Carl Diehl
Painless Magic: In this talk, I share the collisions of magic and cinema that propelled my initial inquiries into the worlds of Werner "Dorny" Dornfield, and screen recent short films spun out of my interviews with relatives, magicians, historians, and live cinema artists.
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2024
PNCA FOCUS WEEK, presentation and screening, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR
Related Research:
Misdirections: A Serio-Comic Catalogue of Details, Detours & Derivations from the Life of the Magician, Vaudevillian, & Comedy Emcee, Werner "Dorny" Dornfield. Written by Carl Diehl, 2022. Distributed by Antiquated Future
Apparitions for That: In this talk, the idea that "there's an app for that" is countered by the premise that every object, app, technology and tool is haunted by alternative uses waiting to be summoned into conversation with the situation at hand, then synthesized into ingenious solutions.
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2018:
NW Media Summit: Access the Future, "Low Tech / High Returns," presentation and panel discussion, Open Signal, Portland, OR
References / Related Research:
Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby Speculative Everything : Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2013
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Bruce Mau "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth" Manifesto Project, 2010-2014
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Rosa Menkman "Glitch Studies Manifesto," in Geert Lovink and Rachel Somers Miles (eds), Video Vortex Reader II: Moving Images Beyond YouTube, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2011
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Patricia D. Stokes Creativity From Constraints: The Psychology of Breakthrough. New York: Springer Pub. Co, 2006
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Hank Rudolph, "ETC System" in High, Kathryn, Sherry M. Hocking, and Mona Jimenez. The Emergence of Video Processing Tools : Television Becoming Unglued. Bristol, England: Intellect, 2014
The Connective Unconscious
This talk considers the ways in which contemporary cultural moments are indebted to previous techno-social developments. Rough analogies with telecommunications infrastructure suffice– today’s data transmissions and mobile computing networks are built on top of structures put in place for earlier models, from railroads to telegraphy, telephony to radio and TV. The older media and transport infrastructure may be less obvious now or faded in use, still there are significant relationships that link between old and new. In my related endeavor to theorize post-truth procedures, the traveling carnival and its kin were queried as foundational texts and are presented here as case studies
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2017:
Post-Truth Project, presentation and panel discussion, Open Signal, Portland, OR
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References / Related Research:
Ann Anderson. Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones, The American Medicine Show Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2000.
Greg Daughery "A Brief History of Americanitis" Smithsonian Magazine, March 25, 2015
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Joe Nickell, Secrets of the Sideshows Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2008.
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the Pacific Railway Act (1862), transcript, web: Ourdocuments.gov
Post-School School [ v.2.0 ]
How does one sustain a creative practice outside of the institution? As an undergraduate in a course entitled Survival and Resistance in the Information Age, I was asked to imagine a "post-school school.' This and other provocative writing prompts issued by my professor, Tom Sherman, became significant blueprints for cultivating a life of cultural production after college. Reflecting on the time period between finishing my BFA and entering a graduate program, I revisited Sherman's concept of the post-school school, extending it with five key infrastructural components informed by my own experiences.
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2014:
Visiting Artist Talk, Nicholas Sagan’s Media Practices class, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL
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2012:
Hybrid Careers: Seeking, part of workshop co-taught with Katy Asher, Co-Sponsored by the College Arts Association, Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, Portland, OR
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2010:
Visiting Artist Lecture, Kartz Ucci’s Professional Practices class, University of Oregon, White Stag Building, Portland, OR