Talking Picture Blues Book design draft

2015

Paris

   

Index

1 Pierre Klossowski in: L’Hypothèse du Tableau Volé (Raúl Ruiz, F 1978)

2 Clemens Krümmel, Difficulty, wall print, 2015

4 Hyangro Yoon 

6,7 Le Petit Journal, Paris, France, ca. 1905, courtesy Melton Prior Institute, Düsseldorf, Germany

8,9 Moritz Fehr, „Mojave – A Person Was Here“, 2013, stereoscopic video, Ambisonic, surround sound, 22’40“

10 Harpokrates, Deity of Silence Gallery Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna (photo by the author)

11 Franz John, Interzone, An interactive time travel CD-ROM through  the fortifications of the former Berlin was (www.i-n-t-e-r-z-o-n-e.de). Screen shot from video material accompanying the installation on view at Songwon Art Space, Seoul, 2015.

12 Stefan Ettlinger, composite carbon drawing, 2011

13 Moving pictures storyteller, taken from: Kintop, Jahrbuch zur Erforschung des frühen Films, Basel, Switzerland / Frankfurt/M., Germany, vol. 5, 1996

14 Le Petit Journal, Paris, France, ca. 1905, courtesy Melton Prior Institute, Düsseldorf, Germany

15,16 Katsuhiro Otomo, Winsor McCay, Villard de Honnecourt, Hyangro Yoon, Shane Simmons

17 Viola Rusche, Franz John, Francesco Colonna, Shane Simmons

18 Hieronymus Hei, „Bänkelsänger am Nadelberg in Basel“, 1832, Illustration from „Bänkelsang und Moritat“, exhibition catalogue, Graphic Arts Collection, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany, 1975, 

19 Dean Ellis, cover liiustration for Ray Bradbury, The Illustrated Man (first published 1951), 1969 Bantam edition.

20 A scrapbook

21 Peter Blegvad, Empatheen, from his comic strip series „Leviathan“ serialized in the „Independent on Sunday“, London, UK

22 Winsor McCay, „Common Sense“, editorial illustration, published ca. 1915.

23 Chris Ware, Touch Sensitive, iPad app for McSweeney’s (now defunct)

24 point it, Traveller’s language kit, first edition 1992, (c) Dieter Graf – „You may be fluent in four languages but sometimes you could find yourself "off the beaten track" where you can´t communicate. point it^®, with 1300 items to which you can indicate, is the answer. Everyone in the world will understand you. This passport-sized assistant is used not only by tourists but also by UN peacekeeping forces, Olympic athletes and speech therapists. The book is the result of the author´s extensive travels in the five continents. Edition since 1992: 2,000,000.“  (Ad text for the eponymous app, present day)

25

26 Henry Flynt (henryflynt.org) reads "From Culture to Veramusment" at Walter De Maria's loft, New York, USA, February 28th, 1963 (pictured in the back: Vladimir Mayakovsky), photo by Diane Wakoski

27, 28 Etoki picture scroll recitals, from: Victor H. Mair, Painting and Performance. Chinese Picture Recitation and Its Indian Genesis, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1988 

29 „In the autobiography Harpo Speaks (1961), Harpo Marx recounts how Chico found him jobs playing piano to accompany silent movies. Unlike Chico, Harpo could play only two songs on the piano, "Waltz Me Around Again, Willie" and "Love Me and the World Is Mine," but he adapted this small repertoire in different tempos to suit the action on the screen. He was also seen playing a portion of Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C# minor" in „A Day at the Races“ and chords on the piano in „A Night at the Opera“, in such a way that the piano sounded much like a harp, as a prelude to actually playing the harp in that scene.“ (Wikipedia)

30 Jayme Yen, Banner for “Talking picture blues (voices rising)”, Seoul, 2015

31 Harpo Marx; his claxon stick. – „Arthur "Harpo" Marx (born Adolph Marx; November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964) was an American comedian, film star, mime artist and musician, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. In contrast to the mainly-verbal comedy of his brothers Groucho and Chico, Harpo's comic style was exclusively visual, being an example of both clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish blonde wig, and never spoke during performances (he blew a horn or whistled to communicate). He frequently used props such as a horn cane, made up of a lead pipe, tape, and a bulbhorn, and he played the harp in most of his films.“ (Wikipedia) – cf. Wayne Koestenbaum, The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, University of California Press 2012,  „… a luxuriant, detailed play-by-play account of Harpo Marx’s physical movements as captured on screen. Wayne Koestenbaum guides us through the thirteen Marx Brothers films, from The Cocoanuts in 1929 to Love Happy in 1950, to focus on Harpo’s chief and yet heretofore unexplored attribute—his profound and contradictory corporeality. Koestenbaum celebrates the astonishing range of Harpo’s body—its kinks, sexual multiplicities, somnolence, Jewishness, ‚cute’ pathos, and more. In a virtuosic performance, Koestenbaum’s text moves gracefully from insightful analysis to cultural critique to autobiographical musing, and provides Harpo with a host of odd bedfellows, including Walter Benjamin and Barbra Streisand.“

32 Jayme Yen, Flyer for “Talking picture blues (voices rising)”, Seoul, 2015

33 Margaret Mead, pointing downwards in an Aristotelian way, Raphael, vessel

34 Moritz Fehr, „Mojave – A Person Was Here“, 2013, stereoscopic video, Ambisonic, surround sound, 22’40“, “Talking picture blues (voices rising)”, Seoul, 2015

35 Picture story recital, from: Victor H. Mair, Painting and Performance. Chinese Picture Recitation and Its Indian Genesis, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1988 

36, 37 Francesco Colonna, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

38 Fritz Schwegler, Effeschiade; Public picture storyteller, Southern Italy, 1980s

39 Fritz Schwegler (1935–2014). „Born in the Swabian town of Breech near Göppingen, Germany, Schwegler was first apprenticed as a joiner to his father. He then traveled through the whole of Europe for three years, where he visited 21 cities. As an artist, he first appeared as an iconoclastic, uncanny creator of image collages and spoken performances, entitled "Effeschiaden", "Effeschiadiana", "Effeschiaturen", "Moritafeln", "Zehnerschaften", "Viererreihen" and "Urnotizen", which were also accompanied by photographs and film sequences.“ (Wikipedia)

40 Carl Arnold Kortum (1745-1824), Jobsiade, 1836 edition

41 Katsuhiro Otomo, Homage to Winsor McCay’s „Little Nemo“ comic strips.

42 Villard de Honnecourt, a 13th-century artist from Picardy, in northern France. He is known to history only through a surviving portfolio of 33 sheets of parchment containing about 250 drawings dating from the 1220s/1240s, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale (MS Fr 19093), Paris, France. The great variety of subjects (religious and secular figures suitable for sculpture, and architectural plans, elevations and details, ecclesiastical  objects and mechanical devices, some with annotations), makes it difficult to determine its purpose. Other subjects such as animals and human figures also appear. The traditional view, since the discovery of the portfolio in the mid-19th century, is that Villard was an itinerant architect/mason/builder, but there is no evidence of him ever working as an architect or in any other identifiable profession. Nonetheless, it is clear from his drawings that he was interested in architecture and that he traveled to some of the major ecclesiastical building sites of his day to record details of these buildings. His drawing of one of the west facade towers of Laon Cathedral and those of radiating chapels and a main vessel bay, interior and exterior, of Rheims Cathedral, are of particular interest.

43 Harlan Tarbell, Chalk Talk Stunts, first published 1926

„A chalk talk is a monologue presentation done while the speaker draws. It is usually done with chalk, hard crayon, or pastel. The chalk talk method of teaching focuses on the blackboard and the lecture's voice and also the activities to be precise the physical activities. This method can be preferred for presenting lectures and talks. This method have some characteristics which the presenter does not want the viewers to loose. The dominant is ‚eyes‘ and the magical communication that exist whenever the presenter have a nice lecture.“ (Wikipedia)

44 Austin Osman Spare, plate from the Book of Pleasure (self-love).the psychology of ecstasy, 1913

45 Alice Creischer, ”Alle Tage Jericho” / „Ich die Posaune“ 1982, mobile storytelling device.

„Eine Stadt ist kein Ort sondern ein Zustand. Wenn ich durch die Stadt gehe, dann wechsle ich andauernd die Zustände aus, in denen ich mich befinde, so wie man in einen alten Dia Apparat bedient. Man nimmt die Dias nacheinander vom Tisch und steckt jedes einzeln in den Schlitten, den man vor die Projektionsbirne schiebt. Man lehnt sich ein wenig zurück, verschränkt die Hände hinter den Kopf und schaut. Das Wechseln von Zuständen ist eine Tätigkeit, und die Zusammenstellung aller Zustände in ihrer Gesamtheit wäre eine gigantische Beschäftigung, eine kannibalische Beschäftigung, die alles verschlingt oder ignoriert, bis dass sie sich endlich erschöpft, sich sein lässt und nichts mehr behauptet, als... Wenn ich durch die Stadt gehe und rede, könnte ich annehmen, dass ich sehr mächtig bin. So, wie man sich fühlt, wenn man eine riesige Kaugummiblase allein Kraft der eigenen Lungen, aus dem eigenen Mund, in die Welt hineinbläst. Man könnte sich vorstellen, dass diese riesige Blase die ganze Stadt erdrückt und dass nur ich allein durch die Straßen gehe, die sich um mich dehnen müssen. Aber diese Herrlichkeit ist zu Ende, wenn ich wieder einatmen muss.“ (Alice Creischer, Erpresserbriefe an die Geisteswelt, Berlin 2005)

46, 47 Hyangro Yoon

48–53 The Grand Moving Mirror of California, Los Angeles, USA "The Velaslavasay Panorama in Los Angeles, California, is a historic exhibition hall, theatre and garden dedicated to the production and presentation of unusual visual experiences.Not that many years ago, a photo copy of the 1853 script for The Grand Moving Mirror of California, landed on the doorstep of the Velaslavasay Panorama, to the attention of museum director Sara Velas. The script had been recently rediscovered in storage at the Saco Museum in Saco, Maine and was sent by moving "panoramaniac" Peter Morelli. The painted scroll no longer existed, just the script. What better place than the Velaslavasay Panorama  and what more talented person than Sara to take up the challenge of bringing this performance back to life?  It was a perfect match. Sara Velas, along with a diverse team of very talented people, set out to recreate the moving panorama, The Grand Moving Mirror of California.  They didn't stop at merely creating the painting with the cranking apparatus, narration and music (a Herculian task by itself).  They went on to create other accompanying pieces in the spirit of 19th century moving panorama performances: flyers, miniature panorama souvenirs, a display of Gold Rush artifacts and a logo reminiscent of 19th century engravings.“ For more information visit the museum's website. www.panoramaonview.org

54 Ben Katchor, Picture Recital, New York City, USA, ca. 2010.

55 Romana Schmalisch, Mobile Cinema – „‚Mobile cinema‘ is an apparatus which the artist demonstrates in various cities, accompanying the screenings by experimental lectures.’Mobile cinema’ is a reconstruction of a film prop from Alexander Medvedkin’s film ‚The New Moscow‘ (1938), consisting of a projection and viewing table. Using this bizarre device – which is a strange blend of an urban model, cinema and plate camera — the principal character of the film, a young engineer, presents his designs and urban visions for the new city on his way to Moscow. Similar to this movie character, Romana Schmalisch travels to various places with the «Mobile Cinema» and presents some of her films. Her works is the research on urban space, the changes of urban space and the social changes that come with them.“ 

56 „Neo benshi“ performance, New York, USA, ca. 2005.

57 A Walter Benjamin lecture. cf. https://vimeo.com/61669696

58 The Museum of American Art exhibits Alfred H. Barr’s Pedigree of Modern Art in China, ca. 2010.

59 René Magritte, „L’homme au journal“, 1928, Tate Gallery London, UK – „Artists, being creative individuals, tend to experiment with different tools and apply, combine and exploit various techniques in their work. Stereoscopy has not escaped them either. Stereoscopic drawings can be found within most early technical articles about stereoscopy, but mainly for the purpose of illustration and idea communication rather than artistic composition. In the middle of the 20th century, painters technically aware of the effects of binocular vision in the human visual system have undertaken the tedious task of painting two stereoscopic canvases instead of one. René Magritte (1898-1967) with his ‚L’Homme au Journal‘ (1928) appears to have executed a quasi-stereo painting, but did not further exploit the possibilities.“ (Efstathios Stavrakis – Margrit Gelautz, „Stereo Painting: Pleasing the Third Eye“, Technical University of Vienna, Journal of 3-D Imaging, UK (2005), 168; 20-23.