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Aug 17

Cold Open Verse

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Poet Transmit and Blonde Art Books present an exhibition with a dynamic program consisting of theatrical trailers, self-produced commercials and live broadcast performances with a focus on art and poetry publications.

Cold Open Verse examines the construct of the ‘trailer’, reconfigured by artists, poets, and publishers interested in an expanded form of communicating their work. The exhibition presents the works of artists, Constance DeJong, Sophia Le Fraga, and Ian Hatcher within three tableau “sets” that will be activated in a real-time broadcast event. Each artist highlights a unique aspect of production within their respective sets, exploiting the structure and structural errors of broadcast with time latency (Hatcher), using an instrument for dissemination as the principal artist (DeJong), or recreating the tv sitcom set (Le Fraga). An adjacent room becomes the movie theater interior for the playback of an hour long reel of artist made trailers for forthcoming publications or book-related events.  For one weekend, the gallery transforms into a live tv studio to produce new commercials by selected participants.  These spots combined with an open call submission leading up to the exhibition culminate in a new book trailer preview reel that will be screened as a special preview event as part of the Printed Matter’s New York Book Fair at MoMA PS1.

The focus on the ‘book trailer’ initially began with the exhibition, This Summer…, curated by Blonde Art Books at Interstate Projects in 2014. This Summer… centered on a preview reel consisting of 11 videos by artists and publishers of independent art and poetry books. Poet Transmit approached Blonde Art Books with the idea to expand on this project with emphasis on exposing the processes of production. Together, Poet Transmit and Blonde Art Books create a multi variate exhibition investigating the structural and theoretical framework surrounding the artist-made advertisement, while nurturing the fantasy of televisual production.

FULL PROGRAM:

Sep  8:
Opening event with live readings by artists making commercials for upcoming reel
7pm  Exhibition Viewing
8pm Readings: William Lessard, Claire Donato, LA Warman, Emmalea Russo & Michael Newtown, Masha Tupitsyn, and Devin Morris
9pm Afterparty – DJ set by Scott Kiernan

Sep 9:
Gallery open and exhibition on view

Sep 10:
3 – 7pm TV studio activated with live performances:
Max Steele, Cathy De La Cruz, Celina Su, Ariel Goldberg

Sep 11:
4 – 7pm TV studio activated with live performances:
Jesse Harrod, Joni Murphy & Xeňa Stanislavovna Semjonová

Sep 15:
Printed Matter Book Fair Preview Night screening event
(at MoMA PS1)

Sep 16:
8pm, live broadcast event with
Constance DeJong, Sophia La Fraga, and Ian Hatcher

Sep 17:
Gallery open and exhibition on view, 3pm tour by the curators for Poetry on Art, a Brooklyn Book Fest panel

Sep 18:
8pm: Evening screening and closing reception
Fiona Banner:
‘Mistah Kurtz – He Not Dead’, 2014 and ‘Phantom’, 2015 – two films produced for the publication, “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad. A work by Fiona Banner. Photographs by Paolo Pellegrin.
Moyra Davey:
‘My Saints’, 2014. “Burn the Diaries” published by Dancing Foxes.
Jibade-Khalil Huffman:
‘Working Title’ for the book “James Brown is Dead” published by Future Plan and Program, 2011
Gerardo Madera:
‘Untitled Printer for Xavier Antin (test video)’, 2014, book and video by Gerardo Madera. “Printed at Home” published by Common Satisfactory Standard.

 
Aug 16

Bloody Grindhouse (Horror Sundays)

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BLOODY GRINDHOUSE DOUBLE FEATURE
Horror Sundays with Druid Underground Film Festival

Blood Feast (1963)
Although Blood Feast is a film about an eccentric catering company that collects body parts for a cannibalistic ritual, the manner in which the film conducts itself is totally unique. John Waters sites Herchell Gordon Lewis as one of his main influences (alongside names like Kenneth Anger, Bergman and Fellini) and it’s easy to see why. Cartoonishly evil plots, over-the-top character actors in theatrical make-up, tacky costumes and creatively executed scenes of show-stopping violence make Blood Feast an outer-worldly viewing experience.


Carnival of Blood (1970)
Join us on a spooky ride through old Coney Island as a twisted maniac stalks and slashes through the carny-infested midway. Starring a hunchback named Gimpy (Burt Young who played Paulie in the Rocky movies). This one’s real weird.

Aug 16

Open House open rehearsal

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Open House creates compellingly strange pop songs that sprawl into sonic landscapes through the use of movement, choreography, and staging. The band’s new piece Rememberer uses amplified eight-foot-long sheets of Styrofoam wall insulation, erected into teetering structures that vibrate, hum, squeak, and seem destined to collapse. Architecture doubles as instrument in this collage of music and live construction directed by Steven Reker, which will be performed at the BAM Next Wave Festival in October. Their mini-residency at Knockdown Center culminates with a short open rehearsal performance.

Aug 13

Poet Transmit: open call for video trailers

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Blonde Art Books is teaming up with Poet Transmit to present a series of upcoming events called Cold Open Verse at Knockdown Center in conjunction with Printed Matter’s New York Book Fair at MoMA PS1.

They are currently seeking existing theatrical trailers, self­-produced commercials, and live broadcast performance to create a book preview reel. The videos should function as a trailer for publications,  promotional material for a book launch or related event,  or are more directly related to the concept of the book as an object or an idea (i.e. a video made in order to produce a flip book).

(See here for examples.)

The final preview reel will be screened at Knockdown Center, September 8-18 as well as Preview Night of the 2016 New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1, September 15th.

Please submit completed videos along with a 1-2 sentence description, title, publisher, year (if already published), and relevant link to previewreel2016@gmail.com.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE is August 31.

If you are selected to be part of the reel they ask that you send two display copies of the publication for the exhibition. Books will be returned in early October.

Submission to the open call does not mean guaranteed inclusion on the reel. You will be notified of acceptance by September 5.

Tech Requirements:

Video must be 3 minutes or under.
Quicktime files under 2 GB (ie: able to send via We Transfer)
60 FPS
Audio: AAC-LC   mp4 / synced with video 16/48 spec  but you mention this below
Data Rate: 320 kbit/s
Sample Rate: 48 kHz

Aug 09

Marijuana Madness (Horror Sundays)

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DRUID UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL’S PSYCHOTROPIC HORROR SERIES WEIRDO CINEMA A-GO-GO CONTINUES
MARIJUANA MADNESS DOUBLE FEATURE:

Anti-Marijuana Propaganda Roadshow
Shown in high school classrooms and rehab centers across America, host Billy Burgess guides you through a jam-packed program of vintage 1950’s and 60’s drug-scare films produced by such leading masters of the genre such as the US Government and Sonny Bono. Bizarre, hilarious, enlightening and 100% real. Transferred from original 16mm film.

Aphrodisiac! The Sexual Secret of Marijuana (1971)
Part pro-marijuana documentary, part erotic grindhouse sleazefest, Aphrodisiac is one of the most unique mondo documentaries in the history of the genre, combining earnest documentation of marijuana’s benefits while sporadically lingering lustily on the sexual practices of those who get down with the sticky green. Truly a one in a million experience in cinema!

Aug 09

Mixtape Meltdown (Horror Sundays)

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Presented by Druid Underground Film Festival for Weirdo Cinema-A-Go-Go! Knockdown’s Horror Sundays series!

MIXTAPE MELTDOWN DOUBLE FEATURE: FOUND FOOTAGE ASSAULT + WHORE CHURCH VIDEO MIXTAPE

Found Footage Assault
See aliens rip their own faces off, learn how to detect if your child worships Satan, perform a home exorcism and much, much more! A high-powered blast of low-brow Americana, Found Footage Assault dynamically mixes the trashiest cuts from amateur monster movies, insane Christian scare films and shocking instruction videos lovingly sourced from the decrepit VHS vaults of DUFF curator Billy Burgess.

The Whore Church Video Mixtape Vol 1
The members of this VHS mixtape collective live communally in a decrepit Victorian house just outside of Boston. Every weekend they digitize the most absurd scenes from their giant VHS collection and remix into the wee hours of the morning. See what America looks like on a steady diet of adult cinema, death metal and 80’s horror films mashed up in a giant hellish cauldron of fun. PLUS: Special Secret Footage from the Whore Church vaults!

Aug 08

Plates of Cake, Honey Radar…

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For the past few years Honey Radar, from Philadelphia by way of Indiana, has released cassettes, cd-rs, and lathe-cut singles at a breakneck pace, turning heads in underground rock circles. Blank Cartoon – their first LP for What’s Your Rupture? records – was released this past May to high acclaim, with Pitchfork naming it one of the “best underground garage rock albums of 2016.” They will be joined by Brooklyn’s Plates Of Cake whose third album Becoming Double was released earlier this year garnering favorable comparisons to The Soft Boys, The Go-Betweens, and Nick Lowe. Also on the bill is Baltimore’s Other Colors who play “exploratory pop” and have a new record out on Friends Records, as well as NYC-based Bronze Float, whose understated rock has been compared to Arthur Russell, Skip Spence and Sebadoh.

Aug 05

Machines in Music

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Machines in Music is a free two-day modular synthesizer exhibition that brings together users and makers for hands-on exploration, discussions, and performance. Last year’s conference hosted 24 modular synthesizer companies from around the world, attracting the attention of beginners and experienced synthesizer users alike. This year’s event is co-curated by Verbos Electronics and Control, and will allow even more participants to meet industry professionals and test out new modules.

Free! RSVP on Facebook

Saturday, October 8

12:00 – Magnetic Soundbath: An immersive listening experience presented
by MJ Caselden1:30 – The Synthesizer: A Brief History in Sound
presented by Thom Holmes3:00 – Livelier Live-Electronics: DavidTudor’s Pioneer Approach to Home-brew Instruments
presented by Michael Johnsen and Ronald Kuivila4:30 – Electric Orchestra: Multitimbrality & how to build an entire track on a system in one take
presented by Colin Benders (Kyteman)

Sunday, October 9

12:00 – Magnetic Soundbath: An immersive listening experience
presented by MJ Caselden1:30 – An Electronic Art Pioneer: Ben F. Laposky’s Oscillons
presented by Skooby Laposky3:00 – The Magic of the Buchla: Up Close to the Electric Music Box
presented by Mark Verbos, Reed Hays and Suzanne Ciani

Machines in Music showcase
Oct 8, 8pm: Tearing Light From Sound, Mark Verbos, Alessandro Cortini, and Suzanne Ciani perform tickets $15

Auxiliary program
Oct 8, 7pm and Oct 9, 5:30pm, : Jorge Chikiar: Radio Collection with John King, Ariel Passadore, Marcelo Toledo, and Leo Genovese using modulated radios and live processing. tickets $10

 

Jul 29

Satanic Panic (Horror Sundays)

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Knockdown Center is proud to present a screening residency by the Druid Underground Film Festival (DUFF) every Sunday in August and September: Sunday Horror series! Hosted by festival founder Billy Burgess, the Weirdo Cinema A-Go-Go series represents an array of colorful new programming as well as the best of the last ten years of DUFF. Find out why Flavorpill says DUFF doesn’t so much “defy convention as mow it down, douse it in kerosene, and flick a Zippo at it.”

Satanic Panic Propaganda Video Show

From the mid 1980’s to early 90’s American media proliferated stories emphasizing the rise of Satanism, ritual murder, teenagers brainwashed by heavy metal music. At the Los Angeles screening of the Druid Underground Film Festival, Blanche Barton, Former High Priestess of the Church of Satan, spoke about her experiences during the “Satanic Panic,” and introduced this lively program of frightening and humorous Christian propaganda and occult law enforcement procedure videos compiled by DUFF founder Billy Burgess. 
An extended cut of this compilation will be presented as well as Ms. Barton’s videotaped speech in its entirety. Plus “Beware of 666,” an extended collection of ”Christian Scare Films” compiled and hosted by Billy Burgess.

During and after the show, DJ Drew Redmond spins a raucous 60’s 45 gospel set in Knockdown’s Ready Room Bar.

Click here for upcoming SUNDAY HORROR screenings

 

 

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