Factory Reset

Altered machineries for cinema and other creative industries

Thematic seminar by Florian Cramer, with guest teaching by Aymeric Mansoux. In collaboration with the applied research center Creating 010, Hogeschool Rotterdam. April 10th – June 26th, 2012.

Introduction

Within the arts and media, the industry paradigm has been strongest and most developed in cinema, for technological and economic reasons. Yet we live in contradictory times: On the one hand, policymakers – particularly in this country – want the notion of creative industries supersede the established notions of arts and media. On the other hand, the industry paradigm is shaken by contemporary shifts in the so-called “creative” sector: globalized labor and informal, temporary project-oriented networks replacing bureaus and studios, and last not least the means of (media) production that have become consumer/prosumer technology. In cinema, this development is very recent and disruptive: The factory is in a crisis. Aside from that, it has always been challenged and revised – on a smaller level – by the DIY, underground, hacker and porn fringes of cultural production.

If former fringe modes of production shape today's creative industries, what is replacing the factory? Other kinds of factories, like those of Andy Warhol, or – recently – Michel Gondry, or those in Silicon Valley and Lagos instead of Hollywood? What are the hidden machineries and formulas of alternative production methods? If we reset the machinery, literally and metaphorically, will it just return to its default values?

Subjects

Magic Lanterns & Personal Views: DSLR cinema & camera hacking
Be Kind Rewind: Michel Gondry's Home Movie Factory and other participatory formulas
Screen tests: the Warhol Factory, underground film, film co-ops, video activism, DIY Labs
Poetics of fan fiction: machinima, game mods, Star Wars Uncut.
No budget creative industries: situationist film, dub music, exploitation films, Nollywood

These will be cross-examined with two areas of reading and research:

Poetics of participation: Oulipo constraints, narratologies, handbooks and other formulas
The discourse of the creative industries: Adorno/Horkheimer, Richard Florida, Chuck Kleinhans, Topteam Creatieve Industrie Nederland

Requirements for obtaining credits

full attendance of the project, active participation in discussions;
a reading journal on the course Wiki with at least five entries, each on one text/film/media project discussed in the seminar;
the design and working prototype of a 'factory' – a system, medium or methodology that helps others create an (artistic) product while reflecting upon its own constraints.

reading, viewing and listening material

Film

Halaw/Ways of the Sea (Malaysia 2010, Sheron Dayoc) – if available
Mario Banana (USA 1964, Andy Warhol)
Be Kind Rewind (USA 2008, Michel Gondry)
La Jetée (France 1962, Chris Marker)
Can dialectics break bricks? (France 1973, René Vienet)
Star Wars Uncut (world-wide, 2012, collective)
Igodo 1 (Nigeria, 1999, Andy Amenechi & Don Pedro Obaseki)
films by Jess Franco (suggestions: Downtown – die nackten Puppen der Unterwelt, 1975; White Cannibal Queen, 1980; Diamonds of Kilimandjaro, 1983; Faceless, 1988)
films by Andy Milligan (suggestions: Torture Dungeon, 1970, Gutter Trash, 1969)
web tv series “The Scene” http://www.welcometothescene.com
Minecraft machinima, 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIhs8_m5qPc
Straight 8 (UK/world-wide, 2008-2012): One Super 8 cartridge, no editing: http://www.straight8.net

Audio

Baku: Symphony of Sirens (Arseny Avraamov, USSR 1922/RecRec Megacorp UK 2009)
recordings by The Scratch Orchestra/Cornelius Cardew, http://www.ubu.com/sound/scratch.html
Lee Perry, Kung fu meets the Dragon (Jamaica, 1975);
Big Gundown: Reggae Inspired By Spagetti Western (compilation 2004);
Scientists' themed dub releases: Scientists meets the Space Invaders (1981), Scientist Encounters Pac-Man At Channel One (1994), Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires (1981))

Text

Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectics of Enlightenment, Stanford University Press: 2007 (1947)
Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folk Tale, University of Texas Press: 1968 (USSR 1928)
Warren F. Motte (ed.), Oulipo. A Primer of Potential Literature, University of Nebraska Press: 1986
Michel Gondry, You'll Like This Film Because You're In It, Picture Box: 2008
WORM.filmwerkplaats (Esther Urlus), To Boldy Go: a starter's guide to handmade and d-i-y films, 2008 http://filmwerkplaats.wormweb.nl/pdf/to%20boldly%20go.pdf
Cherry Kino, Wondermental Super 8 and 16mm film techniques, 2010 http://en.pleintekst.nl/cherry_kino.pdf
Radical Software (magazine 1970-1974), http://www.radicalsoftware.org/e/browse.html
R. Klanten, A. Mollard, M. Hübner (ed.), Behind the Zines:
Self-publishing culture, Gestalten: 2011
Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community And Everyday Life, Basic Books: 2002
Chuck Kleinhans, Creative Industries and the Cold Hard Facts of Global Capitalism, in: Jump Cut, A Review of Contemporary Media, issue 53, 2011 http://www.ejumpcut.org/currentissue/kleinhans-creatIndus/index.html
Topteam Creatieve Industrie, Advies Topteam Creatieve Industrie, Rijksoverheid Nederland: 2012
Hito Steyerl, Is the Museum a Factory, e-flux journal no. 7, 2009, http://www.e-flux.com/journal/is-a-museum-a-factory
Gerald Raunig, A Thousand Machines, A Concise Philosophy of the Machine as Social Movement, The MIT Press: 2010, http://monoskop.org/log/?p=3765

Technology

Panasonic GH2 hack: http://www.personal-view.com
Canon EOS hack: http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_Lantern_Firmware_Wiki
Blogs: http://www.eoshd.com, http://cheesycam.com, http://dvxuser.com

Tutor

Florian Cramer is an applied research professor ('lector') for the impact of new media on the profession of artists and designers at the applied research center Creating 010 at Hogeschool Rotterdam.

He studied Comparative Literature and Art History at Freie Universität Berlin, Universität Konstanz and University of Massachusetts at Amherst, obtained his M.A. degree in 1998 and doctorate in 2006. From 1999 to 2004, he was a junior faculty teacher at Peter Szondi-Institut for Comparative Literature at Freie Universität Berlin, in 2004, a guest researcher at Piet Zwart Institute, from 2006 to 2010, course director of the Master programme Media Design & Communication, since 2008 reader/applied research professor, since 2011, programme director of the new research center Creating 010 of Hogeschool Rotterdam, and a board member of Stichting WORM, Rotterdam.

Since 1996, he has been a critical writer on literature, arts and media. His most recent longer publication is the book Exe.cut[up]able statements. Poetische Kalküle und Phantasmen des selbstausführenden Texts, Wilhelm Fink, 2011. In practical projects, he has collaborated among others with Stewart Home, mez breeze, Alan Sondheim, Sebastian Luetgert, Eva & Franco Mattes, Cornelia Sollfrank, Istvan Kantor, Coolhaven, Wilhelm Hein & Annette Frick. He is both an amateur computer programmer and an amateur filmmaker.

Schedule

The Thematic Seminar takes place on Tuesdays from 11:00 to 18:00 in the large project space at Piet Zwart Institute, Karel Doormanhof 45

April 10

11:00 Introduction, brainstorming and discussion of the Thematic Seminar
14:00 Film: Be Kind Rewind & discussion

April 17

11:00 Reading: Michel Gondry, You'll Like This Film Because You're In It
14:00 visit of Roodkapje, discussion with Aline Yntema about the Home Movie Factory project
16:00 camera hacking roundtable

April 24

11:00 Reading: Oulipo Compendium (selections) & Propp, Morphology of the Folktale
14:00 discussion with Paolo Davanzo & Lisa Marr and Esther Urlus over community filmmaking (to be confirmed)
15:30 selected Straight 8 films, discussion

(May 1: May break)

May 8

11:00 Reading: Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectics of Enlightenment, chapter The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.
14:00 film: Andy Warhol, Mario Banana; discussion
15:30 The culture industry of Jamaican dub (Aymeric)

May 15

11:00 Reading: Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class
14:00 project sketches: factories
15:30 film: Star Wars Uncut (excerpts), selected machinima, discussion

May 22

11:00 Reading: Chuck Kleinhans, Creative Industries and the Cold Hard Facts of Global Capitalism
14:00 Film presentations: Jess Franco, Nollywood, Andy Milligan, The Scene