Lanterns for Buddha

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Buddha’s birthday has come around again. If you’re living in Seoul, look around the city for the lanterns. Buddha’s birthday is being celebrated May 5th this year. The lantern parade will be in the evening on April 29th. Check it out at Jongno.
This footage comes from the park in front of Donguk University. I filmed it last year, when I stumbled upon it walking through the city late at night, on my way home from the bars.
I feel sad reflecting that was already a year ago. I miss my friends from that time, who are gone now. I miss the apartment where I lived then. I regret that a year has gone by and I still have not had time to edit all the video I took then.

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Dead Turtle in Han River

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If I knew Buddhist scripture or Chinese mythology, I think there would be a really good quotation to describe this turtle. One watches it, wondering where its soul is, what sort of journey its spirit is on, while its body beautifully floats reflecting the sun’s rays.

After the epic yellow-wind clouds of Saturday and Sunday cleared up, some nice weather came in. The sky and weather was amazing on Monday. I noticed that the wind was coming from a different direction than usual, seemed to be blowing more from the East to the West — so, in other words, the dirty air from China wasn’t being blown in. Under that beautiful sky, I rode my bike down the Han River, and stopped for a while along the bank. I saw this dead turtle floating in the water. My first reaction was to assume the turtle died because the river was so dirty — but of course it’s also possible that the turtle peacefully died after a long life. I wonder what species of turtle one would find in the Han River? Would there be a lot of such turtles in the river? Considering that turtles have a fairly long life expectancy, wouldn’t it be unusual to come upon one that is deceased? Do you think that the turtle died because the river is dirty? Just how dirty is the river? What other life can be found in the Han River?
These are questions that I don’t know who could answer.
Or, was this turtle simply someone’s pet? And if so, did the turtle even die in the river or was it simply thrown in here after passing?

Cycling by a few months later, I glimpsed a few kids in the same spot I saw the turtle. They seemed to be looking at something. Had the turtle come back?

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Aerosol Plastic Bottle Fight

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The movement of plastic objects in water never ceases to fascinate. There is one green bottle, and the other four red-and-blue cans are mini-propane cans which people put into portable cookers. Obviously, these are the refuse of someone’s picnic. I don’t want to contemplate how/why anyone would throw these things in the water. Well, I should confess that last year I threw a beer bottle into the Han River.
By the way, what do you call this part of the river, where artificially the city has manipulated the level of the water, as in this case?

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Han River Purple Streaking 270

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Han River Purple Streaking 270

I like this shot. Camera half-submerged sideways. The Han River’s all purple streaked like night-time traffic on slow-shutter. In the distance is the south bank.
I live near the Han River now. I’ve been biking on it a lot. I kind of want to do a movie about it, but I don’t know the concept yet. Does it need a concept or can I simply just film it at different types of day in different seasons in different weather, and then compile all my favorite shots?

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Underwater Camera Shot #1

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Underwater Camera Shot #1

This is a shot I took testing out my new digital camera, the 720 SW by Olympus. Amazingly, the camera can be put underwater to a depth of 3 meters, without even needing a casing. This footage should give you a glimpse into the possibilities. As you should notice, the microphone function still works underwater. Really, my head is exploding with the possibilities this camera offers. The camera is also tested to be shock-resistance, droppable at a height up to 1.5 meters. I am going to put this camera through more tests than an extreme sports athlete.

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VJ at Loop Gallery Party

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Keith from Kungga organized this party at the Platform L Loop Gallery. Here’s a few clips, and then more description below.

This is footage taken of a sound+video installation by Seafran (Francois) from France. These days, he is seen around Seoul DJing dub and reggae. I don’t know if there’s some particular explanation or story behind this installation, but anyway it’s cool just as it is. Music producers can take note that one of the pieces of equipment hanging from the ceiling is the Boss 303 Dr. Rhythm Sampler. Some of the sounds are coming from the installation, and other sound is just spilling over from the live performances that were happening on the lower floors.

James White has been doing some really cool live looping stuff lately, mixing up his fun rhymes, didgeridoo, ukelele, and mini-korg. On this night, his performance was right near where my VJ station/installation was set up. I pointed my camera at him and did my best to interact with what he was doing, by effecting the camera footage – you should see that in some parts of this clip. I love my Kaoss Entrancer which basically lets me run in a live video feed and effect it with my fingers.

As for the party itself, it was a wicked night with a really good turnout. I think Keith’s goal was to bring together a lot of different artists from different backgrounds and create an event where they’d mingle, interact, and collaborate. The party spread through the three floors of the beautiful Platform-L Loop gallery in Hongik, Seoul. I think there were drummers, dancers, a Korean traditional music group, amongst other performances. I didn’t actually get to explore much, because for most of the night I was trying to sort out why my video signal was all distorted. After much grief, it turned out that something was set to PAL which was supposed to be set to NTSC. So I never really got to do what I was trying to do with my own installation, but then again I’m not sure I really had anything specific in mind to do anyway.

Anyway, this party really represented the best aspects of the current scene in Hongdae, an area of Seoul near Hongik University, which has the reputation as being Korea’s premier fine arts university. The surrounding area is a vibrant area of cool little buildings, quirky bars, art schools, galleries, and even woodworking shops.

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Yellow Wind in Seoul

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Set up my camera for a time-lapse from my apartment window, and it turned out to be a pretty epic day for the yellow wind storms from China. Glad I didn’t have to go anywhere that day – I wouldn’t want to be one of those people down there on a day like this.
“Yellow Wind” refers to the wind which comes from China bearing sand of the Gobi desert mixed with toxic particles. Every year around March, this wind blankets much of South Korea and parts of Japan, along with China’s own cities, like Beijing.
Scientists have detected traces of the wind on the west coast of North America.

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