Repeat Photography and the Albedo Effect

Repeat Photography and the Albedo Effect intermixes unlikely suspects, including Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, NPR reportage, and British artist Katie Paterson's audio project, to reflect upon the impact of global warming on glaciers. The violent boxing scenes from Raging Bull are re-shot off DVD with a Bolex 16mm camera and then hand processed.

Part 1 of Flicker On Off, a series applying the idiom of experimental film and artist's video to big-budget movies in order to speak about world affairs in what could be described as an alternate essay format.

The film was hand processed in residency at Squeaky Wheel. It received the Experimental Television Center’s Finishing Funds, which is supported by the Electronic Media and Film Program at the New York State Council on the Arts.

Screenings

Abstracta International Exhibition of Abstract Cinema, Sept 24, 2008, Rome, Italy.

Bearded Child Film Festival, Aug 8 in Grand Rapids and Aug 14, 2008 in Minneapolis, MN.

Athleticism vs. Aestheticism, May 30, 2008, curated by Sarah Buccheri, Milwaukee, WI.

Squeaky Wheel, screened as work-in-progress, Mar 7, 2008, Buffalo, NY.

Grand Central/Central Terminal

Collaboration with Katherine Crockett

Grand Central/Central Terminal examines relationships between the moving image, dance, architecture, and the urban sphere. Like the cinema, people frequent transit hubs in order to go elsewhere. Katherine Crockett, a principal in the Martha Graham Dance Company, performs improvisatory movement in both Grand Central Terminal in New York City and the no longer in use Central Terminal in Buffalo, NY.

While both are majestic in their architectural and historic scope, the two spaces clash in terms of current use value. The crowds of Grand Central are juxtaposed with the solitude of Central Terminal. For the live terminal, Crockett acts as manifesto for the moment, while for the defunct station the solo body of the dancer in motion re-images and -imagines the site’s fluidity.

Grand Central/Central Terminal was produced in cooperation with Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center for Artists and Models. It was exhibited as a projected video installation at the Central Terminal in Buffalo on June 2, 2007.

Sea Lion

2007, 2:50, silent, available on 16mm, miniDV & DVD

This hand processed Super 8 film marvels at the beauty of the movement of the sea lion. It reflects the fascination of the filmmaker’s two-year-old son with this animal new to his world.

Screenings

Abstracta International Exhibition of Abstract Cinema, Sept 24, 2008, Rome, Italy.

Ladyfest Toronto, Sept 18-21, 2008, "Evolutionary Girls Club," Toronto, Canada.

Eyes and Ears: Sound Needs Image Part II, Apr 5, 2008, live accompaniment by Steve Baczkowski and Chris Reba, co-curated by Joanna Raczynska and Will Redman, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo NY.

FILM LOVE 53/Openings: Music and Experimental Film, Dec 9, 2007, curated by Andy Ditzler and presented by Atlanta Fourth Ward Improvisation Ensemble and Frequent Small Meals, Eyedrum, Atlanta, GA.

City Film Berlin: Works by Caroline Koebel, Oct 20, 2007, Millennium Film Workshop, New York, NY.

21st Century Feminist Film, Oct 11, 2007, Dr. Paula Birnbaum's Women and Art course, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.

Moment of Motion: Films by Caroline Koebel, Oct 9, 2007, Artist's Television Access, San Francisco, CA.

11th Annual MadCat Women's Intl Film Festival, Sept 26, 2007, Program No. 11: So Loud it's Silent, El Rio, San Francisco, CA.

Global Super 8 Day, May 13, 2007, Squeaky Wheel, Buffalo, NY.

Berlin Warszawa Express

2006, 19:50, shot on miniDV

In Berlin Warszawa Express a disappearance becomes a departure, but rather than attempting to reconstitute what is lost, the filmmaker follows the clues and signs framing the site and scene with an anticipatory gaze. She performs the kino eye, meeting the same train day after day, yet here the eye is aligned with not just any body, but with the distinctly maternal body. Aided by the rich history of avant-garde city films about Berlin, Berlin Warszawa Express reorients the city film genre itself in terms of feminine embodiment.

The film is also a site-specific performance action-intervention that references one of the earliest known films, Arrivée d'un train à la Ciotat (Arrival of a Train, 1895) by the Lumière brothers. Tracking shots, animation, structural film, light and reflection, protofilmic toys such as the zoetrope, sprocket holes—cinema itself is a main line for Berlin Warszawa Express.

The live-ness and intersections of all the film’s rails depend on who’s traveling.

Opening narration:

“In August 2004 I was in Berlin. A friend was arriving from Warsaw. I went to the East Train Station to greet her. I filmed the train pulling into the station and my friend getting off, smiling and waving as she walked towards me on the platform. Soon after I mistakenly recorded over her. I then decided to do a performance. As often as possible for the next few months I went to greet that very train arriving daily shortly after 5PM from Warsaw. I was also awaiting the birth of my child."

Screenings

New Creativity: The 11th Biennial Symposium on Arts and Technology, Feb 28 – Mar 1, 2008, The Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology, Connecticut College, New London, CT.

City Film Berlin: Works by Caroline Koebel, Oct 20, 2007, Millennium Film Workshop, New York, NY.

21st Century Feminist Film, Oct 11, 2007, Dr. Paula Birnbaum's Women and Art course, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.

Moment of Motion: Films by Caroline Koebel, Oct 9, 2007, Artist's Television Access, San Francisco, CA.

Utopia Film Festival, Oct 27, 2007, “Urban/Rural Landscapes” curated by Chris Lynn, Greenbelt, MD.

Feminism(s): Film, Video, Politics Symposium, Apr 22, 2007, the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT.

EYE AM: Women Behind the Lens, May 2, 2007, curated by Victoria Kereszi, Manhattan Neighborhood Network Time Warner #34/ RCN #83 (in Manhattan) & online at www.mnn.org (worldwide).

Director’s Lounge, Feb 16 2007, “Urban Research on Film” curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr, Berlin, Germany.

Shots and Cuts: Films by Caroline Koebel, Jan 18, 2007, curated by Carolyn Tennant, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY.

Making Movies, screened as work-in-progress, Mar 30, 2006, curated by Terry Cuddy, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY.

hole or space

2006, 3:23, silent, collage film, available on 16mm, miniDV & DVD

Pricks, gaps, dots, openings, hole or space takes its cue from contortionists of the early screen in spiraling out from conceptions of the body as whole.

The film uses early cinema and avant-garde classics as its compositional notes: Luis Martinetti, Contortionist (Edison Manufacturing Company, 1894); Crissie Sheridan Serpentine Dance (Edison, 1897); Ballet Mécanique (Fernand Léger & Dudley Murphy, 1924); An Optical Poem (Oskar Fischinger, 1938); Tarantella (Mary E. Bute & Ted Nemeth, 1940).

Screenings

NewFilmmakers Women Behind the Lens, Nov 5, 2008, curated by Victoria Kereszi, Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY.

Abstracta International Exhibition of Abstract Cinema, Sept 24, 2008, Rome, Italy.

Mary Magdalene Feast Day, July 22, 2008, curated by MM Serra, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY.

Tuff Stuff From the Buff: Experimental, Diary, Activist Film and Video, Apr 18, 2008, co-curated by David Gracon, Julie Perini and Marc Moscato, DIVA Center, Eugene, OR.

FILM LOVE 53/Openings: Music and Experimental Film, Dec 9, 2007, curated by Andy Ditzler and presented by Atlanta Fourth Ward Improvisation Ensemble and Frequent Small Meals, Eyedrum, Atlanta, GA.

City Film Berlin: Works by Caroline Koebel, Oct 20, 2007, Millennium Film Workshop, New York, NY.

21st Century Feminist Film, Oct 11, 2007, Dr. Paula Birnbaum's Women and Art course, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.

Moment of Motion: Films by Caroline Koebel, Oct 9, 2007, Artist's Television Access, San Francisco, CA.

11th Annual MadCat Women's Intl Film Festival, Sept 26, 2007, Program No. 11: So Loud it's Silent, El Rio, San Francisco, CA.

Ars Electronica Festival, Sept 7, 2007, presented by Sandra Naumann as part of Lichtmusik #1: Mary Ellen Bute, Institute for Media Archeology, Linz, Austria.

Feminism(s): Film, Video, Politics Symposium, Apr 22, 2007, the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT.

EYE AM: Women Behind the Lens, Mar 7, 2007, curated by Victoria Kereszi, Manhattan Neighborhood Network Time Warner #34/ RCN #83 (in Manhattan) & online at www.mnn.org (worldwide).

Women’s Caucus for Art International Video Shorts, Feb 18, 2007, juried by Sheryl Mousley, Barnard College, New York, NY.

Shots and Cuts: Films by Caroline Koebel, Jan 18, 2007, curated by Carolyn Tennant, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY.

Making Movies, Mar 30, 2006, curated by Terry Cuddy, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY.

The Perpetual Art Machine, online exhibition, site launched Mar 2006.

10th International Women’s Film Festival, Mar 2, 2006, Market Arcade, Buffalo, NY.

I Want to Have Your Baby

2003-2005, Collective Performance Action, shot on miniDV, approx. 4 hours total, sound, color, multilingual with English subtitles, various presentation platforms: single-channel video, video installation, website, large-scale prints, artist’s book

In the collective performance action I Want to Have Your Baby (2003-2005) over 300 participants in sites including Los Angeles, Budapest, Havana, Berlin, Buffalo, and London conceived hypothetical offspring in a digital repopulating of the world with humane beings.

BABY draws inspiration from the global protest movement against war and violence, and seeks to give voice to the international community´s peace-loving majority. In serious play, it goes to the heart of things by focusing on "The Family" in order to subvert the American right-wing’s appropriation of family in justifying its aggression machine. The project also seeks to broaden the meaning and representation of family. BABY combines political activism with conceptual art and feminist concerns.

Participants—regardless of gender, age, sexual orientation, and biological reproductive capacity—give "mom" performances in which they conceive hypothetical babies that they believe would make the world a better place. Participants pretend to speak to their baby's other parent, saying why they want the baby and what they imagine the baby to be like. Babies range from best friends and favorite pet dogs, to endangered species, to specific places, to famous people from history, and to abstract concepts—including Mahatma Gandhi, Jane Fonda, Jimi Hendrix, Maya Deren, fruit bats, Brazil, virtual reality, the color spectrum, and breeze. Anything is possible.

Maya Deren, I Want To Have Your Baby (Akil Kirlew, Buffalo, NY, 2003)

You’ve provided a blueprint for film as a medium for observing the ephemeral. This desire—to articulate desire itself—led you to Haiti, where you produced a groundbreaking study of the occult and became a Vodoun priestess. Through ritual you transformed both your mind and body into a silver screen onto which the living gods of Haiti were projected.

Fruit Bat, I Want To Have Your Baby (Seònaid MacKay, London, UK, 2004)

You are a very intelligent creature. You look like a fox, but upside down. You have the most complex language in the animal world, after humans and dolphins. I hate those girls who scream at you. Fruit bat, you can fly into my hair any time. I want to have a baby with you, so our half-human, half-bat baby can go out into the world and teach others what amazing animals fruit bats really are.

Exhibitions and Residencies

Imagining Ourselves (Love): a global generation of women, International Museum of Women, online exhibition, March 2006, San Francisco, California.

Making Movies, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Baby in solo screening, curated by Terry Cuddy, Mar 30, 2006, Auburn, NY.

Quantum Leaps, touring group international video program for which curator Astria Suparak selected individual performances from Baby for a combined selection of 7:30 (note that this selection is different from the Baby that toured in her earlier Elusive Quality program), premiered: Aurora Picture Show, Mar 6, 2006, Houston, TX, subsequent screenings: Minicine, Mar 7, Shreveport, LA; Nomad Nights, Mar 8, Ruston, LA; Texas A & M University, Mar 9, College Station, TX; Magic Lantern at the Cable Car Cinema, Mar 13, Providence, RI; Mass Art Film Society at the Massachusetts College of Art, Mar 15, Boston, MA; Small Change at Vox Populi, Mar 18, Philadelphia, PA; Bard College, Mar 20, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; The Kitchen, Mar 21, New York, NY; iEAR Presents! co-sponsored by The Sanctuary for Independent Media, Mar 22, Troy, NY; Spark Art and Performance Space, Mar 24, Syracuse, NY; the University at Buffalo, Mar 27, Buffalo, NY; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Mar 31, Washington, D.C.; and Johns Hopkins University, Apr 3, Baltimore, MD.

I Want to Have Your Baby, solo show: video installation (continuous projection), Beyond/In Western New York, CEPA Gallery, curated by Lawrence Brose and Sean Donaher, Apr 16-June 4, 2005, Buffalo, NY.

I Want to Have Your Baby, solo show: video installation (continuous projection), The Usher Gallery, curated by Jeremy Webster, Feb 15-Apr 9, 2005, also week-long residency to film new participants, Lincoln, UK.

Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle Kino.Lab, Baby screened in solo program & new participants filmed, Sept 30, 2004, Warsaw, Poland.

The Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art, Baby screened in the group program Elusive Quality, curated by Lauren Cornell & Astria Suparak, The Foundation for Art & Creative Technology, Sept 18-19, 2004, Liverpool, England. The program premiered on July 19, 2004 with the Practice More Failure edition of the feminist & genderqueer journal LTTR, Participant Inc., New York, NY. Additional screenings include Independent Heroines, Feb 9, 2005, Bristol, UK and Hampshire College, sponsored by Queer Community Alliance, May 6, 2005, Amherst, MA.

OMSK Roam, new participants filmed during day-long public art event and then this section of Baby was screened in a group program in the evening, July 25, 2004, London, England.

New York State Summer School for the Media Arts, artist’s talk and new participants filmed, July 5, 2004, Cazenovia College, Cazenovia, NY.

The National Graduate Seminar, The Photography Institute, artist’s talk, June 14, 2004, Columbia University, NYC.

Networks, Art, & Collaboration: free cooperation conference, Apr 24-25, 2004, new participants filmed, the University at Buffalo.

Robert(a) Beck Memorial Cinema at The Collective: Unconscious, Baby screened in solo program, curated by Ghen Zando-Dennis, Apr 20, 2004, NYC.

New York University Lecture Series, artist’s talk and new participants filmed, Invited by Dr. Deborah Willis-Kennedy, Mar 3, 2004, NYC.

El Delito del Cuerpo/The Crime of the Body, curated by Omar Estrada, group exhibition in which Baby was presented as a looping video on a monitor with a supplementary image and text work, also filmed new participants at the exhibition, on the street, and at the art university (Instituto Superior de Arte), Dec 6-14, 2003, Havana, Cuba.

War and Media Conference, Nov 17-18, 2003, presented Baby, the University at Buffalo.

// Documentary Intentions, Online & Off, presented Baby, Nov 14-15, 2003, Hunter College, NYC.

I Want to Have Your Baby, screening & artist’s book sponsored by the Gender Institute, Sept 25, 2003, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY.

8th Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Baby screened in the group program Evolutionary Girls Club & new participants filmed, July 3–6, 2003, Budapest, Hungary.

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ReAction: "From the Portfolio of Doggedness"

2003, 3:30, shot on miniDV

ReAction: "From the Portfolio of Doggedness" springs from the desire for familiarity with a temporal- and site-specific artwork by Valie Export and Peter Weibel: "Aus der Mappe der Hundigkeit," a 1968 action “proclaiming the negative utopia of erect posture in our animalistic society."

Treating the original as a script, ReAction features the Viennese semiotician Bernadette Wegenstein walking the artist Tony Conrad across a busy intersection in downtown Buffalo, New York (as well as guest performances by clients of the Canine Clubhouse). ReAction looks for slippages between the original action and the video reenactment, and considers tensions between animals, humans and cars as they move through the built environment.

The soundtrack is an original 1969 performance by the Golden Galaxy Symphony, in which Beverly Grant Conrad directed the musicians to maximize their vocal chords’ capacities to mimic a barnyard of animals.

Caroline Koebel—director, camera, editor

Tony Conrad—performing as Peter Weibel

Bernadette Wegenstein—performing as Valie Export

Carolyn Tennant—production manager

Canine Clubhouse clients—extras

The Golden Galaxy Symphony, 1969—sound

Beverly Grant Conrad—GGS director

Tony Conrad— GGS producer

Screenings:

City Film Berlin: Works by Caroline Koebel, Oct 20, 2007, Millennium Film Workshop, New York, NY.

21st Century Feminist Film, Oct 11, 2007, Dr. Paula Birnbaum's Women and Art course, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.

Moment of Motion: Films by Caroline Koebel, Oct 9, 2007, Artist's Television Access, San Francisco, CA.

Raw Tactics Of the Subversive Body, curated by Andres Tapia-Urzua, Sept 8, 2007 at Pittsburgh Filmmakers Pittsburgh, PA, and Sept 20, 2007 at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY.

Now Again The Past: Rewind Replay Resound, Feb 11 – Mar 18, 2006, curated by Joanna Raczynska, Carnegie Art Center, North Tonawanda, NY.

Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle Kino.Lab, Sept 30, 2004, Warsaw, Poland.

Robert(a) Beck Memorial Cinema at the Collective: Unconscious, Apr 20, 2004, curated by Ghen Zando-Dennis, New York, NY.