Rudolph. Then it came to me… I always ALWAYS cried at Charlie Brown cartoons because everyone was such a dick...

Dec 23rd

Fucking Merlin Mann →

Dec 5th

ST'S Setups, Part 2: Windows

So fried, a million other things to do. I know! Another blog post. Durr hurr hurr. OK, so the Windows side. A couple things first. I hate anyone who writes ‘Micro$oft’. And they can make some really great software when they put their minds to it. I think Vista is quite good and doesn’t deserve nearly the volume of derision it’s received. Advantages of Windows: You can...

Dec 1st

ST's Setups, Part 1: The Mac

My view is that you sort of have to be a cross-platform kinda guy to be in the higher-ed/media making biz. If it was just about me doing my own thing, I could get by as either a Mac fanboy or a Windows apologist. Or even an open-source junkie. And I’ve been all three! However, I teach a LOT of students in a given year. Hundreds. Most of them are already invested in one platform or another,...

Nov 30th

It's called overhead

Right after taking three separate private jets to fly to Washington (rather than, say flying on a bankrupt airline), I received a little email from GM VP Troy Clarke. And here I thought GM had my email address so they could remind me when to take my detestable Saturn in for service. Apparently, they’ve been reading my blog and were seeking my advice. Tee-roy, you can’t afford my...

Nov 19th

NXE's Not Ancronymed. Wait, what?

The New Xbox Experience is snappy and quick. Still sort of a train wreck interface. The funny thing is, I actually believed for a moment that I’d be able to load a disc game onto the hard drive and play it. Without the disc. Sigh.

Nov 19th

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Tia Mak

TIA MAK (2007, 17 minutes) TIA MAK is a VJ performance that remixes the classic documentary NANOOK OF THE NORTH into an avant-garde, pre-apocalyptic rock and roll show. It’s different every time. Like a live music performance, there is a set list and a general blueprint for what will happen. But the specifics… shot choice, rhythm, and pacing change as the performer gets a feel for...

Aug 14th

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FUD

FUD (2006, 4 minutes) A comfy-cozy vignette of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. “FUD” is Simon Tarr’s third film to use anaglyphic technology to alter the audience’s view. Using two cameras joined together but shooting independently, Tarr creates an altogether new experience for filmgoers. The term ‘FUD’ was coined in the 1990’s to refer to one of...

Feb 13th

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Quark Star

Quark Star (2005, 70 linear minutes) Billions of years in the future, the fate of humanity rests in the hands of one deep space explorer. One vulgar, obsessive-compulsive, prejudiced guy in a tin foil hat. What could possibly go wrong? Stuart Bing is all alone in the depths of space. All alone, that is, except for the two million clones of himself. When his starship starts to malfunction, he...

Aug 1st

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Rubicon

Rubicon (2004, 82 linear minutes) There was the spark. There was the watcher. There was the keeper. There was the destroyer. In his much-anticipated first feature-length motion picture, Simon Tarr paints a stunning, sweeping technohistory of the human race to obsolescence. Sacred geometry and ominous CGI intertwine with a retelling of the story of Noah to illuminate the illusion of authority...

Apr 5th

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Sundog Verga Matrix

Sundog Verga Matrix (2002, 4 minutes) The synthesis of simulacrum and solar max. Viva Las Vegas! Selected Screenings and Awards Ann Arbor Film Festival Dallas Video Festival Athens International Film and Video Festival New York Underground Film Festival Original Article

Oct 13th

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Extremely Bright Lights

Extremely Bright Lights and the Sound of Explosions (2000, 4 minutes) This film was released globally on the internet on Dec 31, 2000, at 11:59.99pm (ISO 8601) making it the absolute final film to be released in the 20th Century. Centering on entertainment spectacle, the film draws parallels to popular portrayals of warfare. It’s a delicate line; the film is funny, sans pastiche, yet it...

Dec 31st

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Crescent Time

Crescent Time (2000, 4 minutes) Monologue becomes dialogue as image, text, and voice intersect and fold back upon one another through this hypnotic night in the desert. Tarr’s Desert series comes to a thoughtful, resonant close in this look at the landscape of the soul. Selected Screenings and Awards Ann Arbor Film Festival Koln Film Festival Athens International Film and Video Festival ...

Feb 13th

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Burning Contour Matrix

Burning Contour Matrix (1999, 3 minutes) Digital Images traded over email, mixed with hand-painted film, animated together to make a powerful film about information overload, and the anxiety bred by an omnipresent system of mass media. Selected Screenings and Awards Ann Arbor Film Festival Dallas Video Festival Athens International Film and Video Festival Award of Merit, UFVA 1999 Original...

Aug 13th