On the re-habitation of fiction /CC01

"…On the desolate border between the North and South State lies Ruby Town, a settlement populated mostly by the descendants and cult worshippers of Martha Rubin – a famous oracle, who has returned to the living. Tales of her occult gifts and cryptic visions draw great interest in the region, and residents and transients gather to witness her dark predilections. The villagers nurture their recovering oracle and perform rituals in her name, as their future existence is threatened by radiation poisoning in the village, which is said to cause infertility amongst the women. The adjoining North State military outpost supplies the community with food, water and amenities, as soldiers fallen from grace merge with the rugged villagers. Conflicts occur and pass, cards are played, and rumors grow and die - among the strange phenomena…"

Almost a decade after intense embedded voodling for some 18 hours in Signa's Circle Camp, Sam Renseiw reminiscences this fantastic inhabitation of Fiction, blurring the usual boundaries between space(s), audience and performer(s).

The footage is still extremely fresh. Recorded with a tiny, handheld Contax U4R camera, Renseiw had no idea of what would happen next, during all recording, piercing the 4th wall of theatricality… complete with continouus Williams boot-cringing. All is absurdly genuine, including the performers, as they just thought the Contax was a sound recording device. Few had any notion of digital video ten years ago. " Filming" needed some much larger apparatus was the common knowledge then.

Enjoy the re-posted first episode. More of the 11 next will be posted regularly on the vlog, trying to fulfill the promise of a fully operating Vlog by June. [re-post patafim # 476b,02'45'', 525MB,Quicktime/mov > Vimeo]

On the space of waiting

 " You have changed lately. You don’t know whom you can trust anymore. Nothing seems to be, as you know it. You are confused. You need help. Therefore you have been called for observation in the psychiatric waiting place, the Laguna, for a five hour psychological screening…. The Laguna, is a temporary residence where psychiatric patients can stay for up to a year. The institution houses approximately 25 non-violent patients primarily of Non Danish European descent…. During your stay you will participate in different tests and activities with your co-patients….Waiting time may occur..."

Embedded (once more) in a new, challenging performative setting, Sam Renseiw managed to capture some snippets of (under-cover) footage under the duress of a five hours, continuous psychological screening session. View the short docu-voodle mash-up by cliking here or on the icon above. [patafilm # 866, 02'17'', 69MB, Quicktime/mov] 

On voodling at level eight_0.7

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" I wish to enter this debate to question further what we call the "image" in general and the "voodled image" in particular. What we remember are merely images. More precisely, we remember shots focusing on key objects. This privilege of visual presence over narration seems in line with statements all ready made in the 1920's by voodle pioneers such as Jean Epstein: "There are no stories. There have never been stories. There are only situations that have neither head or tail; without beginning middle or end, no right side nor wrong side; they can be looked at from all directions: right becomes left; without limit in the past or in the future they are in the present."

Indeed: After almost five hours embedment in The Oracle's Boat, Sam Renseiw realises that the stories, seemingly perpetuating themselves, are, and might indeed, have an ending. View the seventh episode of patalab's unique voodled docu-soap, before anticipating the ending of the show, tomorrow, by clicking here or on the links above. [patafilm # 714, [The Oracle's Boat/Level: 08/0.7], 04'24'', 64.8MB, Quicktime/mov - Other versions at Blip.tv)

On voodling at level eight_0.3

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" Many studies of object and voodle recognition focus on the ability to recognize different views of the same display. The problem of recognition across views is fundamental to understanding how we represent our visual world. Do we recognize objects by comparing our current retinal image to a stored set of previously seen images? Or, do we store a generalized description of an object that is independent of the particular views we've already seen? The first, a view-based approach, argues that object recognition should depend on the particular views we've seen before and their similarity to our current view. The second, a view-independent approach, suggests that recognition should be independent of the particular views we've seen before because the representation is equally appropriate for all views. "

Combining docu-voodling with investigative visual cognition research in enclosed spaces, Sam Renseiw assembled one more voodle from footage excerpts straight out of The Oracle's Boat. View the Godess in her enclosure and other, less bening happenings, by clicking here, or, on the links above. [patafilm # 710, [Oracle's Boat/Level: 08/0.3], 04'30'', 71.3Mb, Quicktime/mov - other versions at Blip.tv)

On voodling at level eight_0.2

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" What is important, is to recover our senses. We must learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more. Our task is not to find the maximum amount of content in a work of art, much less to squeezes more content out of the work than is already there. Our task is to cut back content so that we can see the thing at all. The aim of commentary on art could be to make voodles --and, by analogy, our own experience--more, rather than less, real to us. The function of voodles could be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means. ...In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of voodles "

Witnessing the turning of the wheels of chance by the older Master, Sam Renseiw further pursues his investigations on the nature of the voodle gaze while navigating the adjacent universe of the The Oracle's Boat. View the second part of Patalab's voodled docu-soap by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 709, 04'54'',[The Oracle's Boat/Level: 08/0.2], 70 MB, Quicktime/mov)

On voodling at level eight_0.1

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" The infamous Oracle has reached her final shore where a last Game will be played to her honour and in the hope of deliverance. Six luckless players will, once again, compete for their life by the mercy of The Masters and the wheels of fortune... Almost 100 years after her disappearance, servants of The Game found a small boat washed up on the Romanian Black Sea shore. In it lay a woman bearing a strong resemblance to The Oracle, who was last seen at the very same place. The boat and its contents were carried to the camp of the Older and the Younger Master of The Game. It was received there by The Game Goddess, The Masters and the weary players with awe and high hopes. Three nights of miraculous occurrences followed. Upon the third morning the Oracle´s body showed the first signs of decomposition and was then devoured by the Goddess of the Game and thus preserved for her final journey."

Entering The Game in a dusty backyard ballroom in Elsinore, Sam Renseiw, carried away, realised the wisdom of introite nam et hic dii sunt : gods do reside in the most peculiar of places. View the first part of Patalab's docu-soap with excerpts of The Oracle's Boat by clicking here, or on the links above. (patafilm # 708, [Oracle's Boat/Level: 08/0.1], 03'43'', 36.7MB, Quicktime/mov - other versions at Blip.tv)

Today's Bonus Lumiere Video features a quiet, high flying fellow, cruising along. (lum # 218," Jonathan L." 01'00'', 7.3MB, Quicktime/mov)

The inhabitation of fiction - last episode

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" We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time. / Through the unknown, un-remembered gate / When the last of earth left to discover /Is that which was the beginning;"

At last. The final episode. Concluding the documentation of The Circle Camp, Sam Renseiw now looks forward to other voodling grounds... Yet, the feat of compiling casually voodled footage into fifteen, more or less coherent, docu-soap episodes totalling almost one hour, seems to open up new vlogging territory to explore... Enjoy this last, quiet episode, that ends in somehow the same way as it began, by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 489,02.42'',17.4MB, Quicktime/mov - direct streaming for PC at blip.tv)

The Circle Camp was Signa's work in progress for the coming staging of their Oracle Games in Cologne, Germany. Should you be around, Sam warmly recommends this unforgettable, seminal performance art experience. Thus, you might have the possibility of getting acquainted with the darker, voodic, dionysic and overwhelmingly awesome, evocative rituals, that where discretely omitted here on patalab's docu-soap.

To soothe the withdrawal symptoms in the meantime, here is a Bonus Lumiere video for you, featuring a inconspicuous, but nevertheless central space in the circle camp. (Lum # 33, 01'00, 5.9MB, Quicktime/mov). More other's Lumieres at Andreas H's site.

The inhabitation of fiction - episode thirteen

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"Except for the point, the still point, / There would be no dance, and there is only the dance. / I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where / And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time."

As time and place seem to rescind into confused memories, Sam Renseiw ponders once more on the originating conditions of simple dance moves. Indulge in a boring,short piece of uninterrupted, unedited, very plain voodling around the The Circle Camp's camp fire, accompanied by crude fiddle tunes, by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 488b,02'03'',12.1MB, Quicktime/mov - direct streaming version at blip.tv) Last episode of " The inhabitation of fiction" will be posted tomorrow...

The inhabitation of fiction - episode eleven

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"The inhabitants of the installation harbor the fiction's reality as well as their own personal reality, and this flicker between reality and fiction challenges the spectator's own anchoring in reality."

Toggling away between reality and fiction, Sam Renseiw participates in a snake hunt and visits The circle Camp's out-door kitchen once more, to witness the succulent soup been prepared. View another of Sam's subjective, voodled footage from his experiences inhabitating a moment of fiction by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 486, 02'336'', 14MB, Quicktime/mov - direct streaming version for all on fabulous blip.tv)

The inhabitation of fiction - episode ten

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What, then, do these concepts of reality and identity imply? Are they merely cultural frames protecting us from an existential chaos by enabling us to deny that which falls outside - the inexplicable, the incomprehensible, the inscrutable? Or does everything move in fixed patterns - more elaborate than those which we ourselves have created and understand?

Docu-soap'ing un-chronologically further into the intricacies of The Circle Camp's performance, Sam Renseiw casually follows a delicate dancer and meets a primitive soup-kitcken-cook. View another episode of "The inhabitation of fiction" by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 485, 03'30'', 19,3MB, Quicktime/mov - direct streaming for older Windows configured PC's at blip.tv)

The inhabitation of fiction - episode nine

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The wordplay / Between us gets very intense when there are / Fewer feelings around to confuse things. / Another go-round? No, but the last things / You always find to say are charming, and rescue me / Before the night does. We are afloat / On our dreams as on a barge made of ice, / Shot through with questions and fissures of starlight /That keep us awake, thinking about the dreams /As they are happening. Some occurrence. You said it.

Now one must find a few important words, and a lot of low-keyed, dull-sounding ones, mused Sam Renseiw while approached with queries on efficient women's seduction stratagems, yet only managing to utter sub-standart one-liners in return. View a short part of re-volving dialogue at The Circle Camp by clicking here or on the links above to continue the docu-soap odyssey. (patafilm # 484, 03'11'', 16.9MB, Quicktime/mov - Streaming version for PC at blip.tv)

The inhabitation of fiction - episode eight

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" And just as there are no words for the surface, that is, / No words to say what it really is, that it is not / Superficial but a visible core, then there is / No way out of the problem of pathos vs. experience. / You will stay on, restive, serene in / Your gesture which is neither embrace nor warning / But which holds something of both in pure / Affirmation that doesn't affirm anything."

While witnessing Mimi's peripecies in The Circle Camp and her short, but quite genuine, row with Felix, Sam Renseiw maintains a serene Candid(e) like optimistic gaze, closing in on some of members of the Martha Rubin Society, chilling-out after yet another, evocative, ritual. View the unfolding of uncut-footage, docu-soap sliced, by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 482, 05'26'', 29.1MB, Quicktime/mov - Direct video-streaming-player for PC at blip.tv)

The inhabitation of fiction - episode five C

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"Stories unfold in different places and over a long period of time - usually several days on end - so it will not be possible to see or hear what goes on everywhere all at once. The audience has to move through the spaces, talk to or listen to the performers in order to pick up as many fragments as possible."

As the chronology of The circle Camp documentation in docu-soap like episodes also begins to behave erratically, Sam Renseiw vaguely remembers a dream about a place, and its subsequent resurgence, in a camper-confined conversation. Seemingly, an exotic hut burned down, some time after. View an enigmatic moment of shrink-candour and footage of a beautiful, now lost, place by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 483, 05'330'', 30.8MB, Quicktime/mov - Direct streaming version best for PC at blip.tv)

The inhabitation of fiction - episode six

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"The flow is unpredictable and open to coincidence. The frames that keep the work together are there for reality and fiction to jar with them, just as they jar with each other - so that they can be expanded, moved or transcended through the improvisations of the performers and the participation of the audience."

Somehow loosing track of both space and time by now, Sam Renseiw recollects erratically: a progression of rituals seem to dissolve into a larger amorph expanse of rhythmic voodoo like activities, peppered by ecstatic chanting and traumatic failures at evoking Martha Rubin's coming. View an exhausting voodle - continuing patalab's meticulous docu-soap gaze on "The Circle Camp"- by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 481,03'333'', 18.4MB, Quicktime/mov - Direct streaming for PC at blip.tv)

The inhabitation of fiction - episode five B

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"The basis of SIGNA´s performance work is installation art. Mostly working site-specific, redifining and staging abandoned buildings and camp sites creating enigmatic timeless environments for the audience to explore and to live in."

With the passing of time, Sam Renseiw starts confusing the 15 hours spend during two visits at The Circle Camp... successions of rituals blend with pastoral settings, fleeting encounters with various members of the Martha Rubin Society, merge, with other characters...in a pele-mele fragmented puzzle of footage, imbibed with evocative, looping chants and distinct melodies. View a short moment of condensed et in arcadia ego complete with paraphernalia details by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 480b, 04'033'', 21.4MB, Quicktime/mov - streaming view-in-direct for PC users with obsolete Windows configurations via marvellous blip.tv, as always)

The inhabitation of fiction - episode five

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"In this sudden unexpected intimacy and familiarity with the performers of the installation, the visitors' expectations for the work are challenged, and more importantly - they have to ask themselves: Who am I now, who am I here? SIGNA sees identity as something more than an immutable entity - as something which we ourselves can define and redefine indefinitely. The same goes for reality."

Indeed, so it goes, muses Sam Renseiw; on and on; ritual after ritual; into the circle...and none the same, yet with similar chanting permeating them all, varying the evolving activities to evoke the oracle. View the unfolding of one quiet ritual of the Oracle Games by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 480, 04'47'', 25.4Mb, Quicktime/mov - streaming version for PC at blip.tv)

The inhabitation of fiction - episode four

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" The barrier between the spectator and the installation, the audience and the performers is non-existent. The presence of the visitors in the room is as real - or unreal - as the piece of fiction that takes place around them. The works are not performance art pieces in the comtemporary sense. The aim of including performers in the installations is to guide or trick the viewer into the flux of the densely detailed set-ups."

Entering The Circle Camp's barn for the first time, Sam Renseiw is introduced to the Martha Rubin Society's basic custom sets, enchanted by the stark genius loci and the eagerness of the ongoing activities. In later, fourth-comming visits to the barn, the rituals evoking the oracle will unfold with much greater force and intensely disturbing drama. Enjoy the quiet entrance today by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 479, 03'49'', 19.5MB,Quicktime/mov - Flash version at blip.tv)

The inhabitation of fiction - episode three

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"...The narrative flow is not chronologically progressive. It is possible to dive into the past of any of the characters as well as witnessing and being part of their common present in the installation space. The narratives are non-linear and often self-contradictable."

Slowly immersing himself into the intricacies of The Circle Camp's space-temporality, Sam Renseiw meets a few more characters and collects fresh footage to voodle. View the important encounter with the twins by clicking here or on the links above.(patafilm # 478, 04'21'', 23.1MB, Quicktime/mov - Flash version at blip.tv)

The inhabitation of fiction - episode two

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"The work defies easy categorization as it intersects with a diverse spectrum of pop-cultural entertainment forms such as melodrama, music hall and whorehouse, mixing stereotypical cinematic clichés with bleak realism. The performance installations of SIGNA seek to explore structures of power and degradation, fate, identity and desire."

Voodling can have many forms. Almost unedited footage, segmented into episodes, forms distinct pieces of a larger visual puzzle, revealed in docu-soap manner. View episode two of Sam Renseiw's subjective gaze of "The Circle Camp's" development by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 477,04'24'', 23.8MB, Quicktime/mov - Flash version at blip.tv)

The inhabitation of fiction - episode one

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"...She gave birth to 17 children out of marriage. Seven of these, including the Siamese twins Marthina and Corina, she raised together with the female sword swallower Cora Torrini. Martha Rubin disappeared in the Romanian harbour city Constantia in 1913..."

Toggling voodling activities a point further, Sam Renseiw enters the reality of fiction, depicting fragments of inscrutable beauty, poetic tragedy, desire and the hope of love. View the first episode of Patalab's ritualised voodle docu-soap of "The Circle Camp", introducing the Martha Rubin Society's graceful landscape(s) by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 476, 02'45'', 14.6MB, Quicktime/mov - Flash version at blip.tv)

No Bonus Lumieres while the docu-soap is featured; You might still enjoy all Other's fine Lumiere videos at home.