1 - Taking   2023 by Dan Senn	Pains 4k Video with Stereo Sound (See sample video) Duration = 7:20   -> Read "RKM Interviews Dan Senn"
Taking Pains (2023) was filmed on mid-May at St Paul's Episcopal Church near Studio FMEra in Watertown, Wisconsin. This is the 4th of four experimental videos, the first three produced in Prague at Gasworks in Holešovice, in the Spring of 2023 —> Danger Alley,  Banana Telegraph  and U Garáží. 1- Taking Pains was followed by two related videos, 2 - Pain Staking and 3 - Staking Pains, all later collected in Three Panes. The sound track here is from a recording made while performing my Fayfer Harp in the 1990s. The pitched, periodic long tone heard was added later and is from a turned lyde instrument. The original recording was made to accompany the text Movie Man repurposed here. "If J. S. Bach could reuse his music so can you." my partner advised as she lowered her A=415 recorder. The title Taking Pains, is a double entendre from Ben Johnston, a composition teacher of mine at the University of Illinois-Urbana in the 1970s. He told me that he "enjoyed taking pains" to realize his complex musical structures. Recently, while playing for Czech artists the videos mentioned above, I was asked about the software I used for certain effects. I responded with Ben's quote while pointing at my scribbled tabulations and adding "It is all manually applied."	The emotive aspects of Taking Pains were not consciously intended. The work is comprised of closeups of naturally backlit 19th Century American stain glass and I wanted to film this exquisite glass—nothing more. Having gained permission to do so, when entering the space I noted this narrow panel as well located for taking some test footage. Without heed to it's content, the resurrection of a Jesus portrayed blue eyed and blond, I set up my tripod and started shooting. Back at my studio, I looked at the footage, was interested, and began a silent editing process where the sequence of the clips was not changed. Then, as I considered sound, it was clear that the edited video may work atop a continuously flowing sound track with simultaneities occurring by chance—that the two mediums need only have the same overall duration. Eventually I landed on using the accompaniment to an existing work, an improvisation used to accompany spoken text while touring in Europe. DS 052523	Dan Senn (Prague-Watertown) is an intermedia/fluxus artist working in music composition and production, kinetic sound sculpture, experimental and documentary film. He has been a professor of music and art in the United States and Australia and travels internationally as a lecturer, performer and installation artist. He lives in Prague where he directs the Echofluxx media festivals, and Watertown, Wisconsin, the USA, with his partner-collaborator, Caroline Senn. Dan's work moves freely between expressive extremes and languages depending upon the aesthetic joust at hand. Dan is cofounder of Roulette Intermedium in New York City, Cascadia Composers of Portland Oregon, and the Echofluxx festivals in Prague. (read more).