It was quiet a ride, and it was fun, shooting on Friedrichstraße during Karneval der Kulturen yet nobody gave a damn… guess that’s why I still love Berlin. So much freedom and creative potential… So enjoy and share if you care.
The source material was taken from within the Prelinger Archives, such a delightful source… must say I love Archive.Org. „Keep The Lights On“ is obviously a song about fear and isolation (recurring themes of my work altogether) and I believe it needs no further explanation…
I have allways been fascinated by pornography and what it says about the world we live in. These films (used in the clip) where produces ca. 1950/60 and there is a charm, an innocence to them, that can’t be found in modern day erotica. Like all and everything these days, sex (and the depiction of it) has become an industry and where there is industry, there can’t be beauty (IMHO).
“black float” is a collaboration, a back and forth between Berlin artists Klaus Killisch and Enkidu rankX.
Starting with a guitar track provided by Killisch, rankX built a beat around it, resampled and restructured it. Then this same process began anew. Killisch would play additional guitar on the track, X would resample and rearrange. Finally with the finished track in mind, K provided a painting / collage that in turn was the aesthetical basis for the video-clip. As opposed to the music, the visual art remained separate, more to be seen as both sides of a mirror.
The city of London was chose for a very particular reason, since K. K. as well as r.X draw a great deal of inspiration from pop music, more precisely the era of classic rock-pop-blues-funk-soul-electronic-avant-garde. So to honour this vibrant city and all the creative greatness it bestowed upon us, here is:
„black float“ features „Real-time Cycle Ride Through Central London“ by Nick Lansley und CC-BY. Thanks for that perfect ride.
london landscape tv – www.youtube.com/user/lltv
CC by-nc-sa 2016 www.klaus-killisch.de | www.enkidu-rankx.de
“Doves (DOGS XII)” deals with an estranged couple, either one part of it, unable to go on yet at the same time unable to leave. The romantic notion of everlasting faith and loyalty symbolized by the doves has become an unbearable annoyance.
Doves also relates to a very peculiar setting that is the Berliner Hinterhof (Berlin backyard) which can be a challenge of its own. Finally it is, like the other videos in the series a meditation on the human condition, the complexity of human interaction and the desire to overcome solitude – a desire so often left unfulfilled. Finally it is a nod to Prince obviously and one of his favourite songs of mine “When Doves Cry”.
The music to this video was contributed by KAISAR:
“Death of a cousin and other (slightly less morbid) pieces”
KAISAR are
Klaus Killisch: guitar
Richard Sylvarnes: textures
Enkidu rankX: synthetics
“Tomcat” is the twelfth part of a series of video-art shorts called DOGS specially dealing in relational miscommunication and the effect of technology on the human condition in general. The title DOGS refers to our animal instincts and emotions that, when suppressed, tend to erupt in an uncontrolled fashion. This again often results in war, violence, hatred and misanthropy / misogyny. The series tries to uncover what should remain hidden – those things we better not say or show…
„Tomcat (DOGS XI)“ uses declassified military footage of a dogfight that took place in 1989 over the Mediterranean Sea. It depicts the latest 6 min or so of an encounter between two F-14 Tomcats of the USS John F. Kennedy and two MiG-23 Floggers of Libya. The so called second Gulf of Sidra incident occurred on January 4, the Libyan pilots were both seen to successfully eject and parachute into the sea, but the Libyan Air Force was unable to recover them.
„Tomcat“ is the eleventh part of a series of video-art shorts called DOGS specially dealing in relational miscommunication and the effect of technology on the human condition in general. The title DOGS refers to our animal instincts and emotions that, when suppressed, tend to erupt in an uncontrolled fashion. This again often results in war, violence, hatred and misanthropy / misogyny. The series tries to uncover what should remain hidden – those things we better not say or show…
Klaus Killisch plays guitar on this MK_ultra track. tnx-a-lot 4 that!
When I finally got together with my dear friends and colleges Klaus Killisch and Richard Sylvarnes to make some noise again, just as we had started, my mother called on my mobile and brought me the sad news: my cousin Jean-Pierre had just died. He was a great lover of 70ies rock and experimental music and I guess this in conjunction with my sad mood led me into this session back again.
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I didn’t really listen too much to what I was performing, being deeply moved by the loss of a dear family member, but listening to it afterwards, it seems fitting. A dark ode to his life full of excess and wildness. So this is to you, Jean-Pierre Jacob. Hope you can find some meaning in all of this…
Death of a cousin and other (slightly less morbid) pieces
“Narziss Maschine I” as shown at Lichtburg Forum Berlin Wedding
The Narziss Maschine (narcissus machine) is a PureData [pd] installation that uses a real-time camera feed. The video feed / frames are then chaotically rearranged and projected opposite of the viewer. Thus the audience becomes part of a movie but unlike a plain TV signal gets shown a feed that is constantly jumping forwards and backwards. The effect on the audience is an astounding one. People instantly start to react to their own image but unlike in a mirror, the random based frame reordering reflects a detached version of themselves.
„Inv_nat“ explores the sensual relationship between 2 obvious antagonists pairings that are „nature vs. culture“ and “biology vs. technology”. In its aphoristic fashion, “inv_nat” establishes an erotic encounter between things we might find contradictory yet I believe these are not opposites but closely related and intertwined. When we speak of nature for example we think of the modern day garden that our planet has become. We have never lived in the wilderness or so it seems because the nature of the anthropocene is dominance over the wild i.e. barbaric through culture and technology resulting in culture. In other words culture is what we make of our biologic nature through usage of technology. The idea of untainted, untouched nature is a bucolic illusion, a dream of virginity, a fantasy that has found its in the fascist ideologies of the 20th century for they where rooted within those “back to nature” movements from the end of the 19th century. Take the “Volkskörper” (body of [a] people) metaphor used by the Nazis throughout their reign of terror and you’ll get what I mean.
“inv_nat” was produced for and displayed first during the exhibition “tiefergelegt” which took place in Berlin in 2002 and involved many artists that still form a collaboration network called Einheit_7 e.V..
In this series of posts I want to present to you one film a day from my video art / short film collection. I will here present remastered and annotated version of my former work starting with „city“ from 2001.
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The short „city“ was clearly influenced by the events of September 11, 2001. But it also draws its imagery and energy from the vibrant city that was Berlin in the late 90’s and early 2K’s. Nowadays (in 2014) it can be difficult imagining what open and undetermined ecosystem this city provided for its inhabitants. All the old structures had dissolved and newer ones had not yet formed. Berlin was then an open space with the promise of a free and imaginative lifestyle well hidden from the lurking eyes of neo-liberal investment bankers. It did not last very long.
Furthermore “city” deals with the permanent deconstruction / reconstruction of that organism that is a modern day metropolis but also to the permanent disorientation that goes with it. It finally is an homage to that great masterpiece that is “Berlin – Die Sinfonie der Großstadt” by Walter Ruttmann and furthermore to Dsiga Wertow and his “Man with the movie camera”.
