On Inter Gravissimas

"The common theme of calendar making is the desire to organize units of time to satisfy the needs and preoccupations of society. In addition to serving practical purposes, the process of organization provides a sense, however illusory, of understanding and controlling time itself. Thus calendars serve as a link between mankind and the cosmos. Whatever their scientific sophistication, calendars must ultimately be judged as social contracts, not as scientific treatises. The acceptance of the Gregorian calendar as a worldwide standard spanned more than three centuries."

Counting in pataphysical footage, Sam Renseiw's calendar for 2006 can be subdivided into 326 videos. Thanks for participating in the gaze, and the best wishes for a creative and happy new year to all visitors to patalab. To view the moving greeting click here or mouse in the junction above. (patafilm # 326, 00'28'', 2 MB, Quicktime/Mov - Flash version at Blip.tv)

On Chronos' pitilessness

“Confronted with Chronos, this Greek God who, completely untouched by human fate, knows neither good nor evil, all human effort is rendered futile, whether it be life itself, the struggle against death, or the attempt to do anything. There’s only one thing stronger than we are, and that’s the eternal progression of time, which never stops and inevitably leads to death.”

Wondering about the awareness potential of inter-linked processes of remembering and forgetting, Sam Reseiw set out to capture some glimpses of Christian Boltanski' s stunning and memorable recent staging of "Zeit". To view the documentative video-noir footage click here or mouse-touch the icon above. (patafilm # 325, 03'39'', 14.2 MB, Quicktime/Mov - Flash version for PC available at Blip.tv)

Journey To the West

["The gate of the cave was shut,so the Monkey King had to wait outsides. After a while,a fairy child came out. He said,"My master,P'u-t'i, told me that a man who wishes to practice Buddhism is waiting outside the gate. Is it you?" The Monkey King hastened to answer, "Yes,it is I."]

Remembering Tripitaka's peripeties , Sam Renseiw - monkey like- and always on the run for more footage, brings you this short enlightening episode, complete with hint- links. Click here to enjoy a moment of moving video-bliss or mouse in on the triptic iconography above. (patafilm # 324, 01'00'', 4.5 MB, Quicktime/ Mov - Flash version at Blip.tv)

Merry Free Hugs

"Everyone in the world should be able to sleep without fear, at least for one night. Everyone should be able to eat to his fill, at least for one day. There should be at least one day when hospitals see no one admitted due to violence. By doing selfless service for at least one day, everyone should help the poor and needy."

Free hugs have travelled around and settled as niche activity in Copenhagen the past months. Sam Renseiw bumped into a series of warm hugs recently. Enjoy the transmitted embrace by clicking here or mouse in on the sign above. (patafilm # 232, 00'52'', 3.9 MB, Quicktime/Mov - Flash version (streaming) for PC at Blip.tv)

On the nature of in-door birdies

" I made a science fiction film which I'll show you. It's ten after four in the afternoon, and everybody in the world mysteriously falls asleep. Just like that, they are driving cars, whatever they are doing, bang!, they got to sleep, the Russians, the Chinese, the Americans, the Danes, and the whole world sleeps for exactly one hour, till ten after five, and they wake up at ten after five, and mysteriously upon awakening everybody in the world find themselves in a mini-golf craze"

At last finding a moment of rest on the third floor of Copenhagen's largest shopping mall, Sam Renseiw fantoms the depths of Danish niche-culture in a globalized world. To view the birdie attempt click here or mouse-click on the green above. (patafilm #322, 01'45'', 7.5 MB , Quicktime/Mov - Flash version streaming for PC at Blip.tv)

On availability heuristics

"Still, the speech of beavers and ants is apparently by gesture; i.e., it is only visual. If so, such languages are natural, not acquired. The animals that speak them possess them a-borning: they all have them, and they are everywhere the same. They are entirely unchanging and make not the slightest progress. Conventional language is characteristic of man alone. That is why man makes progress...and animals do not."

Still speculating on how spatial awareness might interfere with linguistic pattern language, Sam Renseiw stepped into another corridor-like setting, high and low, encountering Corbusier's Le Modulor figure, life size. View the short moving audio-visual mash-up by clicking here or enter the path above. (patafilm # 321, 01'31'', 7.2 MB, Quicktime/Mov - Flash version for PC available at Blip.tv)

Diapsalmata

["In addition to my numerous other acquaintances I have still one more intimate friend—my melancholy. In the midst of pleasure, in the midst of work, she beckons to me, calls me aside, even though I remain present bodily. My melancholy is the most faithful sweetheart I have had—no wonder that I return the love!"]

Being aware of the evidence that between the extremities of the moved and the movement that are respectively first and last in reference to the moved, there is nothing intermediate, Sam Renseiw walked a short while on Victor Eremita's footsteps. View the inter-mediation by clicking here or enter the prosaic appearance above. (patafilm # 320, 02'19'', 10.4 MB, Quicktime/Mov - Flash version for PC at blip.tv)

In the inverted reality of the spectacle

[ "In the essential movement of the spectacle, which consists of taking up all that existed in human activity in a fluid state so as to possess it in a congealed state as things which have become the exclusive value by their formulation in negative of lived value, we recognize our old enemy, the commodity, who knows so well how to seem at first glance something trivial and obvious, while on the contrary it is so complex and so full of metaphysical subtleties."]

Speculating on the commodity's complexity, Sam Renseiw collected yet more illustrative footage from a space with congealed flooring, a local situation. View a glimpse of a closed societé du spectacle by clicking here or enter the ice by mousing in above. (patafilm # 319, 01'14'', 5.8 MB, Quicktime/Mov - Flash version for PC at blip.tv)

On devouring escalator flows

["He had eaten all the whilepaper, swallowed the lustres, devoured forty flights of styearcases, chewed up all the mensas and seccles, ronged the records, made mundballs of the ephemerids and vorasioused most glutinously with the very timeplace in the ternitary "]

No place like a public library, be it a Royal one, lobbied Sam Renseiw, standing still for a moment to catch the escalating re-Joyce past knowledge's reading chambers. View the flow, complete with pauses by clicking here or enter the slide by mousing in above. ( patafilm # 318, 01'48'', 8.2 MB, Quicktime/Mov - Flash version for PC at Blip.tv)

Equestrian spatiotemporal distortion

"It is generally accepted that it takes time for visual awareness of an exposed stimulus to emerge. One of the potentially interesting theoretical questions could be posed this way: is the temporal lag of the observer's visual experience of an equestrian stimulus constant, or is it a variable of the spatiotemporal availability of the stimulus?"

Pondering on the effects of equitation practice on visual awareness, Sam Renseiw developed a short piece of horse-footage, in a controlled space environment (getting some spatial audio interference in, though). Re-view it for testing the temporal lag by clicking here, or enter the icon above. (patafilm # 317, 01'52'', 8.6 MB, Quicktime/mov - Flash version for PC at Blip.tv)

On squaring the circle or circling the square

"If a straight line drawn in a plane revolves uniformly any number of times about a fixed extremity until it returns to its original position, and if, at the same time as the line revolves, a point moves uniformly along the straight line beginning at the fixed extremity, the point will describe a spiral in the plane."

Speculating on Archimedes's treatise On Spirals, Sam Renseiw sets out to squaring the circle, unsure if circling the square (55°40′49″N, 12°35′9″E) would do. In the process, a figure, skating with Sonja Henie's grace, appeared tangentially. View the geometrical footage with "circle-squarers" by clicking here or mouse-skate in above (patafilm # 316, 01'52'', 8.2 MB, Quicktime/mov - Flash version for PC at Blip.tv)

On the nature of Cheshire Cats

["Please would you tell me," said Sam, a little timidly, for he was not quite sure whether it was good manners for him to speak first, "why your cat grins like that?" "It' s a hybrid Cheshire cat," said the Seimi," and that's why.]

Continuing his odyssey down the rabbit hole's vast expanses, Sam Renseiw met a cat (sort of). View the scenery, complete with the Duchess's occasional sneeze by clicking here, or enter the trap by mousing in carefully above. ( patafilm # 315, 00'50'', 3.4 MB, Quicktime/mov - Flash version for PC at Blip.tv)

The Walls have Ears

"It begins with a modest one room apartment that appears to be deserted, but there are faint traces of life in the little home. Via small enticing labyrinthine caves and cavities the visitor is invited to leave this claustrophobic room so to move further around in the installation to the next layer of enigmatic and fantastical tales."

Surrounded by a kind of animated architecture that seemingly lives and senses, Sam Renseiw becomes a fellow player who, with a heightened sensory apparatus, is urged to interact both physically and mentally with the work of Seimi Noerregaard. View the interaction by clicking here or enter the apartment by mousing in above. (patafilm # 314, 04'01'', 18 MB, Quicktime/mov.- Flash version for PC at Blip.tv)

On Farandole and pattern(s)

"What is important in Farandole is the pattern the line of dancers makes in space - this is called the 'figure'. The figures in Farandole are all very simple ones. The easiest of all is just a labyrinthine track over the floor, curving round, twisting and turning back on itself, apparently at random. It is the leader of the line who is responsible for the pattern."

Re-examining a seemingly oblique dance pattern from previously caught footage, Sam Renseiw attentively re-winded. Click here to watch or join the dancer by mousing in above.(patafilm # 312, 02'57'', 8.3 MB, Quicktime/mov - Flash version for PC at Blip.tv)

On the staggering of patterns

"In C really was these formations of patterns that were kind of flying together. That's how it came to me. It was like this kind of cosmic vision of patterns that were gradually transforming and changing. And I think the principal contribution to minimalism was this concept, it wasn't just one pattern, it was this idea that patterns could be staggered and their composite forms became another kind of music."

Walking and capturing footage in a circular church space, Sam Renseiw experienced the cosmic vision while listening to a rare performance of In C by Ars Nova. Enter the visual essay by clicking here or mouse in the track above. ( patafilm # 311, 03'20'', 15.3 MB, Quictime/mov - Flash version for PC here)

On the ethnology of being there

"But, in essence, the Swedish experience of the creation of the picturesque was remarkably similar to our own; a psychic colonisation of the wild by the imposed architectonics of civilisation. It's these opening sections of the book which, in keeping with the growth of holidaying itself, make you feel as if on a craven mission into a brave new world, spreading your towel by an isolated brook and indulging in some scary skinny-dipping in the sinuous rills of the author's prose."

Our a short holiday-like trip to Sweden, Sam Renseiw also indulged in some day dreaming, documenting a sense of place in ethnological confines, sort of being there. View the extended linkage either by clicking here or enter by the icon above. (patafilm # 310, 01'10'' 5.7 MB, Quicktime/mov - Flash version for PC )