KIT intermedia

http://www.unpluggedstudio.com/

http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=cat&category1=Television&newsitem_no=11050

Seinfeld & Animated Superman AmEx Internet Webisodes Air on NBC and Net

May 20, 2004

Look up on NBC and the Internet, it’s a bird, it’s a plane – no it’s comedian Jerry Seinfeld and an animated Superman. Seinfeld and Superman return to the Internet May 20, 2004 with a second “webisode” for American Express while the first animated campaign airs tonight at 8:54to 9:00 pm on the NBC network before the encore performance of the FRIENDS finale. The first webisode, A UNIFORM USED TO MEAN SOMETHING, set in New York City, debuted on the American Express Website March 29 and drew enough attention to get a timeslot on TV in primetime.

The new four-minute webisode, entitled, HINDSIGHT IS 20/20, launched today exclusively at www.americanexpress.com/jerry. HINDSIGHT IS 20/20 is the second installment from “The Adventures of Seinfeld and Superman.” Both webisodes were co-written by Seinfeld and directed by acclaimed film director Barry Levinson (DINER, RAIN MAN). The animation was produced by Unplugged Studio in Toronto (www.unpluggedstudio.com).

The sequel, shot on location in Death Valley, California, follows Superman and Seinfeld as the two set out on a cross-country road trip in one of Seinfeld’s legendary vintage cars. As in the first installment, the two continuously banter, engaging viewers in a hilarious snapshot of the unique friendship between comedian and Kryptonian. While Superman nears his wit’s end trying to open a pesky pistachio and deflects questions from tourists about Green Lantern, Seinfeld tries to get The Man of Steel to reveal the origin of his moniker. When trouble ensues Seinfeld saves the day by employing Roadside Assistance, one of many services provided to American Express cardmembers.

“I love taking road trips and thought it would be fun to invite Superman along for the ride – I’m sure he misses a lot of scenic spots when flying at super-speed,” said Seinfeld. “I’m excited to debut HINDSIGHT IS 20/20 – we had a fantastic time making it, and I think our fans will really enjoy it.”

“The first webisode proved to be a great way to build consumer interest in our brand, and demonstrate our card benefits in a lighthearted way,” said John Hayes, American Express’ chief marketing officer. “We are excited to present the sequel so fans can enjoy more comedic adventures of Seinfeld and Superman.”

Visitors to www.americanexpress.com/jerry will once again be treated to a unique interactive experience. Viewers return to the cozy living room of a New York City apartment, complete with a view of the Empire State Building, candid snapshots of Seinfeld and his superhero pal, a clickable Broadway show program and more. In addition to viewing HINDSIGHT IS 20/20, visitors will find the first webisode, “A UNIFORM USED TO MEAN SOMETHING, plus behind-the-scenes footage from the making of both webisodes.

American Express Co. is a diversified worldwide travel, network, and financial services provider founded in 1850. It is a leader in charge and credit cards, Travelers Cheques, travel, financial planning, investment products, insurance and international banking. For more information, visit www.americanexpress.com.

Sum up of the second week: thoughts and links.

We started addressing notions of social interaction, postproduction and relational esthetics discussed by the French theorist Nicholas Bourriaud, a curator at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in his “Relational Aesthetics”, where he discusses intervention,
provocation, documentary, archives, uncanny, hybridity.

links to consider:
http://www.boiler.odessa.net/english/raz1/n1r1s02.htm
http://www.gairspace.org.uk/htm/bourr.htm
http://www.sanalmuze.org/etkinliklereng/nicolasbourriaod.htm

we wanted to stress the notion of encounter of art & public-
“Art Meets Everyday Life”.

Next to this we mentioned Jakob Jakobsen and Manifesto of
The Copenhagen Free University:
http://copenhagenfreeuniversity.dk/allpow.html

check the KLARTEXT! symposium in Berlin that stages discussion on relationship between art and politics, politicization or art and issues of activism.
You can find some interesting people.
Look for “Yes Men” (their new DVD comes out next week so I try to get hold of it):
http://www.klartext-konferenz.net/participants.html

look at the links of participants, as some of the theorist/artists might be useful to consider: Chantal Mouffe, Brian Holmes, Simon Sheikh, Irit Rogoff, Chto delat?, Francesco Jodice/Multiplicity;

look at the Russian recent initiative, publication and website:
http://www.chtodelat.org/

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extra:
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in this context I proposed you not to forget the opportunity to take part at RAM7:Models of Collaboration
web is on (!): http://ram7.art375.org/
this workshop-event is from series www.ram-net.net
contact Kristin Bergaust about that.

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we introduced our interest in script as part of a convex apparatus of media (again relational mechanism) and how it is employed by institutions/corporations. To illustrate this i “borrowed” few “webisodes” with comedian Jerry Seinfeld and an animated Superman as part of ad campain for American Express:
http://www.unpluggedstudio.com/

look at the link this example builds with project line based on Ann Lee, a character from Japanese animation (anime) whose  rights were acquired  by artists Pierre Huyghes and Phillipe Parreno to create a new life for the manga, under the title “NO GHOST, JUST A SHELL”.

We introduced notion of the “script”, which is employed not only in our work and language, but is crucial part of cultural discourse at large. We would suggest to look
at this reference in the discussions and construction of the works.

For a beginning few links, that might give you a fresh insight (and fun as well), work by Norman Klein / Lev Manovich (1998): 
http://www.manovich.net/FLN/

and the other links you with the
seminal text by Mark Rakatansky “Spatial Narratives”, (1991)
http://www.transaction.lt/KIT/KIT_1.rtf

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KIT_COOKING_TV slot @ CAC/TV
think about it!
it could be a great fun and smart thing if you do it.
stage a group meeting next week just yourselves and discuss.
we need to know your feedback by the end of next week.

as an example you may look at web documentation
of Dutch artists Bik van der Pol:
http://www.bikvanderpol.net

the series of weekly screenings
every Thursday at the Seminarrom

This series as part of Nomeda & gediminas Urbonas teaching
in-put@intermedia, charts a territory emerging at the intersection of artistic and cinematic models and discourses.

The shift from being “on cinema” to drawing on a different modes of production articulates the structures, forces, and subjects at work in the relations between society, cinema, and culture.

The character of this screening series contributes structurally, a parallel to the development of the works and pursuing objectives during spring semester at KIT.
SCREENINGS ARE OPEN TO ALL INTERESETD THOUGH

<<<<<<<<<<<1_st_screening>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“Derrida”, by
Dir: Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman, 2002, 84’

at Seminar Room, KIT – January 27, from 14:00

“What if you could watch Socrates, on film, rehearsing his Socratic dialogues? What if there was footage of Descartes, Thoreau, or Shakespeare as themselves at work and in their daily life? Might we now look at these figures differently, with perhaps a deeper understanding of their work and lives?”
From Derrida the movie website.

PS.

“The very condition of a deconstruction may be at work in the work, within the system to be deconstructed. It may already be located there, already at work. Not at the center, but in an eccentric center, in a corner whose eccentricity assures the solid concentration of the system, participating in the construction of what it, at the same time, threatens to deconstruct.
One might then be inclined to reach this conclusion:
deconstruction is not an operation that supervenes afterwards, from the outside, one fine day. It is always already at work in the work. Since the destructive force of Deconstruction is always already contained within the very architecture of the work, all one would finally have to do to be able to deconstruct, given this always already, is to do memory work. Yet since I want neither to accept nor to reject a conclusion formulated in precisely these terms, let us leave this question suspended for the moment.”
Jacques Derrida, Mémoires, pour Paul De Man, read by Amy Ziering Kofman

From Derrida the movie website
What if you could watch Socrates, on film, rehearsing his Socratic dialogues? What if there was footage of Descartes, Thoreau, or Shakespeare as themselves at work and in their daily life? Might we now look at these figures differently, with perhaps a deeper understanding of their work and lives?

Filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman asked themselves these questions, and decided to team up and document one of the most visionary and influential thinkers of the 20th century, a man who single-handedly altered the way many of us look at history, language, art, and, ultimately, ourselves: the brilliant and iconoclastic French philosopher Jacques Derrida.

For over five years, Dick (“Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist”) and Ziering Kofman (Producer, “Taylor’s Campaign”) played Plato to our own modern day Socrates. The filmmaking team shadowed the renowned philosopher, best known for “deconstruction,” and captured
intimate footage of the man as he lives and works in his daily life.
They filmed Derrida on his first trip to South Africa, where — after visiting President Mandela’s former prison cell — he delivers a lecture on forgiveness to students at the University of the Western Cape. The filmmakers travel with him from his home in Paris to New York City, where he discusses the role of biographers, and the challenges that are faced when one attempts to bridge the abyssal gulf between a historic figure’s work and life. They capture Derrida in private moments, musing reluctantly, about fidelity and marriage, narcissism and celebrity, and the importance of thinking philosophically about love.

Yet DERRIDA is in no way a talking heads movie or conventional biographical portrait. Its bold, visual style, mesmerizing score by Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, and novel editorial approach create a rich, lively cinematic experience, at once provokes, amuses and entertains. In resisting any predictable, formulaic approach, they make Derrida a living, informal demonstration of “deconstruction” – a system of thought which up to now has otherwise eluded cinematic capture. The result is not only thought provoking, but ground-breaking.

we discussed FILM SCREENING PROGRAM:
we suggest we would run it on behalf of Intermedia
and it would be open for ALL. It’s important that it has
consequent screenings, so if its fine we stick to proposed date:
each Thursday from 14.00 at Seminarrom.

so the program we suggest:

27.Jan. “Derrida”.Dir. Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman. 2002
03.Feb. “Future is not what it used to be”. Dir. Mika Taanila. 2002
10.Feb. “The War Game”. Dir. Peter Watkins. 1966
17.Feb. “BaadAsssss Cinema”. Dir. Isaac Julien. 2002
24.Feb. “Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask”.  Dir. Isaac Julien. 1996
03.Mar. “The Battle of Orgreave”.  Dir. Jeremy Deller. 2001
10.Mar. “La Commune (Paris 1871)”. Dir. Peter Watkins. 1999
17.Mar. “I Thought I was Seeing Convicts”, Dir.Harun Farocki. 2000

under consideration (in case if 3 last films are not here in time):
“Consolation Service”. Dir. Eija Liisa Ahtila. 1999
“Marat/Sade” Dir. Peter Brook.  1966
“Punishment Park”. Dir. Peter Watkins. 1971
“Looking for Langston”. Dir. Isaac Julien. 1989
“Reminiscence of a Journey to Lithuania”. dir. Jonas Mekas. 1972

we would love if you would bring your suggestions.
We could either “mix” them showing the same day 2 films during
Thursdays screenings starting from 14.00 to 17.00;

Or we could “split” into two weekly sessions, lets say yours
is on Tuesdays after group meetings???
You decide how you plan to do it.

we will provide you (during next weeks) with .pdf files
for posters, so you could distribute info about sreenings.

sum up of the first week ideas unfolding space of activism, networking, project based on the philosophy of open source:

first it was mentioned RAM: re-approaching new media,
series of workshops organized by partners-media
labs around the Baltic sea:
http://www.ram-net.net/

initiators of this project:
http://www.crac.org

LAB in Riga, cool for their sound events and net radio
http://www.rixc.lv/

our initiative in Vilnius (not much stuff on web yet)
www.vilma.cc

some personalities
vilma.cc hosted for RAM6 in Vilnius:
Kim Cascone (for those interested in sound)
http://microsound.org/

Geert Lovink, one of the most interesting new media theorists,
writing on the internet culture and networks:
http://www.networkcultures.org/

Creative Commons, alternative version to copyright.
this u all take into consideration
if ever distributing your creative content:
http://creativecommons.org/

and finally film archives,
take a look at Prelinger archives:
http://www.archive.org/movies/