Interview with Geoffrey Alan Rhodes

This is the first in a short series of interviews on artists who are featured in our special and upcoming edition of INtransit: Can You Hear Me Now. Geoffrey Alan Rhode’s film, Tesseract is a fascinating and multifaceted look at Eadward Muybridge. -sam smiley

What sparked your interest in Muybridge and the topics in Tesseract?

I came to the story of Muybridge inadvertently. When I was first conceiving of this multi-channel film, I wanted to adapt a story written by Steven Millhauser, “Eisenstein the Illussionist,” which tells the history of stage magic’s demise in the face of cinema at the turn of the century. I was in contact with the author, but wasn’t able to get the rights because it was already optioned (and, in fact, was made in to the film “The Illussionist” with all the smart bits taken out). But telling the story to a friend, it made her think of an essay by Hollis Frampton on Eadweard Muybridge, “Fragments of a Tesseract.” Reading it, I immediately realized the resonance between the multi-channel form and Muybridge’s work and saw, as well, the connection between all these great upheavals at the turn of the century… the moving image, Taylorism, the end of stage spectacle… And Hollis Frampton was an amazing thinker. His essays are only beginning to be re-discovered. He saw in Muybridge’s obsession with pulling apart time a resolute humanism— a current against the regimentation of time… a view of time and movement as obsessional and inconceivable.

How did you decide on the use of multiple screens in your video? How
did that influence your editing?

The idea for making up the screen into multiple parts preceded the content, as I stated above. It was one of my first formal film ideas, it came to me when I was 19 and reading Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” while staying at my brother’s place in Boston (we shared a fascination with comics in the 80’s). I was struck by his comparison of cinema and comics as to how they communicate time. He calls the process of communicating action in comics “closure” where the reader has to reconcile the “gutter” between frames and imagine the movement (whereas cinema, of course, just moves). I was fascinated by the idea of bringing this irreconcilable difference in to the film frame and what that could make possible. It did make editing a nightmare. The amount of editing choices grows exponentially when you split up the screen. I didn’t feel like an editor, but a layout artist working in four dimensions: where in the x,y on the screen and how large, what’s on top and what’s underneath, and when does it happen. I wound up having to give myself limits, compositing the material based on my original drawings and then editing those mixdowns more like a normal film.

What did you have to do with respect to researching this topic?

I have slowly become a better expert on Muybridge. At the time of production I was most concerned with images and original text (Muybridge’s defense attorney’s speech and the events of his crime are taken directly from the reports in California newspapers of that year). In researching the timeline of his life I was struck by how flexible that history is… most biographies have slightly different years for the events– especially the sequencing of his experiments leading up to his more famous Motion Studies. In the editing room I found that I had to follow his process in a way. In order to produce the animated sequences of his photos, I scanned in almost 2,000 original photographs (a small portion of his 80,000 negatives!) and then produced individual animations of each. All this done on a home computer, waiting for the render bar to clear. Once animated, I discovered in those images while sitting in my dark editing room a certain melancholyâ especially in the image of the young lady joyfully dancing. It occurred to me that all these people are long gone. In fact, they are the end of history… I will never see the image of someone moving before those years of Muybridge’s obsessive production; before that it is still photos, then paintings, then nothing.

What did it take in terms of time and coordination to get all the cast
members and tech people together?

The project was generously funded by the Princess Grace Foundation, a really exceptional funder of moving-art works. Still, much of that was reserved for post, and the film was produced on a shoe-string. What made it possible was the arts community in Buffalo, New York. No where else could I have found such an exceptional community of theater costumers, actors, photographic collectors, and antique locations willing to donate their time and resources. And Buffalo is a city of that time period, its most famous hay-day the 1901 Pan-American Exposition when some of the first Edison films were produced and the first city lighting grid assembled.

What impassions you as an artist/cinemat0grapher?

I am quite attached to ideas and visions. I once read a Pat Conroy book where one of the characters says that he is capable of anything as long as he can see it in his head before-hand. I am like that. I can have very convincing images in my mind of how something will be, and without those, I have no idea how to create or want to.

For more information on Geoffrey Alan Rhodes and his work you can visit his web site at GARhodes.com

The next big thing in 1909

entrance to Marconi Beach on Cape Cod

A recent visit to outer Cape Cod gave the opportunity to follow up on ATA’s celebration of the Transatlantic Cable by visiting the site of Marconi’s wireless telegraph station in Wellfleet. It is actually more accurate to say the place nearest where it used to be since the land where buildings and towers used to sit has been nearly completely eroded. It’s fun to note that the second, 1897 Transatlantic Cable technology was edged out by wireless radio-wave transmissions in just over thirty years. I wonder where cellphones will be when their 30th anniversary arrives in about ten year? The Marconi Station is part of the National Seashore and is a beautiful place, espcially for biking!

The iCAN and the iPhone

On Saturday, March 21, the intrepid AstroDames did a Happening Event on Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts, going up Boylston Street, and ending at the Apple Store. Our research objective was to find out what initial consumer response would be to the iCAN.

Julia testing the iCAN and text messaging for a customer

We met at the Tealuxe (AKA our Green Room) on Newbury Street. We put on our vests and starting walking down the street.
We had some compliments on our system from a woman on Newbury Street. We also almost bumped into several shoppers, clad in black, talking on their cell phones. When Maryann and Julia had their iCANs, we noted that they were having the problems of crowd avoidance while talking on the iCAN.

We headed up Boyston with Bebe and the trusty AstroBike (TM) carrying our equipment and refreshments. The gentleman to the right and between the pillars asked us if he could try the iCAN (TM). we gave it to him, and he said into the phone “Can you hear me now?”. Our studies show that lots of people are compelled to say “Can you hear me now?” when talking into a tin can.

Maryann and Julia couldn’t resist trying out our new “talk time” option.

Unlimited minutes with the AstroDime Plan

We finally parked ourselves in front of the Apple Store, where much to my surprise, lots of tourists were already taking pictures. (kindof like going to the Hard Rock Cafe).

oooo ahhh - sound of trumpets

Maryann and Julia were still using their AstroDime talk minutes.

Julia and Maryann testing the iCANs in front of a giant iPhone

Bebe suggested we test out our new text messaging feature, which we expect to add on to the after-Beta version. Preliminary feedback has been pretty good..although some of the messages get stuck en route. But that’s why they call it Beta, right?

Security came out from the Apple Store..a tall gentlemen who told us that since Apple owns the ENTIRE sidewalk, we had to move on. As we disputed this, a guy pulling out of a parking space in front of the store offered us his parking spot (he still had an hour left). We moved the 4 of us and the bike into the spot, only to be yelled at by people in cars who wanted the spot. (NOTE: we still had 1 hour of time!)

Not wanting to be run over, we moved out of the parking spot next to the bike parking, still across from the Apple store. We were getting cold and decided to pack up. AS we were preparing to leave, a woman who introduced herself as the “Bitch of Boylston Street” told us we had every right to be on that part of the sidewalk, and if the security personel came out again, SHE would call the police on our behalf.

We thanked her, but by now we were REALLY cold and needed to get coffee or something. Maybe we’ll take her up on her offer next time!

-sam smiley

GLITCH is out!!

after a slight delay at Discmakers, INtransit V. 4: What the [Glitch]!? is out! It’s available for $25.00 for individuals or $50.00 for institutions. For more info, contact rocketscience@virtualberet.net.

INtransit V.4

2009 Transatlantic Cable Re-enactment gets International Coverage

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first offical message from the US to Great Britain Astrodime sent a message via tin can phones from Sunset Point to Bumpkin Island. The event was picked-up by A+A Magazine (China) and published in their December issue. The article is by Liu Chao .

Fire Sale at the Rose Art Museum

The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University will be closing its doors. According to the Boston Globe:

Rocked by a budget crisis, Brandeis University will close its Rose Art Museum and sell off a 6,000-object collection that includes work by such contemporary masters as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Nam June Paik.

The phrase “cutting the arts” isn’t nearly descriptive enough. I think “erasing” is a better word.
Here’s the Globe to the January 26, 2009 article by Jacob Berkman
http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/01/26/brandeis_to_sell_schools_art_collection/

The director, Michael Rush has curated some amazing new media and multidisciplinary exhibits as writing books on New Media In Art. He has written a response letter to the closing of the museum, and here is a quote:

“Art cannot be treated as a liquid asset. Seeking a solution to dire financial difficulties by selling precious art that was given (or bought) in the deepest trust between donors and the university (via the museum) is an aberration. History will record this as a desperate action that flies in the face of all intellectual and ethical standards. “

You can sign a petition sponsored by “Concerned Alumni of Brandeis” at
ttp://www.thepetitionsite.com/3/in-opposition-to-the-closing-of-the-rose-art-museum

Also of note: the museum is open until April 4, 2009. For more info, here are visiting hours and information:

http://www.brandeis.edu/rose/visitus/hours.html

Monday Closed
Tuesday Closed
Wednesday Noon to 5pm
Thursday Noon to 8pm
Friday Noon to 5pm
Saturday Noon to 5pm
Sunday Noon to 5pm

Admission

Entry to the museum is free for members, senior citizens, children under 12, present and former students of Brandeis, and all other students with a valid I.D. For all other guests there is $3 fee.

iCan Featured in Citywide Section of Boston Globe

Sam and Gina’s presentation of the iCan was featured in an article by Katherine McInerney on December 21, 2008.  Only available in the actual paper was a photo of the audience’s engaged and beaming faces as they learned about the new possibilities for communication with ATA’s latest product offering- priceless! Check out complete article here.

Basta Ya playing January 3

If you are in Boston, join AstroDime member sam smiley and bands Basta Ya, Golden Grrls, and ANGELA at PA’s Lounge Jan 3. Bailando!

Hub Comics carries INtransit!

I am completely delighted to announce that Hub Comics, at 19 Bow Street in Somerville, Mass is now carrying INtransit volumes 1-3. This store is awesome..graphic novels, manga, comics, zines and locally made films and videos as well as toys, gadgets, and curiosities. Visit their site at http://www.hubcomics.com for more information and to participate in forums.

Good Social Networking site and a Hot Tip

Thanks to AstroDime member Gina Kamentsky, we found a great social networking site called Squidoo. Then a few of us got together to pool our knowledge about using digital photo frames for playing video. Here’s the result, let us know if you have any suggestions!

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/workshop/digital-video-in-photo-frames