Over 500 lumiere videos collected
As I'm writing this I have just added two more lumiere videos to the lumiere project. This brings the total amount of videos up to 523 videos from 78 different participants. The volume of videos is striking and it's not something I expected when Brittany and I began posting these videos back in late May. I'm thrilled and I'm looking forward to the next milestones of 750 and 1,000 videos posted.
I thought I had more time to write the update on video number 500, but Michael has introduced the lumiere videos to art students from Leeds and they posted a great number of them quickly. You can see them at Leeds Vlog where they are posting many videos, not just lumieres. Video collections from courses and classes are always fun to go through just because you get so many different types of videos.
It would be very wrong to talk about the lumiere project with mentioning Sam Rensiew from patalab. This elusive Dane has posted almost 70 lumiere videos and is showing no signs of stopping soon.
One thing I think has helped the success of the lumiere project is that the whole thing is completely de-centralized. We don't host your videos, there's no special upload process. The project page is just a collection of links and you participate by just posting on your own blog. This makes sure each participant is still in full control of his submission (just delete your video if you don't want it anymore) and it also gets the word out because people are posting their videos where they usually post videos. Spreading the word person-by-person has lead to many new people posting lumiere videos - I know that from the people who have e-mailed us. Unlike our mention on BoingBoing in late September which led to very few new videos (but a lot of anonymous visitors who never came back).
If you are a new-comer and interested in participating just follow the "Submit" link on the video collection page to add your video. You need to post it to your blog first though. The rules are simple meaning anyone can record, off-load from their camera and post:
- 60 seconds max.
- Fixed camera
- No audio
- No zoom
- No edit
- No effects
In a public attempt at reflection here are the first two lumiere videos I recorded during a bike ride to the beach this past spring:
- Rust
- Crops+Artifacts (challenging the no effects rule by showing the effects of video compression)
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This is the personal website of Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen: commentary on media, communication, culture and technology. Read more»
Awesome site! I also happen to have a site named solitude....I think its both creepy and awesome that we both chose the same name for a site! XD
Of course I think yours has been on for a LONG time. I've been working on my site for a few years, but I keep changing my mind on the design, and end up starting over again. I'm glad that theres someone out there who has the same taste in names xD
It's a wonderful project Andreas. I've always enjoyed projects where there are externally imposed restrictions but I think you've hit something quite profound with the lumieres. A stripping down to the essential poetic and narrative kernel of the moving image. It's as if they provide a mirror (or sounding board, depending on what sense you like to base your metaphors on -the other thing that occurs is 'book-ends') for every filmic and video practice that has developed over the last 100 or so years - I've loved making the lumieres themselves but equally important has been just how much it has made me reflect upon all the things I add ( and the use of 'add' is telling -I wouldn't have phrased it that way before) when I make a piece. In particular it has affected my thinking about music, close to home for me, a lot - I'm trying to use it much less as sauce and more as structural component.
Likewise, although I love the playfulness that can come with simply throwing the box of effects at some footage ( particularly in remixing), I've been generally tougher with myself effects-wise since starting to make lumieres -not that I'm particularly an advocate of austerity or asceticism as a value in itself but I look better at things since the lumieres and therefore I'm striving more for visual clarity in what I do ( and also to find first the "effects", the wonder, inherent in a clip before I even consider transforming it)
Ironically I think this has made my work less friendly to the casual viewer -for me there's more there but it doesn't leap off the screen and lick your face in the puppy like way it might once occasionally have done.
Anyway, congratulations on an excellent idea and many thanks too.
PS I also agree 100% about the utterly splendid Sam Renseiw - he possesses humour, an eye and considerable generosity of spirit.
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