Let me tell you about my mother.

January 23, 2009 10:11 PM

Clayton Cubitt is a video artist. He does video portraits. They are disturbing, warholian, and weird
posted by The Whelk (16 comments total)

According to the website, he sets up the tripod and leaves the room. Which is almost creepier.
posted by The Whelk at 10:16 PM on January 23, 2009

I feel like I'm in a staring contest.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:21 PM on January 23, 2009

I think Nina Stotler is trying not to laugh.
posted by delmoi at 10:23 PM on January 23, 2009

I feel like I'm in a staring contest.

I've got a hundred dollars here says Mary Crabapple blinked before you did, Blazecock.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:25 PM on January 23, 2009

Whoops. Molly Crabapple.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:26 PM on January 23, 2009

That "by your side" one does a good job of telling a story in facial expressions. I think he must have found some good actors to pull it off.

Reminds me of an idea I once had for a sci-fi movie that would be silent, and all told through subtitles. All the acting would be done by facial expressions, with the idea that people could communicate though some sort of brain connection.
posted by delmoi at 10:31 PM on January 23, 2009

I can appreciate the concept of the 'long portrait,' but I can't watch one!
posted by grobstein at 11:08 PM on January 23, 2009

These remind me of some pieces I saw in a private home- I wish I knew the artist. They looked like back lit transparencies a little over a foot square, in a Plexiglas frame. While the change was barely perceptible, the portraits morphed from a neutral head shot to, in one case, an expression of intense anguish. You could walk by the piece several times before noticing a change in expression. I can't tell if they were more or less interesting than these.
posted by pointilist at 11:17 PM on January 23, 2009

These would make great benchmarks for motion compensation based video codecs, sort of how those huge mbox files used to be commonly used to benchmark ratios of text-based compression algorithms.
posted by Rhomboid at 11:25 PM on January 23, 2009

Pointilist, I also remember seeing a video installation like the one you described-- super slow motion faces-- but in the Blanton museum on the UT campus this summer. I've been googling like mad, but I can't remember the artist's name. I'll post a link or name if I ever find it.

Also Conan stares into your soul
posted by fontophilic at 10:36 PM on January 24, 2009

I present a Jessica Alba self portrait
posted by P.o.B. at 10:36 PM on January 24, 2009

See also: Douglas Gordon, Gillian Wearing, Adad Hannah, Thomas Struth, Bettina Hoffman, Bill Viola....
posted by oulipian at 10:41 PM on January 24, 2009

I think this video is better because rather than trying so hard to be "art" it is simply a self-conscious girl who doesn't want to show her crooked teeth. It makes me smile and sympathize, unlike the linked videos that are just kind of weird.
posted by shii at 11:52 PM on January 24, 2009

I can't believe you linked to that Magibon girl shii. She is reeeeaally creepy. She sits in front of the camera trying to look as cute as possible, and by that I mean child-like. Camera slightly above eye level so she is looking upward. Waving and maintaining that smirk the whole time. Making her eyes as large as possible. Singing and talking with a kid voice. She tries really hard at not breaking that illusion of innocence. To me that is waaaaaaayyyy creepier than the "art" videos. ijustine does a pretty good impression, and this is hilarious.
posted by P.o.B. at 6:07 AM on January 25, 2009

Clayton Cubitt previously on MetaFilter
posted by ColdChef at 8:50 AM on January 25, 2009

I really love these. Makes me want to trade up to one of the new nikon/canon movie enabled SLRs so I can try it out. You get so much more a sense of the subject than with a still image. I kind of thing this is the sort of thing flicr had in mind when they started allowing (very short) movies.
posted by rubin at 7:39 PM on January 26, 2009