The Flaming Lips’ infamous quadraphonic album – synched with four-screen video especially commissioned of Winnipeg filmmakers Leslie Supnet, Clint Enns, Neil Hoare, Hope Peterson, Jaimz Asmundson, Damien Ferland, Kier-La Janisse and Cam Woykin.
Zaireeka was the eighth studio album by The Flaming Lips. Released in 1997, the experimental rock album consists of four compact discs; each of its eight songs consists of four stereo tracks, one from each CD. The album was designed so that when played simultaneously on four separate audio systems, the four CDs would produce a harmonic or juxtaposed sound.
Eight Winnipeg filmmakers were given a song from the album, and asked to make a video component to accompany it using 4 screens – one for each track of their selected song, with the finished video works to be projected simultaneously. The finished project was originally screened to the Lo Pub in Winnipeg, with a packed house seated on the floor between the four large screens.
The Films/Tracks:
1. “Okay I’ll Admit That I Really Don’t Understand” – Clint Enns
The Flaming Lips intended “Okay I’ll Admit That I Really Don’t Understand” to be a mantra of sorts about the admitted lack of comprehension regarding one’s situation. My intent was to use images about a subject I have extreme difficulty understanding, namely, Christianity in the 20st century.
2. “Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (You’re Invisible Now)” – Kier-La Janisse
15 classic films come together to form a drunken Tokyo detective story involving dreams, trains, missing transvestites and the embrace of the ocean.
3. “Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair” – Neil Hoare
My piece consists of two segments of footage (one found, one shot), no more than 7 seconds each, re-edited in an attempt to mimic the beauty of a Mandelbrot diagram in motion.
4. “A Machine in India” – Cam Woykin
Each projection, a glimpse into it’s own narrative, this motley collection of images seeks to reflect the disjointed and bizarre nature of A Machine in India and the ambiguously absurd elements of exotica that compose it.
5. “The Train Runs over the Camel but Is Derailed by the Gnat” – Damien Ferland
One Handycam, ten or so Pine Trees by a Lake, four Tracks of one Flaming Lips song = one Video (no, four)!
6. “How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos)” – Hope Peterson
How Will We Know? is a four-part short handmade film which attempts to create connections between isolated figures on separate screens.
7. “March of the Rotten Vegetables” – Jaimz Asmundson
Raw waveform becomes a sonic kaleidoscopic spectacle in the form of vibrant colour-harmonic chakras.
8. “The Big Ol’ Bug Is the New Baby Now” – Leslie Supnet
Leslie Supnet’s found footage and animated video polyptych takes you on a time-warp back to the fuzzy nightmares of your forgotten childhood.
SCREENINGS:
May 23, 2009 – Lo Pub, Winnipeg, Canada
Closing Night Event – Antimatter Festival 2009, Victoria, Canada