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]

The inhabitation of fiction - episode five

click for video: Quicktime version / Flash version

"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

click for video: Quicktime version / Flash version

" 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 two

click for video: Quicktime version / Flash version

"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)