CRITICAL
OVERVIEW:
My earlier work, in particular Green
on the Horizon (1988, 18 mins, made with Philip Sanderson)
combines a reading of landscape and folkloric phenomena. In Australia
this relocated to local cultural concerns. Initial observations
form the groundwork to Earth and Channel Part 2 (1990,
8 mins) and Pools Between Land (1991, 10 mins), fusing
formal elements with loosely 'psychologically' inflected observation
of, and immersion in, landscape. As I became more ensconced in
Super 8 filmmaking (having found an agreeably open cultural context
in the Melbourne Super 8 Film Group and the discovery of the potential
for a self-determining practice), the project became environmental
formalism, experimenting with structure and the 'material' specificities
of the Super 8 medium.
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Harmonic
Three Three (Maheno)
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Finding
its early apotheosis in Harmonic Three Three (Maheno) (1991,
23 mins) and Quiet Passage (1992, 9 mins), this practice
continued through to Smart Little Motor (1997, 10 mins),
Saltwater (1997, 10 mins) and beyond. This was enhanced
by diversions through a poetic essayistic approach (often employing
a deadpan, occasionally 'ironic' voice-over), touching on subjects
such as migration and settlement (Periscope 180º [1992,
16 mins]), narrative, landscape and representation (Skywonkie
[1994, 12 mins]), meteorology, time-travel and everyday transvestitism
(Microphone [1994, 24 mins]), among others.
Moving from
Melbourne back to London has coincided with a move back to video.
Recent works experiment with the transmutable 'material' properties
of digital media. In Sevenths Synthesis (2001, 7
mins) and the next six minutes (2002, 6 mins),
for example, image is derived from sound data, sound from image
in a mix of abstract and camera originated images and fast arrhythmic
scrubbing. While Beamer (2002, 7 mins) is a totally abstract
extreme minimalist piece that exploits spatio-temporal relationship
and viewer expectation in a drama of tension and release.
Steven
Ball, April 2003
See
also
A
selection of excerpts from articles about Steven Ball's Australian
filmworks
FILMOGRAPHY:
(All
produced in Australia unless otherwise indicated)
Apostrophe-S
(1986, 3 mins, video, UK, co-directed with Philip Sanderson)
Green
on the Horizon (1988, 18 mins, video, UK, co-directed with
Philip Sanderson)
Earth
& Channel Pt 2 (1990, 8 mins, Super 8)
Pools
Between Land (1991, 10 mins, video)
m-dot.report
(1991, 5 mins, video)
Blister
(1991, 5 mins, Super 8)
m-dot.report
(1991, 10 mins, Super 8)
Harmonic
Three Three (Maheno) (1991, 23 mins, Super 8)
Quiet
Passage (1992, 9 mins, Super 8)
Off Off
On (1992, 5 mins, Super 8)
Gullyslide
(1992, 22 mins, Super 8)
Periscope
180° (1992, 16 mins, Super 8)
Storm
Bugs (1993, 8 mins, Super 8)
Circle
of Confusion (1993, 5 mins, Super 8)
Melbourne
International Film Festival Trailer (1993, 1 min, Super 8
and video)
Middle
Distance Distant (1993, 6 mins, Super 8)
Archaeology
of Memory (1993, 3 mins, Super 8) made for Melbourne Super
8 Film Group's p+ors project.
Land Gauge
(1993, 11 mins, Super 8)
Protein
(1994, 9 mins, Super 8)
Microphone
(1994, 24 mins, Super 8)
However,
the Autodidact (1994, 17 mins, Super 8)
Skywonkie
(1994, 12 mins, Super 8) made for The Bush Studies Super
8 film anthology
RattleStack
(1995, 2 mins, Super 8)
Difficult
Beauty (1995, 10 mins, Super 8)
Ten Light
Years (1995, 10 mins, Australia & UK, Super 8)
Receiver
(1996, 10 mins, Super 8)
Saltwater
(1997, 10 mins, Super 8)
Smart
Little Motor (1997, 10 mins, Super 8)
Grayline
Spacer (1998, 8 mins, Super 8)
Chromacodes
(1998, 6 mins, Super 8)
Personal
Electronics (1998, 12 mins, Super 8)
Among
Vertebrates (1999, 8 mins, video)
Simple
Systems (2001, variable duration, video, UK)
Sevenths
Synthesis (2001, 7 mins, video, UK)
Local
Authority (2001, 8 mins, video, UK)
Local
Time (2001, 14 mins, video, UK)
the next
six minutes (2002, 6 mins, video, UK)
Beamer
(2002, 7 mins, video, UK)
Phase
Space Pacer (2002, 2 mins, video, UK)
Metalogue
(2003, 27 mins, video, UK)
The Defenestrascope
(2003, 6 mins, video, UK)
The War
on Television (2004, various durations, video, UK)
No-way
Street (2007, 1 min, video, UK)
For
QuickTime excerpts from recent digital videos see Steven
Ball's website.
OTHER PROJECTS:
(All
produced in Australia unless otherwise indicated)
Table
Matters Storm Bugs
(collaboration with Philip Sanderson) (1980, 7" E.P record,
Loop Records, UK)
Metamorphose
Storm Bugs (collaboration with Philip Sanderson) (1981, 7"
single record, L'Invitation au Suicide, UK/France)
Pools
Between Land (1990, video installation, Performing Arts Museum,
Melbourne)
Grounded
(1992, slide, video & sound Installation, Linden Gallery,
St Kilda)
RattleStack
(1994, variable duration, computer Hypercard animation)
UnAustralian
(1997, computer/film/music performance collaboration with
Dirk de Bruyn [16mm film/digital media] and Nicole Skeltys [music])
Synthesiser
(1997, computer/music interactive performance collaboration with
Nicole Skeltys [music])
Hope Under
the Weather (1998, sound, Hope sound art CD, Audio Research
Editions ARECD101, UK)
Night-light
(1999, light box installation, West Space, Footscray)
Brittle
Creek Stalker Track (1999, sound, Trace sound art CD, Audio
Research Editions ARECD102, UK)
Say Zero
(2000, sound, Zero sound art CD, Audio Research Editions ARECD103,
UK)
An Abstract
Phase (2000, live video and sound mix-up at Tantrum, Planet
Café, Fitzroy)
Let's
Go Outside and Get it Over Storm Bugs (collaboration with
Philip Sanderson) (2001, CD, Snatch Tapes, TCH 213, UK)
The Bugs
are Back Storm Bugs (collaboration with Philip Sanderson)
(2002, 7" EP record, Klanggallerie, Austria)
Up the
Middle Down the Sides Storm Bugs (collaboration with Philip
Sanderson) (2004, LP record, Fusetron, FUSE036, USA)
Eutopia
(with Martin Blazícek, 2006, streaming video performance, London,
UK and Prague, Czech Republic)
near
Zlaté Piesky (with Martin Blazícek, 2007, video
performance, Kubikov 13, Bratislava, Slovakia)
Neither
There Nor Here (Storm Bugs video performance with Philip Sanderson,
20:00,The Foundry, London, UK)
Direct
Language (2005 - 2007, videoblog)
Aroundabout
(2008, ongoing
hyperlocal ambulatory weblog)
SELECT
SCREENINGS:
Electric
Eyes, Film & Video Umbrella (UK), Birmingham, London, Aberdeen
Derby,
Scarborough, Brazil, 1988-9 (Green on the Horizon)
Beyond Documentary,
Beyond Fiction, Melbourne Cinematheque, 1991 (Blister)
Matinaze
92, Sydney Intermedia Network, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, 1992-3
(Pools Between Land)
Super 8 is
Dead or Alive?, London Filmmakers Co-op, UK, 1993 (Harmonic
Three Three)
Matinaze
93, Sydney Intermedia Network, Sydney, Canberra and 1st
Biennale of Video, Chile, 1993 (Periscope 180°)
Experimenta
1994, Melbourne (Microphone)
Kiosk 8,
Melbourne Super 8 Film Group, Melbourne, 1994 (However, the
Autodidact)
The Bush
Studies, Cinematheque, Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, Adelaide and
Perth, 1995 (Skywonkie)
Super Kiosk
8, Melbourne Super 8 Film Group, 1996 (Difficult Beauty)
Viva 8, London
Filmmakers' Co-op, UK, 1996 (RattleStack)
Ultra-projections,
Dance House, Melbourne, 1999 (Among Vertebrates)
Cinema Auricular,
Elektronic, London, UK, 2001 (Sevenths Synthesis)
Waste, Experimenta,
Melbourne, 2001 (Sevenths Synthesis)
3rd
Festival of Cinemas Different, Paris, France, 2001 (Local Authority
and Sevenths Synthesis)
Videoex,
Zurich, Switzerland, 2002 (Local Authority)
Recontres
Internationales Paris, France and Berlin, Germany, 2003 (the
next six minutes)
25hrs, Barcelona,
Spain, 2003 (Sevenths Synthesis)
World Wide
Video Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2003 (Beamer)
UK/Canada
Video Exchange, London, UK, touring UK and Canada, 2003 (Sevenths
Synthesis)
VIPER, Basel,
Switzerland, 2003 (Metalogue)
STILL, St
Constantine and St Helen Greek Orthodox Church, Crystal Palace,
London, 2004 (The Defenestrascope)
Lux exposure,
London, UK, 2004 (Metalogue)
Rencontres
Internationales Paris, France and Berlin, Germany, 2004 and 2005
(The Defenestrascope)
PureScreen,
Manchester, UK, 2004 (The Defenestrascope)
S1 Salon,
Sheffield, UK, 2005 (Sevenths Synthesis)
Hull International
Short Film Festival Hull, UK, 2005 (The War on Television)
Take 291,
291 Gallery, Hackney, UK, 2005 (The Defenestrascope, the
next six minutes)
Antimatter
Film Festival, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 2005 (The
Defenestrascope)
The Wormhole
Saloon, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK, 2005 (The War
on Television improv Freeview remix) performance with Tom
Wallace (sound).
Rencontres
Internationales Paris/Berlin, Paris, France, 2005 (The War
on Television)
Directors
Lounge, Berlin, 2006 (Metalogue)
Index Generator
2, ReverberAções São Paulo, Brazil, November
2006 (Metalogue)
Mediateca,
CaixaForum, Barcelona, Spain, May 2007 (The Defenestrascope)
New Lands,
BFI Southbank, London, UK, June 2007 (The War on Television)
Waygood Gallery
& Studios, Newcastle, UK, June/July 2007 (The Defenestrascope)
RMIT Project
Space, Melbourne, Australia, October 2007 (No-way Street)
Directors
Lounge, Berlin, Germany, February 2008 (No-way Street)
Select
Programming & Curatorial:
Microprocesses
(curator, experimental sound video programme), Island Film & Video
Festival, London, UK, March 2005.
Collected
Works & Colour Fields (co-curator)
Lethaby Gallery,
Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London, UK, October/November
2006.
Cogcollective
(co-director, monthly screenings of artists' film and video) Candid
Arts, London, UK, July 2006 - June 2007.
Systems of
Nature, recent installations by Chris Welsby and season of film
and discussion events (co-curator) Lethaby Gallery, Central St
Martins College of Art and Design and BFI Southbank, London, UK,
November/December 2007.
SELECT
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
writing
on works by Steven Ball:
"Notes
from the Undergrowth" by Steven Ball, Cantrills
Filmnotes, Nos. 63/64, 1990.
"Experimenta"
(article on Pools Between Land Installation work), The Interior,
Issue 1, 1990.
"Harmonic
Three Three (Maheno)" by Steven Ball, Cantrills Filmnotes,
Nos. 67/68, 1992.
"Quiet
Passages Review" by Michael Filippidis, Melbourne Super
8 Film Group Newsletter, Issue 74, October 1992.
"Text
- Texture - Gesture" by Dirk de Bruyn, Electronic Arts
in Australia - Continuum, Vol 8, No 1, 1994.
"...Testing
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9...However, the Autodidact" by Steven Ball,
Cantrills Filmnotes, Nos. 75/76, 1994.
"The
Ball Bounces...", by Bill Mousoulis, Melbourne Super 8
Film Group Newsletter, Issue 92, June 1994.
"Edit-Aurally-All"
by Steven Ball, Sonic Eight, Melbourne Super 8 Film Group Newsletter,
Issue 102, May 1995.
"On Triggering
Steve Ball: Beginning to think through the implications of his
labour" by Dirk de Bruyn, Melbourne Super 8 Film Group Newsletter,
Issue 109, December 1995.
"Naked 8"
by Heinz Boeck, Cinema Papers, February 1997.
"Barroom
Fantasias" (review of Digita's Screen Savers event) by Dean
Kiley, RealTime Issue 22, 1997.
"Tractor"
by Steven Ball, Cantrills Filmnotes, Nos. 91/92,
1999.
A
selection of excerpts from articles about Steven Ball's Australian
filmworks
other
writing by Steven Ball:
"Looking
Back on Looking Back" (review of Cantrills' twentieth anniversary
screenings) by Steven Ball, Cantrills Filmnotes, Nos. 65/66,
1992.
"At
Home with Ettore Siracusa" by Steven Ball, Cantrills Filmnotes,
Nos. 65/66, 1992.
"Introduction
to Australian Cinema Screenings" by Steven Ball, Experimenta
Catalogue, 1992
"The
Melbourne Super 8 Film Group", "Richard Tuohy and Ordinary
Flux" & "Julian Dahl" (interview) all by Steven
Ball, Cantrills Filmnotes, Nos. 67/68, 1992.
"Checking
in at Hotel Experimenta" (Experimenta overview) by Steven
Ball, Agenda (Experimenta Supplement), Issue
30/31, 1993.
"The
Films of Moira Joseph" by Steven Ball, Cantrills Filmnotes,
Nos. 71/72, 1993.
"Within
the Crystal Palace: City Screens and Metrodome" by Steven
Ball, Mesh, No. 2, 1993.
"QED
Choose Film" (screening review) by Steven Ball, Mesh,
No. 3, 1994.
"The
Alexander Enigma" (the films of Perry Alexander) by Steven
Ball, Cantrills Filmnotes, Nos. 73/74, 1994.
"Grainy,
Scratched and Out of Focus" (contemporary Super 8 film) by
Steven Ball, Mesh, No. 4, 1994.
"The
Swimming Somnambulist" (the Super 8 films of Virginia Hilyard)
by Steven Ball, Cantrills Filmnotes, Nos. 75/76,
1994.
"English
Channels" (contemporary English experimental film and video)
by Steven Ball, Cantrills Filmnotes, Nos.
81/82, 1996.
"Cantrills
Filmnotes Twenty-fifth Anniversary" by Steven Ball, Cteq-annotations
on film, No. 3/96, 1996.
"A Dandy
in the Underworld" (Cocteau's Orphée) by
Steven Ball, Cteq-annotations on film, No. 3/96,
1996.
"Mo
Title, No Title" (videos by Mo Man Yu) by Steven Ball,
Cteq-annotations on film, No. 4/96, 1996.
"Can't
You Make it Bigger?" (Interactive CD-ROMs at Digita) by Steven
Ball, Metro, No. 108, 1996.
"No
Budget Filmmaking in the Raw" (review of Naked 8) by Steven
Ball, RealTime, issue 16, 1996.
"If....
Conjunction or Noun?" (Lindsay Anderson's 'If....')
by Steven Ball, Cteq, No. 2/97 (in Metro
No. 110), 1997.
"Obsessive
Becomings" (Obsessive Becoming by Daniel Reeves, Chronos
Fragmented by Malcolm Le Grice and Trying to Kiss the Moon
by Stephen Dwoskin) by Steven Ball, Cteq, No.
3/97 (in Metro No 111), 1997.
"On
Squareworld: going slowly all the way around the outside against
architecture" (Kenji Onishi's Squareworld) by Steven
Ball, Cteq, No. 4/97 (in Metro No 112), 1997.
"Robinson
off the Planet" (Robinson in Space by Patrick
Keiller) by Steven Ball, Cteq, No. 1/98, (in Metro
No 113), 1998.
"An
Imploding Cinema" (films by Daniel Kotsanis) by Steven Ball,
Cantrills Filmnotes, Nos. 89/90, 1998.
"Up
the Snakes and Down the Ladders" by Steven Ball, Mesh,
issue 12, 1998.
"Blimey!"
by Steven Ball, (review of Experimenta 'British Bulldogs' programme),
RealTime, issue 27, 1998.
"Captured"
by Steven Ball, (review of Melb Film Fest programme), RealTime,
issue 31, 1999.
"The
Study Collection" by Steven Ball, Filmwaves, issue
20, UK, 2003.
"Spinning
Straw into Gold: Four Works by Jurgen Reble in the New Medium
of Film" by Steven Ball, Cteq Annotations, Senses
of Cinema, 2004
"Material
Damage: The Films of Dirk de Bruyn",
Senses of Cinema, 2005, Australia
"Out of Conflict",
Filmwaves, Issue 26, 2005, United Kingdom
"Motion
Sickness" ('Nausea' by Matthew Noel-Tod), Vertigo,
Vol 3 No 1, and Words, Images, Music (Nausea), Outpost
Gallery, Norwich, 2006, UK.
"Angles
and Poles", 1,2,3 . Avant-Gardes; Film/Art between Experiment
and Archive, with David Curtis, Ram Publications, 2007, Germany/Poland
"Background,
Foreground, Middle Distance - Landscape, technology, subjectivity
and artists' time based media", Filmwaves, 2007, UK
©
Steven Ball, May 2008.
Steven
Ball's website
Contact
Steven Ball
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