Oxum: Goddess of Love

This is an edit of a thirty minute film that consists of alternating sections of colour intercut with both black and white, and which is topped and tailed with titles. The full sequence of alternating sections are shown initially with a duration of five seconds for each segment of the film, the sequence is then repeated with this duration reduced to three seconds, then one second, then five-twelfths of a second, then one-sixth of a second, then five-twelfths of a second, then one-sixth of a second. The tempo of these sequences increases dramatically in the second part of the film (which is the part used for this edit), since the initial slow cycle takes nearly half the full version's running time. The soundtrack consists of repetitive trance drumming.

"Oxum - Goddess of Love" utilises as its starting point Tony Conrad's "The Flicker" (1966) which consisted solely of quickly alternating black and white with tonal accompaniment. The effect of "The Flicker" on its viewers is to produce visual hallucinations and the appearance of colour. As with Debord's slowly alternating black and white anti-film "Screams In Favour of De Sade" (1952), what is important is not what happens on-screen but what happens off-screen amongst the audience. That said, Conrad is using trance effects to induce visions, whereas Debord employs boredom to provoke his audience into breaking with their role as spectators and forces them to 'act for themselves'. In both instances the same disparate effects might be achieved by other means (which may or may not resemble Debord and Conrad's work in terms of form, as was the case with my 50th anniversary colour remake of "Screams").

"Oxum" is intended for viewing in a number of ways. This "7 inch" edit makes the work appear closer to Conrad's "The Flicker" than is in fact the case. I became consciously aware of my desire to make "Oxum" on 3 June 2007 and I physically put it together using iMovie between 23 and 31 July 2007; doing the final edits on both the full version and the "7 inch mix" on 30 July 2007. Compressing "Oxum" for web streaming (which among other things reduces the number of frames per second) will have distorted the timing of the work in curious ways; planned accidents of this type are an integral part of my work... More detailed accounts of my anti-films and other works can be found at - http://www.stewarthomesociety.org - including information on the voodoo and Candomblé (sometimes called Macumba) influence on "Oxum". Check it out, you know it makes (no) sense!

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Stewart Home
• psychedelic
• trance
• LSD
• Flicker
• Tony Conrad
• Voodoo
• Candomblé
• Macumba
• Situationist
• sex
• love
• Guy Debord

[captainshitto]

@stewarthome they used to do that at seaside resorts.i think it was the Sun newspaper. one week it`d be Blackpool,the next it was Rhyl and so on. i think you had to spot a bloke called Eric.it was probably about ten quid though.

[stewarthome]

@captainshitto Now that's even more ambiguous. You must be Cindy Sherman and I claim my 25 million dollars!

[captainshitto]

@stewarthome not sure really

[stewarthome]

@captainshitto Great ambiguous reply! I don't know if you're agreeing with me when I say you'll never know for sure, or disagreeing that ambiguity is a groove sensation! Ambiguity I love it!

[captainshitto]

@stewarthome not really

[stewarthome]

@captainshitto You'll never know for sure - ambiguity is a groove sensation!

[captainshitto]

@stewarthome i bet you have really

[stewarthome]

@captainshitto I don't watch too many animations and Halloween is more of a north American thing.... so no ain't seen The Devil and Daniel Mouse......

[captainshitto]

@stewarthome yeah its super. have you seen The Devil and Daniel Mouse? thats nice. also there is a similar theme found in some novellas published by Miklls and Boone...especially during the 70s..

i just gave myself the creeps

[stewarthome]

@captainshitto Have you read or seen The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe too? That's one play I can dig - an oldie but goldie and better smelling by far than contemporary English theatre!