Orbit
OffLine moves out of this world with Satellite, the new Whose
Family part spy-film, sci-fi thriller, and computer animated music
video. Voyage with us to Sacred Spaces, by Charles Henry, a
computer animated application of the principles of sacred geometry.
Watch carefully to see the hidden faces in the spherical shapes. Internal
voyages are the norm with this episode's feature interview situationist
and found footage artist Craig Baldwin. Also
featured is Baldwin's documentary Sonic Outlaws, about the
San Francisco based music art collage band Negativland. Eun-Ha Paek
"trips us out" with Peek-a-Boo, a collage of cut-out, computer,
super-8, and 3D animation styles that explores issues of cultural
displacement, identity, and diaspora through a child's eyes. Come
with us also to behold Blackchair Production's Monolith, a
filmic meandering through grainy urbanalia. James Lee Byrd carries
through dreamland in Dream from Darkness to Light, the story
of one man's experience of downfall and loss. Our voyage continues
with Wish, by Rossana Jeran, a videopoem that explores the
visual world of nature, body, and texture.
Strangers
The odd, quirky, and absurd are commonplace in OffLine's "Strangers"
episode. Planet in my Pocket, by Beverly Seckinger, tours Adventureland,
African Art shops, Mexican souvenir stands, and a rapid-fire barrage
of classic film and cartoon clips, to satirize the wacky and and savage
aspects of consumer multiculturalism and racial stereotypes. Ted Pratt's
Strangeness in the Night, is a humorous computer animated film
that explores the mystery of a missing sock. Jack and Jill,
by David Hodes, is a visually sharp and witty look at the seldom seen
aspects of a modern man/woman relationship. Stranger Voices,
by Max Grimm, a "video noir" about the ill fated relationship between
a vampire and a phone sex girl.
Games
OffLine's "Games" episode plays Kristin Lucas' Watch Out for Invisible
Ghosts, a collage of video game images and sounds. The competition
continues in A Lad and His Game, by Clement Lachance, the profile
of a do-nothing twenty-something who faces the challenge of multiple
levels and bonus rounds in a never-ending video game while his girlfriend
copes with his obsession. In Bingo Inferno, by David Russell,
a frustrated man's attempts to stop the local bingo game goes awry
in this portrait of an American family where Mom is obsessed by bingo
playing and Dad is a television zombie. Cave drawings come to life
as the hunter becomes the hunted in the scratch animation video Instinct,
by Manfred Smollich. OffLine continues the fun with Lisa Goldring's
I Spray Perfume and Michael Schuman's 4 Point Breakdown,
a brief collage animation about wrestling, using Edwaerd Muybridge
photographs. Ball Machine 1, by John Schwartz, takes an artistic
look at the incredible game-like ball machines (kinetic sculptures)
of sculptor George Rhoads, while Schwartz's Hysteria Fractal
takes a trip through a shared dreamscape of vanilla suburbia.
Communications
OffLine communicates through art with Translate {} Expression,
by Tina LaPorta, an exploration of the interface of technology and
human subjectivity including its impact on sexuality and desire. Rodney
Evans provides us with Teletouch Drive, a multi-layered schizophrenic
video which turns the mass media's barrage back on itself in an attempt
to reconstruct and subvert its messages. Examine the medium of telecommunications
with Kristin Lucas' Cable Xcess, a short experimental video
on the relationship between radiation from electronic devices and
cables and personal health. In Mnemonia, Joseph Cafferelli
weaves haunting dreams and fragments of past life into an hypnotic,
poetry-driven short video. Experimental videomaker and World Wide
Web artist Shu Lea Cheang is OffLine's feature interview, including
clips from Shu Lea's film Fresh Kill, and her interactive internet
art project the "Bowling Alley." Leslie Streit's Messengers
journeys to new aesthetic lands in cyberspace in this mythical examination
of the origins of CD-ROM. In it the primordial lord of the forest
gives his messengers the magic disks to take forth. Stan Bowman's
Road Suite 2 completes the message with visions from the road.
Yesterday
OffLine explores the images of the past with "Yesterday." Featured
are Hugh Morris' His Neighbor's Cat, a silent film about a
man who inherits a cat that tricks him out of his home. In Tales
from the Lower East Side, Alak Films offers collaged clips of
vintage films interwoven with classic 70's television shows to create
a quick cut kaleidoscopic landscape. Coming Down, by John Altman,
an artistic and poignant non-narrative look at an 1880's vintage building
reduced to rubble by the wrecker's ball.
Ships
Sail with OffLine on the Sea of Art with Whose Family and their new
maritime-inspired music video Haven. Tag Purvis' Sweet 'n
Sour, a video in which two close women friends share the afternoon
and dream of life beyond the confines of their small southern town.
OffLine's in-depth feature interview is Joel Bachar, Seattle videomaker,
rave culture artist, and founder of Blackchair Productions' "Independent
Exposure" video screenings. Ghostpainter, by John DeVault,
brings us to port by examining the life of an artist struggling with
creativity who relies on his wife to continue his work, with surprising
results. Train Suite, by Stan Bowman, abandons ship for a land-based
excursion on a train going across the country.
Razor
OffLine applies the scalpel in its "Razor" episode. Featured is Thumbtack,
the latest Whose Family techno ambient video using computer cuts.
In The Fair, by Jackie Pardon, archival footage of the 1964
World's Fair becomes the backdrop for a razor sharp look at racial
and ethnic myths taught to children. OffLine's in-depth interview
is Deep Dish founder, grassroots organizer, and public access guru,
Dee Dee Halleck, with selections from Dee Dee's recent film Gringo
in Mananaland. Cutting up the night air is Reynold Weidenaar's
Long Into the Night, Heavenly Electric Music Flowed into the Streets,
a joyful, abstracted look at some of the earliest electronic music
heard in America.