Produced in California USA and Vancouver Canada 1967 - 2002 |
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Titles - Descriptions - Images are of films
and videos no longer in general distribution.
Related archive links:Available DVDs - prices 16mm Films - prices Writings - Manifestos
Essays:
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* Avant-Garde Films Distributed * Current DVD Film - Video Subjects Distributed * Stereoscopic 3D video DVDs
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Historical backgrounds on the subjects and contexts of these films - videotapes: |
MOTION-PICTURE FILM ARCHIVE:All listed works produced and directed by Al Razutis. These are independent creations with credit to concept, writing, cinematography, editing, sound recording and mix, optical special effects, and lab timing by Al Razutis, unless otherwise noted in credits. 'Film by' means precisely that. See also legacy Optical Printer developed for these projects. |
12 min. color sound 1967 - 69 - Al Razutis prod./dir
The tryptich of films was presented in two screen format and featured abandoned dwellings, anti-war themes, sex (and stock porno), drugs, rock and roll (Velvet Underground, Chambers Brothers), write/paint on film, black leader, special effects and 60's collage - montage techniques designed to be 'annoying' yet synaesthetic and and critical of our 60`s cultures." (A.R.) '1967-1969' in the collection of Pacific Cinematheque Pacifique, Vancouver
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9 min. color sound 1968 - Al Razutis prod./dir
24 min. color sound 1968-70 - Al Razutis prod./dir
1 min. excerpt video on YouTube:
8 min. color sound 1973 - Al Razutis prod./dir.
40 sec. excerpt video on YouTube:
9 min. color silent 1978
By employing extreme magnificaiton, grain, and repetition, the filmmaker traces a history of 'seeing' his daughter in filmic form and adoration.
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28 min. color sound, 1971-81 - Al Razutis prod./dir
A complex experimental narrative based on an original screenplay by Al Razutis. The poetic language spoken by the characters Jack and Jill, a language loosely related to the forms of Finnegans Wake and Shakespeare features puns and turns of phrases amidst a bizarre Victorian setting. " The poetic language follows a dream vision of interpersonal and familial catastrophe that is eternally recurring amongst these archtypal characters, and their dwarf offspring. The film makes extensive use of distorting lenses and optical printing, sound overlays, to restructure the narrative, a `dreamspeak' narrative of sorts ...myth making and myth mocking. The point of view of the written and spoken language is modelled after that of childhood: listening, registering, and attempting to comprehend the language of parents. The parents, in this case, are also my literary predecessors." (A.R.) This film was originally funded by the Canadian Film Development Corporation (a precursor to Telefilm Canada), but a falling out between the director and executive producer (of Telefilm) resulted in the completion being delayed 10 years and completion funding arranged separately by the director (Razutis). Cinematography by Tony Westman
'THE BEAST': Original Screenplay by Al Razutis - Excerpts |
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PERFORMANCE KIT containing a dildo pointer, 600' film, slide tray of "famous modernist paintings" (Canada), text. The performance, of the same name, featured Razutis presenting his "Essay on Postmodernism" at a performance at the Pacific Cinematheque (1987), shortly after his resignation from Simon Fraser University. Wearing a professorial suit (without pants), poised at a podium (with magnifying screen), Razutis proceeded to "instruct" with the pointer, read from the text (writings based on Frederick Jameson, Arthur Kroker, Deleuze, Benjamin and others) while a series of slides were projected and a superimposed (film) cross-hair was film projected. This PERFORMANCE KIT features all of the elements from the performance piece with the undertaking for the user to perform the piece. |
* Avant-Garde Films Distributed * Current DVD Film - Video Subjects Distributed * Stereoscopic 3D video DVDs
VIDEO ART ARCHIVE:All listed works produced and directed by Al Razutis. These are independent creations with credit to concept, writing, videography, editing, sound recording and mix, video special effects and rerecording by Al Razutis, unless otherwise noted in credits. 'Video by' means precisely motion-pictures for TV screen authored in video. See also legacy Video Synthesizer developed for these projects - photos and historical photo page. |
('Software', 'Vortex', 'Aurora', 'Moon at Evernight', '98.3 KHz: Bridge at Electrical Storm' - 40 min. )
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VIDEOGRAPHICS is a collection of film - video 'hybrids' representing the crossing over from film to video (back and forth) image processing - synthesizing techniques that involved both the video-synthesizer (Razutis - Armstrong FELIX) and Razutis' personally built film optical printer. Neither exclusively 'film' nor 'video', these groundbreaking works represented the first Canadian experimental film-videos that challenged the oppressive critical orthodoxies of (what is) 'film' or 'video' art that were rampant in their respective 'scenes' at that time. The individual works contained in this tape are Software/3min., Vortex, Aurora, The Moon at Evernight, and 98.3 KHz: (Bridge at Electrical Storm. Some of the individual works were incorporated in Razutis' avant-garde feature film 'AMERIKA', and were individually screened, awarded and subject of critical essays. Analog video-synthesisis and film optical printing were the precursors to modern-day digital effects which carried the early formal vocabulary into more 'refined' (digital) forms that are commonplace today. All picture, sound, and processing elements contained within these works were created by Al Razutis at Visual Alchemy (1972 - 1974). Previous distribution: Video Out, Vancouver In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD)
Collection copies available on DVD |
Co-created with Gary Lee-Nova - 60 min.
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HYBRID is an video assemblage of 16mm film and video content that integrates both film form (in the form of pre-existing film material by Razutis and Lee-Nova) and re-interprets this material using video synthetic processes (feedback, colorization, quantizing, abstracting). Razutis and Lee-Nova travelled to Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington and Portland City College in Portland Oregon and engaged their supportive staffs to create this experimental video art piece over a number of months in 1972-1973. The merging of film optical printing techniques (based on Razutis' optical printer) and video synthetic techniques of re-composition are the informing concepts of this work. The resulting 'hybrid' film-video is a precursor to further work in experimental video which was primarily continued by Razutis in his further pieces. The optical printer, at this point, became a pro-filmic image technology which became subordinated to analog video re-processing. Film material (for video synthesis) includes image loops and short sequences from the works of Gary Lee-Nova ('Box-o-Rama', and color studies) and image loops / sequences from films by Al Razutis. Production assistance provided by Evergreen State College (Washington), Portland City College, and Jim Cox. Previous distribution: Video Out, Vancouver In the collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery |
Arts Canada 1973 Video Issue - 'Hybrid' essay
Featuring the following:
'Bio Portraits' and Visual Alchemy studio tours,
excerpts from hybrid film-video works: 'Vortex', '98.3
KHz: (Bridge at Electrical Storm', 'Le Voyage', 'Moon at Evernight...'
and the following films: 'AAEON', 'The Beast', 'Visual Alchemy',
'Melies Catalogue' approx. duration: 46 min.
)
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ANTHOLOGY 1974 documents and presents film and video art created by Al Razutis at Visual Alchemy 1972 - 74. Beginning with an assembly of bio-rhythm / synthesizer experimental sequences, this highly ideosyncratic documentary includes excerpts from several films and videotapes by Razutis (listed above), studio 'tours', meditations, and strange digressions. Some of the sequences represent the only surviving video documentation from that era of avant-garde video at Visual Alchemy in Vancouver, Canada. Original elements (difficult to preserve) include footage shot on a 1/4" AKAI color portapak, 1" IVC studio sessions, and 1/2" SONY portapak and SONY AV-3650 and AV-5000 early color tapes. Production assistance provided by Evergreen State College (Washington) and Jim Cox. Previous distribution: Video Out, Vancouver |
( silent, 5 min. )
1-2 min. excerpt videos from this work on YouTube:
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AURORA is a analog videosynthetic work incorporating film loops subject to colorization, quantizing and layering and was created by Razutis at the video facilities of Evergreen State College (where he taught in 1972) and Vancouver (Visual Alchemy) utilizing his 'Felix' video synthesizer. Inspired by witnessing the 'aurora borealis' over Vancouver in the early 1970's, this short work is an early example of 'visual music' combining film sources (time lapse clouds, slow motion volcanic erruptions, water reflections) and videosynthesis, and was released as part of Videographics: Selected Works (1972-1974). This silent work is not available on film, only video. Previous distribution: Video Out, Vancouver |
('Waveform' and other shorts - 26 min. )
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WAVEFORM documents and interprets art created using bio-feedback experiments conducted by Razutis and colleagues in Evergreen State College (where he taught in 1972) and Vancouver (Visual Alchemy). Artist was plugged into bio-monitoring devices (Beckman EEG, ECG) which performed 'voltage controlled' keying of looped film-video imagery in real-time synthesis. The resulting 'loop' (artist - real-time display - artist) became a 'feedback loop' which depended on artist's ability to affect change (breathing, heartbeat, brainwaves) on the synthesis process. The analog video era, which is celebrated graphically with ocean waves, oscilloscope waveforms and colorizing / keying techniques, along with white noise soundtrack elements, was certainly displaced by the digital video era. But in our universe, there can not be only digital binaries binary streams, but necessarily analog waveforms and functions that allow for propagation of energy and mind. This piece, like analog video feedback, is an analog composition celebrating waveforms. WAVEFORM is an early and unique example of 'interactive art' which nowadays includes virtual reality interactive interfaces, bio-scanning, and other technologies. In the 1970's analog era, these innovative approaches to art creation were limited only by available (borrowed or built) technologies. Production assistance provided by Evergreen State College (Washington) and Jim Cox. Previous distribution: Video Out, Vancouver In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada |
Bio-feedback Performance
Video 60 min., 1976
Distribution Edit version with titles, 28 min., 1979
40 sec. excerpt video on YouTube:
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SYNAPSE (live broadcast bio-feedback performance piece) is there to remind us of what happens when 'man plugs himself into the bio-feedback machine' -- the ultimate form of interactive graphics?....be it analog (in the 70's) or digital (from then on). Sort of like 'Frankenstein makes love to his monster...(and has bad nightmares: 'Theta Waves')' "In the 'non-digital' 70's (with an 'original' videosynthesizer, engineered by Jim Armstrong, Bellingham, Wash.), and based on some bio-feedback experiments I did at Evergreen State College with some students-collaborators, I brought my 'performance' device (FELIX video synthesizer) into the broadcast studio at Channel 10 Vancouver one night for a live bio-feedback prime-time broadcast." (A.R.) Performance assisted by: Tom Osborne, Jim Cox, Donna Graf, Jerry Barenholtz, Jim Bescott, Jeff Howard, Ron McInnis, Colin Wedgewood, Martin Truax, and Cable-10 Vancouver staff. Previous distribution: Video Out, Vancouver In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada Original 60 min. program on 1 inch tape (archived); original distribution copies on 3/4 inch U-matic format - 28 min. edit version.
Collection copies of (pic >) 28 min. edit version, with added titles, available on (sales >) DVD |
Plant Video-synthesis Installation Video, 30 min., 1978
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CANADIAN SUNSET featured a wired-up installation of Beckman EEG brain-wave monitor with electrodes attached to branch and stem of a office plant (a big leafy one!) in my faculty office at Simon Fraser University, 1978. The EEG sensor output was connected to voltage amplifiers and modulators which performed color keying fx on the output of the B&W video camera that looked 'out the window' at the sky in motion and light. The installation ran for 24 hrs, 7 days, as academic business was conducted 'as usual'. It was recorded by a time-lapse VCR in composite color (recording 'the performance', which included the plant-synthetic color keying. I had recently returned from Samoa ('the jungle'), had read 'Do Plants Have Feelings?' (don't laugh, it's a very interesting thesis), and decided to see for myself if a 24/7 recording of a plant's bio-potential readings (microvolts) could detect changes in 'attitude' (in the plant - certainly, there would be changes in my attitude towards the plant), and whether these could be used in a video-synthesis tape as 'art' or 'performance' or 'installation'. There were witnesses, including the Director of the Centre for the Arts, Dr. Evan Alderson (my boss), to the events: The common 'office' plant changing potentials and sensitivities (heightened during photo-synthesis daylight hours), sudden spikes of bio-potential ocurring and recorded by the EEG machine when I confronted it with scizzors, ready to "hack off a limb!". These events and this experimental installation certainly re-defined what a 'plant' is, especially in a university 'arts department', of which I was a new member. This tape was never distributed (attempts were made) and it marked a point of departure (from synaesthetic formalism) for me, one that would lead to future interests in 'political agitation' and 'avant-garde practices' (and the aesthetics of that which is 'ugly' to the 'fine arts'). This tape is referenced in Ghosts in the Machine: "This could have been a big-time money maker!" See also: Felix video synthesizer |
30 min., sound - Produced and Directed by Al Razutis, 1980
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This tape was independently and 'irreverently' produced in a 30 minute format for broadcast on CBC - TV (Vancouver) as part of 'Independent Filmmakers Showcase'. It features a number of films by Al Razutis presented in short extracts, fish-eye lens walking shots, digressions, bio-graphical voice overs and anti-commercial monologues deliberately constructed to 'offend' the viewer's sense of watching TV. It was broadcast in it's entirety, and subsequently distributed for several years as a off-the-wall 'infomercial' tape on Razutis' films. 'Kind of like burning your bridges before they happen, which was the intention'. (A.R.) Excerpts from 20 films by Razutis spanning the 70's is presented along with real-time analog mixing interpretations and fragments from rarely seen works.
Previous distribution: Canadian
Fimmakers Distribution West (CFDW) / Moving Images, |
60 min., stereo snd. - Produced and Directed by Al Razutis (with Mike Hoolboom) 1990
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A sixty-minute one shot. Michael Hoolboom is interviewed / interrogated by Razutis in a Venice Beach apartment in 1980. The topic: the 'demise' of experimental film in Canada and the usurping of film production, exhibition, distribution, curating and critical history by an individual(s) normally protected from public scrutiny. Rather than skirting around the issues, this tape examines the facts behind this debacle, revealing for the 'first time' the intrigues, manipulations, intimidations that surrounded the Toronto film scene in the 80's. Hoolboom, as Experimental Film Officer at the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Center in the 80's and privy to many of it's files and correspondences, is interrogated as a captive eye-witness to these events. Videotape also distributed as 'open letter' to Chicago, San Francisco, New York filmmakers. Previous distribution: Canadian Fimmakers Distribution West (CFDW) / Moving Images, Vancouver |
GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE22 min. Prod./Dir. Al Razutis 1994-1996 2 min. 40 sec. excerpt video on YouTube:
Within all histories
of media (computer graphics, video, film), there are
predecessor forms, influences, prior works. This
context, including anti-censorship battles of the 80's
in Ontario, Canada, is remarked on in a 20 minute video-compilation
of works and interviews by Razutis titled "GHOSTS
IN THE MACHINE".
This is a tape compiled from various broadcast and original
art sources. It features a illustrated narration (by Razutis) touching on media art, history, and anarchist film art practices as evidenced in his works. Video synthetic film art and avant-garde art practices are the topics of this subjective anthology-documentary.
This videotape contains
short excerpts from 12 films and videos by Razutis, spanning 1970 to 1990, contains film and tv
interview fragments, and features a collage of voice-over commentary by Razutis
that covers film culture politics, avant garde works,
analog video and film technology and bio-feedback experiments
of the 1970's-80's. Selected interview material from
'THROUGH THE LENS' (Prod. G. Jordan-Bastow, F. Kiyooka),
a history of independent film-making in Canada, by permission of the producers. Previous distribution:
Video Out, Vancouver; V-Tape, Toronto Original distribution copies on 3/4 inch U-matic format. - 22 min. edit version.
Collection copies of (pic >) 22 min. distribution version, from 3/4" Umatic, available on (sales >) DVD |
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VR: A MOVIE 16 min., VIDEOTAPE,
1996
VR: A Movie
takes up where AMERIKA left off: a compilation
(stock footage from 20 features which deal with 'virtual
reality' and the like) videotape on the subject of VR
'myths', narcissism, power-tripping, and the collective
fascination that Hollywood film has with its own techno-dick.
This piece was created
as a 'meta-critical virus' - which seduces the viewer
into a participation of re-creating the 'subject' of
virtual reality (the active participant of simulation
and manipulation). The requisite purchase agreement
was that once this video was obtained and viewed, it
"must be copied, added to, and re-distributed (on
the net, or elsewhere)":. Previous distribution:
Video Out, Vancouver; V-Tape, Toronto |
EURO - TRIPTYCH / 200219 min., various original elements,
2002
EURO - TRYPTYCH/2002 was completed after the conclusion of Razutis' 20002 retrospective shows at EMAF - Osnabruck, Germany'. There are three-shorts contained withing this tape, each with different subject matter and form. 1946 - 2002 / LEARNING TO WALK - 7 min.Razutis makes a first visit back to the place of his birth, 56 years ago, Bamberg, Germany. The camera just hangs out, always on, free to 'relearn' everything. 'AMERIKA'
x 3 - NANTES 1997 - 9 min. '99
CODE RED BALOONS' 2002 - 4 min.
Collection copies of (pic >) 19 min. distribution version, from various original elements , available on (sales >) DVD |
3-D stereoscopic video, 36 min., stereo snd. - Produced and Directed by Al Razutis, 1996-7
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The subject is 3D stereoscopic photography, holography, and virtual reality; the host is Al Razutis and a 'twisted' take on Alice in 'wonderland'. This videotape is rich in imagery, complexity, strange juxtapositions of stereoscopic 3-D space and the more familiar 2-D space. It is both a 'narrative' about stereoscopic 3D technology and viewing, holographic image creations (featuring lab tours and holographic works by Melissa Crenshaw, Gary Cullen, Al Razutis - Vancouver), and a strange 'poem' about what happened when a fictional 'Alice went through the looking glass' and discovered.....'virtual reality'. This tape covers some of the aspects of the history of stereoscopy, the lab technologies and arts of holography, and includes social commentary on the "narcissisms" and violence inherent in commercial cinema's virtual-reality landscape. 'Virtual Imaging' 3D Gallery of Stills Prize Winner at 1997 So. Calif. 3D film/video fest. Previous distribution: Video Out, Vancouver; V-Tape, Toronto |
3D
stereoscopic video -12 min.- 1996-7
Produced and Directed by Al Razutis, in collaboration with
Dean Fogal
1 min. excerpt video from this work on YouTube:
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Stereographic video documentation and
interpretation of two "corporeal mime"
performances by Dean Fogal. Mr. Fogal is an accomplished
mime artist and teacher, who studied corporeal mime
with Etienne Decroux and Marcel Marceau
in Paris. This tape contains two short mime performances -
'Chairing' and 'Walking on Air' - and forms
the basis of an ongoing collaboration in 3D video between
a mime choreographer-performer and 3D video-maker. A unique blend of studied movement within a stereoscopic 'space' where 'words no longer suffice to convey meaning.' Prize Winner at 1997 So. Calif. 3D film/video fest. Previous distribution: Video Out, Vancouver, V-Tape, Toronto |
3D
stereoscopic video, 12 min., 1997
Produced and Directed by Al Razutis, in collaboration with
Dean Fogal
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Performance by Dean Fogal and Anthony Artibello. This performance is set in a 'primal' outdoor location. Two figures 'discover each other's presence' and engage in an archtypal male ritual: combat and death, and loss. A fusion between studied movement and 3D stereographic forms with an emphasis on the physical body mapping space and emotion. Videotaped on location on Saturna Island, BC, Canada. Prize Winner at 1997 So. Calif. 3D film/video fest. Previous distribution: Video Out, Vancouver; V-Tape, Toronto |
3D
stereoscopic video, 12 min., 1997
Produced and Directed
by Al Razutis, in collaboration with Dean Fogal
1 min. excerpt video on YouTube:
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Performance by Daniel Lomas and Sue Biely. This tape features a strange 'love duet' set to 'funeral' music; two characters, as shadow figures in front of a light orb, recreate aspects of 'relationship', the coming together and coming apart. In its minimal set and choreography of poses, this dance piece expresses a surrealism of an 'embossed living cut-outs' engaged in the poses of life and love. Previous distribution: Video Out, Vancouver; V-Tape, Toronto |
Visit also:
Quick links to individual titles in Stereo 3D page:
3D Video Art Main Page |
ESSAYS related to these works and times:
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