The Funniest Thing

Commissioned for the Irish representation at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, The Enclave is an immersive, six-screen video art installation by Irish contemporary artist Richard Mosse. Partly inspired by Joseph Conrad’s modernist literary masterpiece Heart of Darkness, the visceral and moving work was filmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo using 16mm colour infra-red film, which captures otherwise invisible parts of the spectrum. The resulting imagery in Mosse’s work is hallucinatory and dream-like with the usual greens of jungle and forest replaced by shimmering violet. The Enclave depicts a complicated, strife-ridden place in a way that reflects its complexity, using a strategy of beauty and transfixion to combat the wider invisibility of a conflict that has claimed so many.

A good feast in the countryside.

A whirlwind of improvisation combines the images of animator Pierre Hébert with the avant-garde sound of techno whiz Bob Ostertag in this singular multimedia experience, a hybrid of live animation and performance art.

Made for Milton Keynes Gallery's 10th anniversary using images from its archive and language from its press releases and catalogues.

A compilation of avant-garde artwork and talent of the mid to late 20th century hosted by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

This film was made out of the capture of a live animation performance presented in Rome in January 2005 by Pierre Hébert and the musician Bob Ostertag. It is based on live action shooting done that same afternoon on the Campo dei Fiori where the philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned by the Inquisition in 1600. A commemorative statue was erected in the 19th century, that somberly dominate the market held everyday on the piazza. The film is about the resurgence of the past in this place where normal daily activities go on imperturbably. The capture of the performance was reworked, shortened and complemented with more studio performances.

In Untitled (Pink Dot), Murata transforms footage from the Sylvester Stallone film First Blood (1982) into a morass of seething electronic abstraction. Subjected to Murata's meticulous digital reprocessing, the action scenes decompose and are subsumed into an almost palpable, cascading digital sludge, presided over by a hypnotically pulsating pink dot.

The quixotic journey of Nam June Paik, one of the most famous Asian artists of the 20th century, who revolutionized the use of technology as an artistic canvas and prophesied both the fascist tendencies and intercultural understanding that would arise from the interconnected metaverse of today's world.

Untitled Fall '95 takes the form of a wryly humorous video diary of an art school student (sharply played by Bag) in the midst of “finding herself” in New York City. We can see the diarist physically and emotionally evolving throughout her eight semesters in the Big Apple. Such onscreen “confessionals” stem from the first major example of reality TV, The Real World. Interspersed throughout are commercial-like vignettes that further critique what it’s like to live in the world today. In Untitled Fall '95, Bag displays a profound self-awareness that evokes empathy on behalf of the viewer, despite her work’s glaring artificiality.

The Karikpo masquerade - a traditional dance of the Ogoni tribe - is transposed onto the remnants of a faded oil industry programme in the Niger delta.

Short film based on a poem and made for the 1st year actor directing course

Presented without commentary, this film reveals the thinking behind the work of John Baldessari over the course of his career, and provides clues to the understanding of the artist's paintings, photographic work and books.

In this program video artist Gary Hill uses a number of his pieces to investigate otherness and ambiguity, dislocation of the senses, the boundary between words and comprehension, the physicality of text, and figurative interactivity.

A nomadic homunculus ranger lives in the derelict wastelands of Neo Kansas City 2, where they barely survive and make friends, despite the constant chaos.

Pia Yona Massie's Sayonara Super 8 uses personal archival footage to ask questions about the fragile nature of memory, human relationships and the foibles of the medium itself.

H(o)me(o)pa®t(h)y is a home entertainment healing system based on Homoeopathic medicine which one can at least to a certain extent autonomously manage as first aid tool, if you are skilled enough. As an allusion to David Cronenberg's Videodrome where the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers by establishing a new TV show dedicated to torture and punishment, H(o)me(o)pa®t(h)y instead is based on joy and healing. But will there be an overdose of globules? Insert 1 globules and start your solo home party! Cure yourself on so many occasions and relive a full relief. Your own H(o)me(o)pa®t(h)y kit is now available. Don't worry, be homoeopathic!

This film was made with the help of a diary, video tapes and a roll of film found in the Lahemaa forest. The owner has been reported missing

Originally produced anonymously and distributed by RTMark, Untitled #29.95 tells the story of the commercial art establishment's attempt to turn video art into a precious commodified object through the release of limited editions during the nineties.

Fellow violinist and artist Tony Conrad, in collaboration with software engineer Tom Demeyer, made for Steina the instrument seen in this title. Conrad and the Vasulkas all taught at the University at Buffalo in the Media Study Department from 1976 to 1979.

Experimental film.