Arbeitsgemeinschaft für zeitgemässen Blickfang

'tell me again, where am i when this is not the place where i want to be' is the last video in a row which features music of the 'städtische philharmonie sankt isengrim' or 'sankt isengrim philharmonic' in english, an citivity of the international artists group 'arbeitsgemeinschaft für zeitgemässen blickfang' or 'afzb' in short. these videos are collective works, based on photos by french visual artist fred forestier and german photographer maren schram. visual artist j.l. knopf from germany reworked the photos and constructed the result to a video. the accompanying music is either played live when the musicians watch the video or the music already exists and is chosen for a particular video. although there's no overall theme the videos are mainly about 'displacement' as the title suggests. the early versions concentrated on human relations, expressed in the addition '... the farmer's wife asked her daughter' or '... said the famer's wife to her daughter'. farmer's wife and daughter wer..

‘the end – as in: the end’ is about fading memories. they begin to fade as soon as they emerge. details gradually disappear; people and places lose their recognizable form and change to somewhat archetypical shapes. for example: ‘the bell’ becomes ‘a bell’ and specific individuals become ‘a man’ or ‘a woman’ of just ‘a person’. add to that a selective memory which replaces a negative experience connected to ‘the bell’ with a more neutral approach of ‘a bell’. less often, however. because, there are only fading memories after ‘the end – as in: the end’.
this video, by the way, is the work of a group. it is also a vehicle for a music project of the städtische philharmonie sankt isengrim. a big brass band plays the music from a larger project by artist group arbeitsgemeinschaft für zeitgemässen blickfang called ‘a propos l’histoire du pirates de florence’. sound and vision complement each other to tell a story. which one that is depends on what people want to experience.

in short: the adventures of two sculptures in imagarinary landscapes. the 'main characters' are light objects made from plexiglass. the landscapes are formed with images from all over europe. the pictures are stacked layer upon layer. the music is a free improvisation, mainly in the jazz idiom.

this video is about departure. it's made in the photomatic way: a number of photos arranged in such a way that they form a kind of movie. each photo is a symbol. combined with another photo a new symbol appears. the music is a free improvisation. the title ‘down, vain lights’ is taken from john dowlands well-known song ‘flow, my tears’ which was published in 1600.

The real censor in the here and now is easy to understand. He or she but usually a shady ‘it’ says: this is appropriate and that not. And all that falls in between is also not appropriate. That is what we have to live with. We can choose to go against the censor or go with the flow or do both to try to fool the censor. Not so with the virtual censor in each of us. The virtual censor takes the place of an absent real life censor extremely efficient. We obey and act accordingly. Our personal censor forbids us to do this and encourages us to do the other. A matter of social discipline and conformation to what is expected of us. With that in mind, is there anything like freedom? And if so, what are the virtues of this freedom?

the censor? that's us! without us no censorship... but how difficult it is to keep an open mind for that which is strange to us. the alien is too much for my head my head my poor old head. explain, control, forbid, produce censorship like i do. because the censor, that's us. without us no censorship?

video for dutch visual artist/performer hans lagerweij, filmed by fred forestier and edited by emil forestier, with accompanying music by hanns ahring and romme bilger.

second pre-run of a video for dutch artist simon dirkse. it's about big city architecture with glass, steel and concrete. the images are reworked to give the impression of an ever expanding anonymous city. the music is a composition for a large orchestra, taken from the cycle 'a propos l'histoire du pirates de florence'.

first run of a video for 'the new clara schumann band', a recent activity of artist group afzb. mainly made with photos of french photographer fred forestier, with additional images like 19th century engravings. the result: somewhat gloomy... the music is a structured improvisation.

pre-run of a video for dutch visual artist simon dirkse who also made the images. mainly big city glass architecture rearranged to imaginary buildings and cityscapes. with music by 'the new clara schumann band'. this video is a preparation for a series based on images by simon dirkse.

first run of an experiment with a mix of antique images, mainly 19th century engravings to a background of a watercolor painting. the story is about a party in a hall and about uninvited guests that mingle with the invited ones. everybody happy?

this is the first version of variations on the series of paintings/objects for which dutch artist simon dirkse choose the title 'tastatur'. that is the german word for 'keyboard' and refers to the reallife piano keyboard that is a part of these paintings/objects. the video consists of segments taken from 'tastatur' and are rearranged without changing the original too much. the fragments are enlarged, rotated and mirrored, just to name a few alterations. the title is taken from the first song franz schubert used in his 'winterreise' and reads in english something like 'from one to the other'. the music was recorded live at a performance of members of the städtische philharmonie sankt isengrim at this years' european heritage days in the hague, the netherlands.

this one was made with travelling in mind, all the way from a to b. it also contains some experiments with adding movement to 19th. and early 20th. century images of equipment for travelling. the backgrounds are combinations of unused materials from earlier videos, mainly experiments with overlaying and colorshifts. the story is bout a ship that has disappeared, reappeared and disappeares again. and the character keeps on looking for the return of the mary deere!

when you remember the movie 'indecent proposal' you may also remember the quote 'even a brick wants to be something', referring to the american architect louis kahn who was suposed to have said that. 'ambitious for louis kahn 2' is a reworked version of a video we made earlier with the same title, minus the 2. this one features music of ukrainian composer/performer vova tkachev, extended by members of artist group afzb. the images are alienated pictures of a derelict building. the sountrack differs somewhat from what we had in mind. the additions to the original music were recorded in several takes. somehow they got mixed. the result sounded too nice to us to correct it.

once there was a time when digital audio-visual techniques were a novelty for artist group afzb. this trial and error-video explores the possibilities of alienating photos. the pictures are of landscapes and natural surroundings. the soundtrack explores the possibilities of masking unwanted background noises with audiosamples. the band is partly real and virtual for the remaining part.

‘we have seen this one before, have we’, our guests asked when we showed them another version of ‘where am i’. in return we replied: ‘we’ve tried out some new things, made some additions. and discovered that what you want sometimes doesn’t work out so well in technical reality.’ sometimes it even doesn’t work at all and no-one knows why. ‘once we’ve discovered why we’ll put that experience in another version’, we told our guests. at their turn they gave us a nice demonstration of how to make an artificial smile…..

‘but have you guys really changed something everytime you present a ‘new’ version of a video’, the critical observer asked. ‘well yes indeed’, we replied. that is mainly because the hardware we use has its limitations. just not enough technical possibilities to do what we like in one run. and ideas happen to change too and deserve to be tried. so that’s why we present ‘a new version’ of a video every now and then. these words introduce the third run of ‘…where am i…’ with new images, expanded images, even deleted images and a new soundtrack.

first run of a video based on a sculpture by dutch artist simon dirkse.

second version of a work in progress, based on the work of french photographer fred forestier.

an animated painting by dutch artist simon dirkse combined with a classical composition by hanns ahring and jean quist for harpsichord , double bass and windquintet. the title is taken from 'die schöne müllerin', a songcycle by franz schubert and wilhelm müller.

for some odd reason combines a composition for percussion by hanns ahring and images by burkhard meininger.

a long, long time ago before the days of afzb fluteplayer angela duncan and pianist hanns ahring joined to find out what musical improvisation was about. visual artist j.l. kmopf added a video to these excursions. again a work in progress, as this video is the basis for an extended version other members of afzb are working on.

a reworked version of an earlier video to make it a vehicle for an improvisation by the staedtische philharmonie sankt isengrim. to the earlier video moving color was added plus new images which underline the story that's being told.

work in progress!

first steps into improvisation by two of the founding members of afzb, with visuals of two later day members. the video is the first of three. this one is mainly a backdrop. it explores the possibilities of a single drawing. the following ones add 'activity' to it.

in 'a brief introduction...' afzb worked together with the australian collective masonik. sound and visuals are processed over and over again to a point where it's about to become difficult to say what the original material might have been.

this video brings light entertainment with with slow moving pictures of seaside nature. and there's slow music that goes with it. just entertainment, enjoy!

for this video two preliminary versions of earlier works were combined. the images were alienated and expanded with digital effects. it's an experiment, mainly done to see what happens when you change something in existing material. the latin title reads in english roughly like 'as long as it's good it remains this way' which could be well enough the motto of the rotterdam freejazz ensemble which is active for more than 30 years now.

this video is made with inspectionphotos of an officebuilding. architectural and constructional details, originally photographed to show the condition of the building, are alienated digitally. and iota horologii is supposed to be an earthlike planet some 55 lightyears away from us in the stellarsystem pendulum.

three layers of video interacting, packed in a digital impression of fog. tthe videos are made with photos of landscapes and the things of nature which are there to be found. the images are altered digitally. to create something moving to the photos the digital fog was added. the music features guitarist soran rasheed.

change, sudden or long expected and for better or worse, sometimes brings one's life in turmoil. loosing ground versus new perspective. in such times there should be no melancholic evenings and long long nights as well; they are dangerous, said berthold brecht once.

this one is about architectural details of the interior of a church and the light that passes through the windows. the details of the building are rearranged to create new forms and constructions. the title reads in english something like: i believe we're on one wavelength here. and that refers to the music of the rotterdam freejazz ensemble, a group that is active for more than 30 years!

and the horizon is only a mile away from here was made for a musical group composition supervised by the german composer hanns ahring. the images were taken earlier along the dutch coast and used for another musical production. for this one the original 'natural' images were processed digitally. filters were used at random. thus the result couldn't be predicted. the music is a typical studio production constructed with instrumental samples.

part three of'once there was a judge who wanted to skip the country...'

part 2 of 'once there was a judge who wanted to skip the country'. details are the same as for part one. and they will remain the same when part 3 comes on ;-)))

this is part one of a trilogy with the full title 'once there was a judge who wanted to skip the country on a forged passport'. the reason why this assignment for a website was cut in three is technical: the whole video just has too many bits and bytes.

this video was made with visual artist pjm velterop. it's the first attempt to tell a story by combining reworked photos. as it is often the case with a story there's a main character that travels from a to b and experiences all kinds of adventures on the way.

an older experiment with video which received new life by adding a newer musical track to it. the music is an informal improvisation.

again, what to do with images from a fixed camera? this time they were put layer upon layer with each layer in a smaller format than the previous one. some 'echo' was added and each layer passed a videogenerator that changed the color at random.

a snip of a performance by the forschungsinstitut für anomalische realmusik. the images of a fixed camera are digitally alienated.

the registration of a concert performance with a static camera looses its visual excitement after a while. so what to do with the images? one method of adding a little more excitement is digital alteration of the images. in this case it's a registration of a performance by the forschungsinstitut für anomalische realmusik.

some jolly stars for anders dahl was constructed with three synchronous moving dots. an oldfashioned videogenerator controls, among others, the speed and the direction of the dots. as they move their colour changes. electronic filters change the colours as well. this introduces random effects. the work is first of all an experiment to discover what you can do with a videogenerator.

imaginary landscapes, places that could be anywhere and yet they don't exist. like polished memories of summers and holidays that actually never existed the way we remember them.

Wilhelm Müller’s Gute Nacht, the first poem from Franz Schubert’s songcycle Winterreise. With music from the days before AFzB Chosen for the bittersweet memories that go with it. This version is not an accurate reproduction of Gute Nacht, but an improvisation with the words. The images come from a processed photo by Fred Forestier.

images from a closed shoppingmall, virtually decorated with paintings, sculptures and installations of dutch artist simon dirkse. accompanied by an improvisation of the städtische philharmonie sankt isengrim.

some ambitious bricks for louis kahn is made with photos of a derelict block of buildings. the buildings are mainly photographed in detail. the images are all processed for an alienating effect and are put together to one moving image. the music is a free and open improvisation with tenorsaxophone and bassoon. the title refers to architect louis kahn who once thought: even a brick wants to be someting'.

this is part one of a longer work by operarotas, a subdivision of the arbeitsgemeinschaft für zeitgemässen blickfang. the images of the animation are (re)processed architectural photos and stills. the material features an abandonned office building. on the prospect... combines classical singing with jazz winds and rock patterns. the work is based on themes played by a double string quartet. this foundation has been used for several other versions, ranging from the present which has a somewhat extrovert classical character to a more introvert poppy one and a quiet ambient version.

light and colour with some shadows from the darker corners of life. a little showcase for the works of dutch artist simon dirkse accompanied by an improvisation of städtische philharmonie sankt isengrim, a division of afzb. about the recording: live straight to two track. no overdubbing or post processing.