Jangma and River Systems

 

Regenerating ecosystems 1

#ecosystem #NaturalRejuvination #globalwarming 

Clip…. 

Sometimes human behaviour can help repair ecosystems — from damage done by previous human behaviour. 

Full video at YouTube: https://youtu.be/hryEkdBmt5E

Climate change in South Korea

#globalwarming #climatechange 

Clip — full video at YouTube: https://youtu.be/w8e9G4TUcIk . 

Climate change is real and it’s been affecting the weather patterns in South Korea for many years.

What changes do you notice in your region? 

The War on Smog 1

THE WAR ON SMOG [Text]

The bombs are smart

Even against camouflage,

And they drop their loads

With a righteous

Boom.

We are saved frequently

By these awesome systems.

They save us

From emergencies

And all the,

All the bad guys.

— Finn Harvor

*

From my collection of authorial movies. These poems are primarily from a massive project entitled Plastic Millennium. It subdivides into a series of modules and thematic concerns. What is here are a few pieces from a series of nature works entitled the "Baram" series ("baram" is the transliteration from the Korean word for wind). Also are a few interlinked pieces about war and what I term “The Constant Roar of the State”. I'm drawing a linkage between these and the nature poems insofar as industrialism now – as in, really now – is impinging on what we define as the natural; in other words, we are warring on nature itself. The metaphors have disappeared. We're in the midst of something that is moving with glacial speed, but is like a bomb going off.

The Baram Series contains a substantial amount of nature scenery (a passion of mine). But it is not meant to valourize or sentimentalize the reality of 21st Century nature, which, after all, is increasingly boxed in by 21st Century development. One can see that in Canada, where I grew up; one sees it especially vividly in Asia, where I now live. The project started almost by accident: I had a piece entitled “Baram Writer” accepted by an online lit magazine (now defunct). The title was a play on words: a few years before, I'd seen a movie in Korea entitled “Baram Fighter” – that is, the transliteration of Hangeul to the Roman alphabet sounded just the same. I liked the play on words, and kept the “baram” as a sort of talisman for what followed.

These pieces exist as poems and videos, with each element of the project linked but also discrete. I have been working on the project for many years, and am not trying to be trendy or “newsy”, but instead capture something of the larger age we live in. War and the environment are now connected: by the very act of “fighting an enemy”, we – via the exhaustive machinery of war – create another, more amorphous, but also threatening enemy.

In these poems, "baram" -- or other elementary aspects of nature ("geu-neul" [shadow] and "hai" [sun]) -- do not function so much as symbols of nature, but direct "branches" of it. In other words, nature touches us directly, and gives us tangible experience. Yet at the same time this is happening, nature also can bring us closer to other forms of more emotional experience that are linked to our connections with the others who are meaningful in our lives. Yet articulating this rather simple connection is hard, and that is because being conscious of the experience is hard. Therefore, these poems will, I hope, be read on several levels: as appreciations of the natural, as experiential-philosophical meditations, and as love poems.

These poems are in turn are from a much larger project that in its totality comprises over 800,000 words, 1,500 drawings, 1,000 plus original photos, 100 original songs, and 1400 authorial movies (movies based on a belletristic text in which every element is made – authored – by one artistic sensibility). It is a first. (There are longer textual works out there, obviously, but none as long and also with as much variety of artistic forms.) As I remarked above, I've been working on this material for many years now, and it has a broad thematic range. 

About myself: I'm an artist, writer, filmmaker, and occasional musician, and live with my wife in South Korea. I've published art and writing in The Partisan [upcoming], Pacifism21, Former People, The Puritan, Eclectica, Canadian Notes and Queries, Rain Taxi, The Brooklyn Rail, The Korea Times, Dogmatika, Dark Sky, the Quarterly Conversation, rabble, the HUFS International Journal of Foreign Studies, The Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Now Weekly, The Canadian Forum, This Magazine and several other publications. I've had group and solo shows of of my artwork, have written and staged two fringe plays, and invented a new genre of experimental movie (the “authorial movie”, in which the basis of the narrative is a belletristic text, such as a poem, short story or movie, and one person – one author – produces all elements of the video, such as text, art and music (for more examples of these, see the links below)).  I have had group and solo shows of my  visual art.My videopoetry has been screened in the US, UK, Greece, Ireland, Hong Kong, South Korea, Kazakhstan, and India. Finally, I blog at Conversations in the Book Trade, where I have conducted interviews with people including Adam Bellow, Ian Brown, Philip Marchand, Bev Daurio, Brian Palmu, derek beaulieu, Ed Champion, and Richard Nash. Link: http://conversationsinthebooktrade.blogspot.com/

https://youtu.be/ZmCk1a6uDyk

ChatGPT and creative writing

#canlit #ChatGPT #chatgpt4 . ChatGPT is causing consternation among writers. What kind of effects strategies can we develop to prevent literary culture from being “disrupted”? The answer lies partly in better criticism. 

Clip above.

Full video at YouTube: https://youtu.be/UZuW9xPAgV4

Weird Weather, Wonky Weather

#climatechange #moviepoem #globalwarming #weatherpattern

If curious, full video at YouTube: https://youtu.be/UPrH6pu2bsI

Sudden changes in temperature are nothing new during transitional seasons like the spring and fall. But in recent years, these changes in South Korea have become more abrupt and extreme, leading to noticeable changes in the breeding of frogs and blooming of spring flowers. What is happening in your part of the world?

*

#changementclimatique #moviepoem #réchauffementglobal #weatherpattern

 Les changements soudains de température ne sont pas nouveaux pendant les saisons de transition comme le printemps et l’automne.  Mais ces dernières années, ces changements en Corée du Sud sont devenus plus brusques et extrêmes, entraînant des changements notables dans l’élevage des grenouilles et la floraison des fleurs printanières.  Que se passe-t-il dans votre partie du monde ?

Boy Meets Girl After Battle 1

 

Toronto smoke

 

Sori Oasis

New poster for my mini doc Sori Oasis (“Sori” means sound in Korean). Was shot in and around the Soraepeul hiking trail in central Gangnam, Seoul. Cities need “quietness zones.” 

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/X8Ybg1LkaHQ #SoundPollution #Seoul #urbanbiodiversity 

Boy meets girl after battle

 

Your World

 

 Happy that/ heureux que my quasi experimental documentary/ moviepoem Your World took a prize at the Athvikvaruni IFF and is a selection at the Sittannavasal IFF, both in India. Perhaps because of the project’s subject matter, this movie seems to be resonating with juries in India.

If curious, YouTube link: https://youtu.be/kaI1ZtdRVPA

Three Tragedies, Four Seasons

#poetryfilm #videopoetry #videoart #moviepoem

This is an early cut of one of the first feature length moviepoems I made. 

Synopsis: Three Tragedies, Four Seasons is the result of three projects that came together and merged. One was from a series called World Bardo, which were short ambient pieces or videopoems, and some were about the death of my mother-in-law in the summer of 2018.

She passed away in July. It’s a sultry time of year in South Korea, and the sound of insects, the heat, and the humidity suffused everything. 

The second death was that of my brother — in January, 2013. The weather then was the opposite: frigid and spartan. My brother was fascinated by both summer and winter, especially the bleak, spectral beauty of winter. The final story is a work of fiction — also set in winter. Throughout all these pieces, wanted to capture a feeling of seasonality, and also the sense of the nature/life/death cycles that exist in the world. It’s easy to talk about cycles in an abstract way; after the death of someone you care deeply about, these sensations becomes very profound. The world, the environment, feels like it’s entering you. Intense sadness dissolves us.

Awards

Krimson Horyzon International Film Festival

Nov 15, 2021

 

Gangtok International Film Festival

Nov 5, 2021

 

Chaplin International Film Festival

Nov 12, 2021

 

Gully International Film Festival

Oct 31, 2021

 

Tagore International Film Festival

Mar 17, 2021

 

Virgin Spring Cinefest

Jan 7, 2021

 

Selections 

FILMYSEA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Mar 18, 2022

 

Chennai Indie Film Festival

Dec 26, 2021

*

From my collection of ambient and authorial movies. My focus is on videopoetry; however, I work in other genres and art forms as well.

Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/finn.harvor

VideoStorage:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/250816849097045/

Happy New Doom!

 

Merry Killmas

 

Un jour de neige/ 눈오는 날/ Snowy day

 

War Markets

#poetry #poetrycommunity #antiwar. WAR MARKETS — a spoken word version of a poem/ moviepoem I recently had published in lit journal Mudlark. Full video at YouTube: https://youtu.be/rQT2oE4XfN4

The War on Smog XI

The four opening photos in this clip here were all shot in the past week. They capture the eerie warmth South Korea is experiencing this fall; spring flowers blooming in late November because of global warming. Moreover, military activity significantly increases carbon emissions. Is there a connection between these two phenomena? Full video at YouTube: youtu.be/Mj1lJfbNJtU

War Markets clip

 #poetryfilm #poetrycommunity #experimental #antiwar #militarism #economy 

A new work about our teetering world. YouTube link: youtu.be/SWqLFVSWb5I

Text online at the literary journal Mudlark: mudlark.webdelsol.com/flashes/harvor.html 

Happyland 15

Happyland 15 https://youtu.be/HD8WY662aTc via @YouTube. A micro short about cities. From my late brother’s writing. #poetry 

Seoul

 

 경복궁에서 이 유명한 공주 와 왕자가 왔어

Une princesse et un prince qui viennent du palais de Kyoungbukkung.

A prince and princess departing Kyoungbyukkung Palace

Long Light

Clip from Long Light: from a new project about my brother’s writing — his experience of being in the world. New music.

For an earlier project at YouTube, link here: youtu.be/M1rGFP3NTpw

Chat de campagne/ Country cat/ 자연의 고양이

 

Korean Market

 

 S. and I went to the Hadong Market today. It never seems to diminish in vitality, though I’m sure the nearby  supermarkets are indifferent to its fate. For more abt Hadong’s food traditions, Greening Korea: youtu.be/ex6K64LYVkc and Market Alive III: youtu.be/MayScGN7qNM

S. et moi sommes allés au marché de Hadong aujourd'hui.  Sa vitalité ne semble jamais diminuer, même si je suis sûr que les supermarchés à proximité sont indifférents à son sort.  Pour en savoir plus sur les traditions culinaires de Hadong, Greening Korea : youtu.be/ex6K64LYVkc et Market Alive III : youtu.be/MayScGN7qNM

Night photography PicGall

 

La circulation en Pangyo/ Traffic in Pangyo / 판교에서 교통

 

Street magician

 Street Magician: PicGall 12. Full video: youtu.be/8M9AxkoDbxU via @YouTube. #streetphotography #a7iv #a6400 #sonylenses #sonycamera #photography #photooftheday #seoul #urbanliving

A minute-short taken in Seoul. Camera: Sony a6400. Lens 18-105 f4 PZ.

Seoul

 

Downtown Seoul

 

The Highly Illustrated Screenplay Narrative

  #novel #publishing #literature. 2/The recent PRH merger trial underlines  publishing is going through turmoil; the result in no small measure of declining fiction sales. My idea is a new form of graphic fiction should be established: the highly illustrated screenplay narrative.

#roman #édition #littérature.  2/ Le récent procès de fusion PRH souligne que l'édition est en pleine tourmente ;  le résultat dans une large mesure de la baisse des ventes de fiction.  Mon idée est qu'une nouvelle forme de fiction graphique devrait être établie : le scénario narratif très illustré.

새 글러브 그룹 감독 과 작가 있다…

Greening Korea - clip

#Korea #RuralAsia

Synopsis: A personal documentary about the agricultural life in Hadong-gun, the region of South Korea where my wife grew up. Filming was on the farm belonging to her family, and in the marketplace of the nearby town.

Green tea production is particularly prevalent in Hadong. But its farmers are under extreme economic pressure. More than this, Koreans’ habits in terms of favored beverages are changing, and the popularity of coffee is having a severely detrimental effect on green tea sales.

Kimchi, on the other hand, remains a staple of the Korean diet. And kimchi-making (kimchang) remains a traditional activity in most Korean households. Usually a group activity, after my wife’s mother’s death, my wife took this over duty solely.

[Note: a .txt file transcript is available for translation]

(Note: I have both 2K and 4K versions of this project.)

*

Screenings and awards:

Mokkho International Film Festival

May 6, 2021 (winner)

Sprouting Seed International Short Film Festival 2020

Nov 28, 2020

(Winner)

Sunfest International Short Film Festival

May 15, 2021

 

Pune Short Film Festival

Oct 8, 2021

 

INTERNATIONAL FOLKLORE FILM FESTIVAL - IFFF. Jan 2, 2021

Anatolia International Film Festival

Feb 3, 2021

 

Great Message International Film Festival

Mar 20, 2021

 

Indo Global International Film Festival

Dec 25, 2020

 

K. R. MOHANAN MEMORIAL INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

Jan 10, 2021

 

Jharkhand Film Festival

May 8, 2021

 

Alibag Short Film Festival

Jan 20, 2021

 

Goa Short Film Festival

Dec 10, 2020

 

Golden Tree International Documentary Festival

Jul 25, 2020

Stockholm Film Festival 

(Finalist)

Ashoka IFF

January 20, 2022

 

From my collection of ambient and authorial movies. My focus is on videopoetry; however, I work in other genres and art forms as well.

Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/finn.harvor

VideoStorage:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/250816849097045/

Greening Korea

#Korea #RuralAsia

Synopsis: A personal documentary about the agricultural life in Hadong-gun, the region of South Korea where my wife grew up. Filming was on the farm belonging to her family, and in the marketplace of the nearby town.

Green tea production is particularly prevalent in Hadong. But its farmers are under extreme economic pressure. More than this, Koreans’ habits in terms of favored beverages are changing, and the popularity of coffee is having a severely detrimental effect on green tea sales.

Kimchi, on the other hand, remains a staple of the Korean diet. And kimchi-making (kimchang) remains a traditional activity in most Korean households. Usually a group activity, after my wife’s mother’s death, my wife took this over duty solely.

[Note: a .txt file transcript is available for translation]

(Note: I have both 2K and 4K versions of this project.)

*

Screenings and awards:

Mokkho International Film Festival

May 6, 2021 (winner)

Sprouting Seed International Short Film Festival 2020

Nov 28, 2020

(Winner)

Sunfest International Short Film Festival

May 15, 2021

 

Pune Short Film Festival

Oct 8, 2021

 

INTERNATIONAL FOLKLORE FILM FESTIVAL - IFFF. Jan 2, 2021

Anatolia International Film Festival

Feb 3, 2021

 

Great Message International Film Festival

Mar 20, 2021

 

Indo Global International Film Festival

Dec 25, 2020

 

K. R. MOHANAN MEMORIAL INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

Jan 10, 2021

 

Jharkhand Film Festival

May 8, 2021

 

Alibag Short Film Festival

Jan 20, 2021

 

Goa Short Film Festival

Dec 10, 2020

 

Golden Tree International Documentary Festival

Jul 25, 2020

Stockholm Film Festival 

(Finalist)

Ashoka IFF

January 20, 2022

 

From my collection of ambient and authorial movies. My focus is on videopoetry; however, I work in other genres and art forms as well.

Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/finn.harvor

VideoStorage:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/250816849097045/

PicGall 2

I occasionally put together minute-long video galleries of photos. This is a collection of shots taken here in Seoul on the a7iv using an FE Sony prime 50mm 1.8. It’s not the sharpest lens out there, but it’s very portable and has great character. More to follow.

War and War: a Russian narrative

 

Seoulography

 

Clip from Missile Launch as Painting

 

Yongin at night

 

PicGall 7: a photo gallery

Putin’s Mind

#putin #russianleadership

World Bardo number one

  World Bardo 

*

“Your mother often talks about your brother,” the doctor said during the teleconference last night. “How is he?”

“Votre mère parle souvent de votre frère….” a dit le médecin hier soir pendant un conference de téléphone. “Comment ça va, lui?”

YouTube: https://youtu.be/BnsfJKkRFNA

Missile Launch as Painting

 

What time is now?

 

After the Typhoon

 

The War on Smog

#climatechange #militarism 

We don’t want bad forces destroying our homelands. But is there a limit to what militaries can do to protect us? After all, untrammeled climate change also poses an existential threat…

Full video at YouTube: https://youtu.be/Mj1lJfbNJtU

Hadong

 

Tea Festival in Insadong

 

On « limited » nuclear war

 

Who is Ramzan Kadyrov?

 

Gwanghwamun

 

Korean stew

 

Gwanghwamun, Seoul

 

COEX, Seoul

 

Rush hour in the Greater Seoul Area

 

The Korean countryside— Hadong

 

Yongin, South Korea

 

Mask usage in South Korea

 

#CovidIsNotOver #COVID19 #MaskMandates #SouthKorea. 

Mask mandates on the streets ended some time ago in South Korea — but the vast majority of pedestrians are still masked. And though daily test results seem to indicate the pandemic worse here than other countries, that’s not so.

*

#CovidIsNotOver #COVID19 #MaskMandates #CoréeduSud.

 Les mandats de masque dans les rues ont pris fin il y a quelque temps en Corée du Sud – mais la grande majorité des piétons sont toujours masqués.  Et bien que les résultats des tests quotidiens semblent indiquer que la pandémie est pire ici que dans d'autres pays, ce n'est pas le cas.

Madness and nuclear weapons

 

Who? What?

 

The Wargasm XV

 

VideoPoemSong: Factories

 

Missile Launch as Painting

 

No to That (Putin’s War)

 

Is Putin Crazy?

 

Peacedemic or Wargasm?

 

Sony a7iv Picture Gallery

 

ASMR Chant

 

Sony picture gallery 1

 

Trucker protests: How do we explain Justin Trudeau's silence?

 

Social media and disinformation: linked or not?

 

Truckers

 

VideoPoemSong 9: Ukraine

 

Vaccine equity and Covid

 

Masking in Korea 1

 

Masks on the subway, Seoul

 

Apartments in Seoul: sky high prices?

 

Biden and Asia

 Geopolitical considerations of the Biden administration 

Anti-maskers ... still?!

 

Noteworthy

 Annabelle Moreau sur l’année passé 

New videopoem about Liverpool

 New videopoem at the Atticus Review 

VideoPoemSong 7

The Trump Towers in Seoul

Coronavirus and Pollution: Car More?

Coronavirus Update

Coronavirus Update

Project poster from the VideoPoemSong series

To the Beach, To the Sea

Canadian Winter 4

Canadian Winter 3

Korean Market

On Gender Balance

Novel illustration

Minute Haiku 122 - How long is a minute?

Three Tragedies, Four Seasons

Humber River meeting Lake Ontario, Toronto

Seoul evening 1

Rainy season

Rabies Beach - the Canadian D-Day

Green tea - still/ video

Linked video at YouTube.https://youtu.be/EW1VuRFG-Q4

Night forest

The Business Army

Excerpt from the opening of The Business Army, now online at Eclectica:

PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
July 28, 1932. Washington
The sky is a high, mid-summer blue. It has a quality of vast, apparently infinite, peacefulness. Cumulus clouds—as grand as towers—float through the sky, while at ground level the white dome of the Capitol also resembles an immense, majestic cloud.

But also at ground level a demonstration is taking place. A group of World War One veterans moves down a boulevard in one direction while a small group of cavalry backed by a battalion of foot soldiers approaches from the other.

The veterans are mainly dressed in mufti: the neat but inappropriately warm wool trousers of people with only one good pair of pants to wear, white shirts with the sleeves rolled up, or worn-out, shiny jackets. Some are also dressed in doughboy uniforms. But all of them look both impoverished and determined, like a peasant army marching with ragtag determination toward the walls of a royal castle.

Then one of the cavalry's horsemen rushes forward and wades into the crowd. The crowd tries to to stand its territory but almost as quickly pulls back with instinctive fear. The horse rears up, its sweating brown flanks rippling with quivering muscle as the animal's hooves spin dangerously in the air; living clubs.

Two or three in the crowd shriek. Behind them, some others call out the demonstration's rallying cry: "Bonus! Bonus!"

Then the horse stomps to all fours, its rider yanks the animal's reins, and the demonstrators inch a little farther forward with cautious determination.

To one side of this scene, watching attentively, stands the figure of General Douglas MacArthur. He is impeccable attired in a cavalry uniform, freshly pressed, plumped jodhpurs, and brown riding boots glossed to a fastidious sheen. Next to MacArthur is Major Dwight Eisenhower. He is dressed in civilian clothes: light trousers, a dark jacket and incongruous straw hat. He also looks on the scene taking place attentively, but with some embarrassment. MacArthur, however, is unaware of his aide-de-camp's discomfort; his nostrils, petitely equine, flare with impatience. He calls out to the captain leading the infantry battalion: "You there. Why aren't those troops moving faster?"

The captain calls back, "Sir, they're going as fast as they safely can."

"Don't make them go 'safely.' Make them go."

The infantry advance, their long rifles down, their bayonets forward. In the crowd of demonstrators, individuals—with the bravado of the doomed brave—call out.

"Bonus! A fair bonus for the veteran now!"

"Where's Hoover's heart?"

"We fought for this country! All we're asking for is help at a time of need!"

But the infantry keeps methodically approaching, and when they encounter the first demonstrators, they implacably keep their bayonets at chest level.

A demonstrator, his voice suddenly urgent, cries at the troops, "You brutes! Can't you see there are women and children here?"

The captain leading the infantry battalion says loudly, his tone commanding and bland, "Move on, you people. Move on. Remember, you were in uniform once. Do what you're told. It's for the best."
A man in the background steps to the front of the crowd. He has the hungry, alert look of one who would be either categorized as a troublemaker or hero, depending on one's allegiances.

"The hell we'll take orders from the likes of you! You're just a pawn! Don't you feel any shame? There are veterans here who can barely feed their families! Why don't you think of justice first before you start lecturing others on their duty?"

But the troops are unmoved. And as they continue their advance, the demonstrators are forced to choose between retreat and the feeble defiance of the un-armed which, soon enough, turns to defeat.
A different officer blows a whistle sharply, and second, more aggressive battalion of cavalry move forward. Some of the soldiers, upon reaching the crowd, reverse their rifles and use their butts like truncheons.

Behind the foot soldier, also advancing, is a column of tanks. In the midst of them is the figure of George S. Patton. He surveys the crowd for a few moments. Then he says to his crews, "Charge!"
The tanks trundle-squeak forward; the infantry stomp in rhythm, the cavalry whinny and attack.

The demonstrators are now divided into a series of broken up groups. Some turn to run. Others scream, push and shove. But from several yards away, it seems almost as if the demonstrators might have a chance: the troops and the horses and the tanks do not seem to be achieving a clear victory.

Then a shot rings out, followed by another. A woman's voice can be heard screaming hysterically, "Jesus! Lord Jesus!"

This only seems to stiffen some of the demonstrators' resistance, even as someone else, his voice also hysterical, calls out, "Doctor!" and the melée reaches its crescendo.

Link: http://www.eclectica.org/v23n2/harvor.html

Project still