i just made this website to put together the projects i’ve worked on over the last few years. check it out! thanks eyebeam, for the awesome theme.
Archive for the 'switchback' Category
Todd Chandler’s upcoming film FLOOD! It was shot aboard the Switchback rafts this summer
FLOOD TEASER from flood movie on Vimeo.
FLOOD is an experimental narrative journey. It begins on the water, on a fleet of hand crafted boats, pieced together from scrap and found materials . On water time twists and bends in mysterious ways. Some people aboard the rafts cannot remember a time before the water. Others are lost in their memories from a previous life on the land. Some remember the boats starting out as a summer project among friends. Others remember fleeing their homes. Still others remember that the way of living they used to know was no longer working, and that something had to give. As the flotilla creeps down the river the past, present, and future stories of the boats and their inhabitants becomes both clearer and more elusive.
A mash-up of genres, FLOOD blends narrative, cinema verité, musical, and improvised experimental film. The film was shot amidst the installation artist Swoon’s 2008 Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea project, in which seven homespun boats were built and crewed by an eclectic group of artists and performers. The boats floated down the Hudson River staging performances in towns along the way.
The film is loosely structured and largely improvised by non-actors playing themselves with fictionalized trajectories. The primary cast includes the bands Dark Dark Dark and Fall Harbor, members of which were actual crew on the boats. In addition to acting and performing in the film, the bands will be collaborating to write and record its musical score.
There will be two final versions of the film: one will be a stand-alone feature length film screened theatrically and at festivals, and another which will tour galleries, performance and community spaces in Spring 2010 with the musician/actors providing a live musical soundtrack.
For more information see: floodmovie.com
BONUS! Here’s a video of a band I’m completely in love with called WOODS playing ‘military madness’ at the closing party for the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea
This band is just the best.
Will you tow our art boats? - $1 (Long Island City, Queens)
Reply to: sale-881827243@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-10-16, 3:48PM EDT
We’re looking for someone willing to tow three art boats from the southern tip of Roosevelt Island in Queens about ten miles up the East River toward Long Island this coming Monday October 20. We can’t afford Sea Tow, but are willing to pay for your time and gas. You don’t need a tug, just a recreational powerboat with at least a 75hp engine. Can you help?
The boats’ dimensions are as follows: Alice 23′ x 22′ | Maria 28′ x 12′ | Althea 46′ x 8′| The boats were designed by artist SWOON and journeyed from Troy, NY around the Battery and up the East River this summer. You can read about it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/arts/design/18flot.html |
our website is here: http://www.switchbacksea.org
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- Location: Long Island City, Queens
- it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 881827243
DEITCH PROJECTS INVITES YOU ANN MESSNER MODERATED BY CARLO MCCORMICK THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 7 - 9 PM Selections from Todd Chandler’s upcoming film FLOOD, shot aboard the DEITCH STUDIOS It’s gonna be big! The NYTIMES says: ARTAprès le Deluge
Missed Swoon’s floating art installation, “Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea� Catch up with it tonight at Deitch gallery space in Long Island City, where the artist will talk with her artistic forebears Ann Messner and Kiki Smith. Portions of “Flood,†a documentary about the journey of Swoon’s seven art barges down the Hudson, will also be screened. “A Floating City With Junkyard Roots,†by Julie Bloom |
That was fun!
(it was fun!)
I can’t believe it, but this is the end of the journey. Tonight is the last performance of Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, the Lisa D’Amour play that accompanies SWOON’s Swimming Cities art installation and raft project at Deitch.
Tonight! 8pm! Whoa!
Also, this awesome piece came out in Metropolis Mag today.
SWIMMING CITIES OF SWITCHBACK SEA
An installation by SWOON
with a performance written by Lisa D’Amour,
created with the crew
Music by Dark Dark Dark
3 Nights Only
Thurs-Sat, Sept 11-13
Long Island City, NYC
September 11, 2008, 8pm at Deitch Studios
4-40 44th Drive, Long Island City
7 train to Vernon Jackson (First stop in Queens)
www.deitch.com
(Doyle driving Alice around the Battery)
From my friend Lisa:
Hello Friends.
We made it down the Hudson and around the Battery and up the East River. Â The Fleet pulled into Deitch Projects in Long Island City last night to hundreds of onlookers and a live brass band. Â There’s been one arrest, one hospitalization, one broken finger, 3 on-the-water citations by the NYPD, one Rosie O’Donnell drive-by beer delivery (she drove the speedboat) and 8 glorious performances on the banks of the Hudson in Troy, Albany, Saugerties, Kingston, Beacon, Croton-on-Hudson, Nyack and the 70th street pier in Manhattan.
And Beauty. Â Lots and lots of Beauty.
THERE ARE THREE SHOWS LEFT FOR YOU TO SEE. Â Part play, part dreamed documentary, part happening, part creaky river-soaked poem. Â You will be on shore, at the dock at Deitch, with the boats anchored on the water in front of you: Â a set. Â The NYC skyline is the backdrop. Â Performed by the crew who got the boats here, plus a few New York friends. Â Live music by Dark Dark Dark.
The performance is FREE, first come, first served. Â It lasts one hour. Â Get there early for a good seat. Â Also get there early to see the AMAZING AMAZING installation SWOON made in the warehouse to receive the boats. Â You will leave ready to rock.
There are some great pictures in the slideshow here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/arts/design/18flot.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=swoon%20floating%20cities&st=cse&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Performance details below. Â I’m so proud of this one. Â Come check it out.
All My Best,
Lisa
SWIMMING CITIES OF SWITCHBACK SEA
An installation by SWOON
with a performance written by Lisa D’Amour,
created with the crew
Music by Dark Dark Dark
3 Nights Only
Thurs-Sat, Sept 11-13
Long Island City, NYC
September 11, 2008, 8pm at Deitch Studios
4-40 44th Drive, Long Island City
7 train to Vernon Jackson (First stop in Queens)
www.deitch.com
photo: view from the rafts of the Staten Island Ferry aboard which a passenger freaked out and thought we were pirates
We made it through New York Harbor alive and well and didn’t miss a single show on our tour! This has been a crazy journey. Now I have a bone to pick with the NYPD. For the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea we painstakingly obtained a permit for a Marine Event through the US Coast Guard. We got Hull Identification Numbers, NY registration and all the necessary safety equipment for our boats. We made all of our captains take a NY State Boating Certification Course. The Coast Guard notified everyone on the water that we were coming with a repeated radio announcement AND inclusion in their publication ‘Local Notice to Mariners.’ Rather than pay attention to that, the NYPD pulled the fleet into the Navy Yard, delaying us dangerously while the current speed of the East River picked up. Here are some pics of us getting hauled in. On the water, the NYPD said “we may choose to terminate this voyage,” without letting us direct him to the appropriate officer in the USCG. When they realized we were legit they sheepishly apologized for the delay and after inspecting the vessels they let us go. Some of the tickets they issued were fair and completely our oversight: flares had been misplaced and were not aboard the proper vessel, someone left their registration at home, and their fire extinguisher was too small. Others were totally bogus: one boat was ticketed for not having a backfire flame arrestor when it was not required to have one.
Then on September 5, the 108th precinct of the NYPD actually woke up some of our crew members in the morning swearing and pointing a gun at a thirty-something press rep and mother of a young child from California. Something to the effect of “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Get your fucking hands up!” Guns! Jeez! We’re a bunch of artists on junk rafts.
The Coast Guard has been nothing but professional and helpful and the NYPD has been nothing but aggressive and confused.
Here’s the brief NY Times note on the incident and here’s the funny Village Voice commentary.
Also, I have finally uploaded pics of the journey to flickr.
photo of Poppa Neutrino watching the debut show in Troy, NY of Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea by Tod Seelie
On September 2, the fleet Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea floats into New York City at 70th st ‘Pier I’ and the Hudson River to deliver a performance by playwright Lisa D’Amour at 8pm. This performance was just added so please spread the word! It will be the only New York City performance before we reach home port in Long island City Queens!
Other Switchback Stuff coming up:
www.switchbacksea.org
Long Island City, NYC
Opening Reception (No performance)
September 7, 2008, 6-9pm at Deitch Studios
4-40 44th Drive, Long Island City
Click here for a map
www.deitch.com
Long Island City, NYC
September 11, 2008, 8pm at Deitch Studios
4-40 44th Drive, Long Island City
Click here for a map
www.deitch.com
Long Island City, NYC
September 12, 2008, 8pm at Deitch Studios
4-40 44th Drive, Long Island City
Click here for a map
www.deitch.com
Long Island City, NYC
September 13, 2008, 8pm at Deitch Studios
4-40 44th Drive, Long Island City
Click here for a map
www.deitch.com
So I’m out floating on the Hudson River and am currently writing from the Ravena-Coeyman’s Yacht Club. Yesterday’s article by Julie Bloom in the NY times was awesome. The fleet is currently underway and arriving Wednesday in Saugerties for an amazing show at the lighthouse.
Check it out:
photo by Nathaniel Brooks for the NY Times
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