Issue One: 1993 Issue Four: 2002 Web Issue: 1997 Web Issue: 1998
Digital Issues
Updates coming soon!
keep an eye peeled, sign up or even email;
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
join in and contribute
.
Welcome to the Black Ice holding page. Please sign up for the announcements for the full relaunch of Black Ice as a fully formed web-zine.
If you read issue 1 - welcome back; we're not dead yet and have been up to exciting and world shattering things, if you have no idea what it is then here's a recap:
With just a single print issue in the early '90s, Blackice editor Mark Bennett created a legend that is still talked about on the digital underground, a legend that, ironically, was snuffed out just before that decade's ill-starred web boom.
Now all the web monkeys are back on peanuts and Blackice has arisen, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of a thousand dead dotcoms."
Well the print world changed and while the tools of productions may now be in the hands of the workers, with Apples, PCs and Quark, the distribution is securely in the hands of monopolistic twats and have collapsed into a smaller minority even more so than the last attempt. Worse ours turned out to be a serial fraudster.
So several years after the relaunched print edition the phoenix is back and being let loose on the net - in spades.
Mark Bennett, Brighton 23/11/09
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
VoodooVaudeville's 10th Anniversary to be Filmed in 3D Dec 4 event at Komedia, Brighton To include large format stereo slides installation
Brighton Dec 2nd 2009
Cult performance group, Voodoo Vaudeville ( http://www.voodoovaudeville.com), will be filmed in 3D by Mark Bennett, editor of Black Ice Magazine, at the troupe's 10th Anniversary celebration taking place at the Komedia, Brighton, on Friday 4 December, 2009. The resulting 3D video will commemorate the troupe's successful 10 years of performance and will be available for a variety of media formats.
Mark Bennett says: "We'll be taking 3D video to a grass roots level, documenting live acts that are worth watching over and over again in this unique format."
Stereoscopic photography dates back well over 100 years and works by having two lenses take a photo on film at the same time, at approximately eyeball distance apart. The same process works with a pair of video cameras to produce 3D films and videos.
For this event, the filming will be done with a professional, broadcast-quality Sony DV camera and a rare, specialised shutter mirror adapter to take both the left and right eyes' view on to a single video frame. This is far easier and more portable in comparison to the traditional two lens camera set ups which are large, expensive and cumbersome.
The 3D footage can then be played back on a standard television with special shutter glasses, shown with two identical home cinema projectors and polarised lenses similar to the one used in cinema for movies such as 'Monsters Versus Aliens', or processed further for different formats such as lenticular flat screens which don't need any glasses to see 3D.
Previous test runs with the camera adapter have captured various performances and fashion shows at avant-garde club event, 'The Torture Garden', and have documented NYC punk band, 'World Inferno Friendship Society'. The resulting video filmed in 3D can, importantly, be extracted and used in normal 2D.
Please see:
And:
for examples of 3D footage extracted to 2D.
Presently, several systems for 3D television are under development and some HDTVs and video projectors are now made '3D ready'.
Personal computer screens and laptops featuring the new video processors to handle 3D are coming to market, such as the ASUS G51J 3D. Recently, Sony unveiled plans to make half of its TV models 3D capable by 2013, and the company believes 3D models will account for between 30 and 50% of its TVs sales by the end of the 2013 fiscal year. In September 2009, Sony announced plans to make its Vaio laptops and Blu-ray disc players compatible with 3D technology. The PlayStation 3 will become 3D compatible in 2010.
Says Bennett: "The modern 3D systems, which are increasing box office sales in cinemas, are by far superior to any broadcast or 3D technology that uses the anaglyph 'coloured filtered technique' - the classic red / green or purple / yellow as used by Channel 4 recently.
"This is because they deliver true colour with no ghosting from the glasses: an image that won't give the viewer a headache and, simply, the movie size is huge in comparison, so there's a whole lot more to see in 3D."
He adds: "3D video content is no longer limited to large broadcasters and the availability of playback systems is increasing daily."
Mark Bennett has worked with 3D stills for over 10 years and has created an extensive archive depicting people, fashions and performers, including Marisa Carnesky and Dita Von Tease. Some of his stills have been displayed throughout the UK via Mark's self-designed art installation, 'Geometric Primitive'(see: http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk/releases/c991123.php ).
His recent move to the 120mm format has resulted in commissions from Keith Tyson, Martin Sexton, Edible Construction Company as well as Covent Garden hair salon, SACO. Other events documented in the large format include the Ossary at Seldec, Czech Republic; Bonfire Night in Lewes; Anish Kapoor's 'Dismemberment of Jeanne d’Arc' in Brighton; and various Liverpool biennial public art sculptures.
Visitors to the Komedia can experience the 2007 Voodoo Vaudeville Christmas special via Bennett's 3D drum viewer, which will be on loan for the evening. The device displays a set 10 large format 120mm stereo slides shot in 2007. The free standing system is similar in concept to the much loved Viewmaster, which people will remember from their youth. However, the 120mm format is 60 times the resolution of the Viewmaster and almost twice that of IMAX.
Says Bennett: "The resulting, utterly immersive photographs are truly breathtaking and far outstrip what can be done on terrestrial broadcast television, such as Channel 4's 3D week or Sky's HD experiments. Interestingly, the existing 35mm stereo slides and the 120mm format can be quickly converted for use in cinemas with 3D projectors or even for broadcast usage."
Ends
Notes to editors
About Mark Bennett
Brighton resident and absinthe connoisseur, Mark Bennett, is a respected investigative journalist and photographer who covers the fringes of culture and science, contributing features to many publications including Fortean Times, Skin Two Magazine and i-D, as well as editing his own avant-garde cyber culture magazine, Black Ice.
He has piloted series for both BBC and Channel 4, along with acting as a consultant and camera expert for multiple programmes. Often described as being "...seven years ahead of his time", he is currently in the midst of photographing world-leading fetish club, 'The Torture Garden', in 3-D and digital for a forthcoming book, along with developing a documentary on building the Ark of the Covenant.
About Voodoo Vaudevile
Voodoo Vaudeville has existed as a company since 1999, created by the cabaret artist, Chris Cresswell. Chris’ work has included five years touring with comedy circus, Ra Ra Zoo, playing to international audiences as well as teaching at Circus Space in London, Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and Die Etage Theatre School, Berlin. He has appeared on numerous television commercials around the world, as well as appearing on Blue Peter, The Generation Game, and most recently as Prodnose in Tim Burton’s 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. The first Voodoo Vaudeville show was at Komedia in December 1999 - an anarchic mix of bravado, brouhaha and art comedy, it went on to create a cult following with its kooky compères, Lennie and Morris, and their mixture of improvised comedy, puppets, dances and audience participation.
