Film, Landscape, Psychogeography

Stasis In London (1994) – Patrick Keiller.

On watching all of Patrick Keiller’s “Robinson” trilogy of films recently, it struck home how effectively stillness within a visual frame can traverse the geographical plain and recreate a journey that is both political and sociological.  This, of course, goes to the heart filmmaking itself, the relationships with cuts especially and its portrayal of time, space and movement within a diegetic reality all being key … Continue reading Stasis In London (1994) – Patrick Keiller.

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Literature, Psychogeography

Walking On and On with Harold Pinter

Dear Joe, I’d like to walk with you From Clapton Pond to Stamford Hill And on…  – Harold Pinter Harold Pinter liked walking around London. It is easily forgotten how vital walking around the capital was for him when considering how claustrophobic much of his theatre work is. Yet there is still a sense of place in his work, often highlighting many of his characters’ … Continue reading Walking On and On with Harold Pinter

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Literature, Television

Hauntology Of The Dead Past (1965) – Out Of The Unknown.

The BBC Science-Fiction anthology series, Out Of The Unknown (1965-1970), was famous for producing a wide range of intellectual sci-fi drama, exploring ideas and concepts more than spectacle and scale.  With adaptations from a range of writers, including John Wyndham and J.G. Ballard, the surviving episodes of the series are both stimulating and useful in terms of 21st century aesthetic philosophy.  The feeling that the … Continue reading Hauntology Of The Dead Past (1965) – Out Of The Unknown.

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Art, Landscape

Responses: Disappearance At Sea (1996) – Tacita Dean.

When last in Edinburgh, I managed to catch the Another Minimalism exhibition at Fruitmarket Gallery.  The aim of the curation was to look at altered experience through the fluctuating relationships between light and colour, featuring an array of colourful, physically intangible works by the likes of Carol Bove, Robert Irwin and Ann Veronica Janssens.  The highlight, however, was a work that was more tangible, both … Continue reading Responses: Disappearance At Sea (1996) – Tacita Dean.

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Landscape, Psychogeography, Short Film

Trailer – The Menhir Motorway.

Above is the trailer for the first film project of 2016, The Menhir Motorway.  The film has been slightly delayed due to missing virtually all possible deadlines in regards to getting the film developed but it is now well on its way to being finished.  Unlike virtually every other landscape short that I’ve made, this is one about an area that is personal to me, … Continue reading Trailer – The Menhir Motorway.

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Film, Landscape

The Nowhere Road in The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (1972)

The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (1972) is a perfect example of a narrative film fragmenting into surreal dreamscapes. From its title alone, Luis Buñuel’s obvious target is middle-class idolatry but, for a film full of incredibly stark images, there is one visual motif which stands out from the other surrealist political attacks. Discreet is punctuated, whether in dreams or reality (or perhaps both), by … Continue reading The Nowhere Road in The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (1972)

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Folk Horror, Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography

Alan Garner’s Edge

‘When I was not confined to the house, I would spend my days and my nights on the Edge.’ – Alan Garner On a frosty but sunny January morning, I was steadily making my way along the M56 towards Macclesfield. I was on my way to Alderley Edge in Cheshire, the stalking ground of writer Alan Garner. In 2015 I had made this journey in … Continue reading Alan Garner’s Edge

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Art, Landscape

Responses: Avebury Photos (1933 + 1942) – Paul Nash.

The landscape painter and augmenter, Paul Nash, had a momentary, glimpsed relationship with the Wiltshire town of Avebury.  The landscape, which brims with a sense of ancientness and magic, evidently enraptured the painter for a brief spell of creative yield not simply in painting but in photography as a sideline as well.  Caught in the trace images and memories of its Neolithic stone circles, its … Continue reading Responses: Avebury Photos (1933 + 1942) – Paul Nash.

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Film, Landscape, Literature

Ghosts in the Ice

On finishing W.G. Sebald’s novel The Emigrants (1992), it felt as if some loose connection to a recent film or book was left hanging mid-air. The narrative of Sebald’s novel is split into the stories of four émigrés, all seemingly interconnected by a multitude of strange images but chiefly by their fleeing from the rise of Nazi Germany. The connection didn’t seem to be so … Continue reading Ghosts in the Ice

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Film, Psychogeography

Libidinal Circuits

Jean-Luc Godard always had an interest in the relationship between politics and the spaces it influences. The topographies of modernity happened to coincide with his sharp turn towards cinematic political questioning, in films such as Tout Va Bien (1972), La Chinoise (1967), and Week-end (1967), looking in particular at a factory, an inner-city flat/Maoist commune, and a busy roadway. These spaces provided more than a backdrop for Godard’s political arguments: they seemed to actually … Continue reading Libidinal Circuits

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