In the late 60's and early 70's a band of visual artists painted
images on large screens, accompanying many of the era's greatest bands, and also
playing on their own to prerecorded sound or music - or even to ambient sound
from microphones hung over a busy boulevard nearby, for audiences looking for
something different ... welcome to the Single Wing Turquoise Bird ....

Coming along ...
a chronicle, moving pictures, shapes, sounds, and more ...
begun: 2 November 2002
for a good write-up of the group and its history see pOoTerLand at http://www.pooterland.com/index2/lightshow_menu/lightshows/single_wing/single_wing.html
another nice description can be found in the pioneering work on modern
multimedia, Expanded Cinema by Gene Youngblood. A
downloadable PDF version of the book is available at http://www.artscilab.org/expandedcinema.html
and the SWTB writeup is in Part 6.
Announcements ...
NEW - November 2005
"Film historian/Professor David James' new article "Expanded
Cinema in Los Angeles: The Single Wing Turquoise Bird" has just been
published in Millenium Film Journal nos. 43/44 - available online through
amazon.com, follow the link:
The article provides the most comprehensive history of the SWTB to date - a
must-read!
PREVIOUS POSTS:
Cindy Keefer, formerly of iotaCenter and now with the new group Visual
Music, has produced a new show called Visual Music, which includes work from SWTB
and from filmmakers who contributed to SWTB such as David LeBrun. Here are the
details from the site at http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org/
:
Visual
Music" - Museum of Contemporary
Art, Los Angeles (opens
February 13, 2005) and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC
(opens June 2005). The exhibition features painting and photographs;
installations; and films, videos, color organ and light projections by artists
including Stephen Beck, Jordan Belson
(Allures, Samadhi, plus a new film premiering at the Hirshhorn),
Mark Boyle and Joan Hills, Larry Cuba, Charles Dockum (1952 Mobilcolor
Performance), Oskar Fischinger (Study No. 7, Allegretto, Radio
Dynamics, Lumigraph film, Ornament Sound), Viking Eggeling,
Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, Hy Hirsh (Eneri), Len Lye (A Colour Box), Stanton
MacDonald-Wright, Elias Romero, Hans Richter (Rhythm 21),
Walter Ruttmann, Dan Sandin, Single Wing Turquoise Bird, Harry Smith (Film
No. 3), James Whitney (Yantra, Lapis, Film Exercise No. 4),
John Whitney (Permutations), John Whitney, Jr., Thomas Wilfred, and
Joshua White. CVM provided numerous films and videotapes, plus research and
assistance, for this exhibition.
March
24 - An Evening of Visual Music Films curated by CVM.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. 6:30 pm.
Please
check the calendar on the MOCA site for additional screenings and events related
to the exhibition: Art Talk by David James (March 31); performance of Stanton
MacDonald-Wright's "Kineidoscope" color organ.
Do plan to go see this show! It is a must!
Here is also a link to Doug Harvey's LA Weekly review of the VM show :
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/14/features-harvey.php
PRIOR NEWS - from 2003:
Cindy Keefer of iotaCenter - dedicated to preserving and promoting the best
of abstract cinema and related media - previously produced a stunning compilation called Kinetica 4, which
included work from SWTB, and which began touring the world in 2003. Visit the
following link to see if it will be at a venue near you! If you have a
venue you can make inquiry about obtaining it.
The Los Angeles Premiere of Kinetica 4 was held as follows:
Part 1 January 17, 2003 (including SWTB footage) and Part 2 January
18, 2003 (including work of SWTB member David Lebrun)
Click image for details:
http://www.kinetica.org/K4/
a page from the program guide:

click image above to see it full size
NOTE: SWTB member Larry Janss's
Theatre on High Street has opened
in
Moorpark, California!

click image to visit the theatre site!

Single Wing Turquoise Bird performing in Cumberland Mountain Film Company studio
in 1970. The studio was located above the Fox Venice Theatre and housed SWTB
from 1970 to its final performance in 1978.
click on image to enlarge
Note - additional ionformation about SWTB and the Fox Venice Theatre can be
found on the Virtual Venice site - http://www.virtualvenice.info/

Contact Information:
- Electronic mail & sites
- General Information: mail@swtb.info
- Larry: mail@swtb.info
- Michael: aka@emsh.calarts.edu
Site: http://emsh.calarts.edu/~aka/
- Rol: rol@swtb.info
Site: http://www.murrow.info/rol
Webmaster: webmaster@swtb.info
- Telephone
- Rol 860 423-8273
- FAX
- 603-806-7937
- Postal address
- Larry at SWTB 1408 Thousand Oaks Boulevard,
Thousand Oaks California 91362
- Rol at SWTB 149 Walnut Street,
Willimantic, Connecticut 06226