Synchronicity Arkive -

A Different Historical Perspective

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:04:53 -0400

Simultaneity describes events existing or happening at the same time. This describes precisely what happens when we play separately packaged music and movie with an overlap of occurrence. A documented simultaneity (simo for short) can be reliably repeated by other experimenters of the simo craft.

Music seems to have always been played with other events like festivals, theater, or a romantic date. In June 1810, Ludwig van Beethoven produced the Tone Poem “Egmont”. A Tone Poem, also known as the Symphonic Poem, is an orchestra music movement where an extramusical event provides the narrative or illustrative element. This event may be a painting, a poem, a story, or something else. ¹

This musical style was later championed by many composers like Richard Strauss who wrote the 1896 Tone Poem “Also sprach Zarathustra” to musically illustrate Nietzsche’s writings by the same name. “Also sprach Zarathustra” is known to us today as the theme music for Kubrick’s movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”. ²

Experimental and innovative politics, art, and culture came to be called Avant-garde (French for advace guard). Avant-garde culture challenges the static norm.

Continued after the break...

Ray of the Abyss

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:09:30 -0400

Dear Marine Biologist,

There has been a reported sighting of a unique creature at the bottom of the ocean. The fully staffed research vessel has been reserved . So secure your funding and round up your sampling equipment. We are diving to locate the "Ray of the Abyss."

This beast has been sighted in the benthic zones between the extended version of 1989 movie "The Abyss" (Special Edition 171 Minutes) and Madonna’s 1998 album "Ray of Light." Pause the movie when rat boy completely opens the door to see Garfield at the window, and the empty table where the nuclear warhead used to be. Pause when you see Garfield at this moment. This is after the water worm. Program your CD player to play tracks 1-11, 13, and 12. Pause "Ray of Light" at 0:00 of track one. Then simultaneously hit play of the movie and CD.

With scientific method we should be able to reproduce the sighting of this electric creature. Bring your cameras and video recorders. And please remember to have fresh batteries this time.

Your Salty Sea Captain,
Karl Tune

The Ultimate Stoner Rock Movies

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:39:47 -0400

Thought some of you folks might get a kick out of this story on RS.com

Meet the King of Stoner Rock Movies (Just in Time for 4/20!)

By now most everybody (stoned or otherwise) knows that watching The Wizard of Oz while listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon unspools a motherload of eerie synchronicities. But did you know that the same thing happens when you combine Led Zeppelin IV and The Fellowship of the Ring? Or The Matrix and Metallica’s “Black Album”?

Read the whole story at RollingStone.com!>>>

The Men In Lateralus 2

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:42:56 -0400

Another typical setup: Just start the album after the Columbia Pictures logo fades into blackness. The album ends shortly before the movie, so there's probably no need for a repeat.

28 Days In The Comatorium

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:35:12 -0400

Typical setup: Just start the album as soon as the Fox Searchlight logo fades away, and have the CD on repeat.

OK Rainbows 101

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 09:42:43 -0400

Start OK Computer at the MGM lion's third roar at the end of this album start In Rainbows at the splice between the meeting the lion and witch scene. In Rainbows original play list cd 1 ends early on cd 2 play 4 minute warning. This still ends early,just play the movie sound track for the end.

Hotel California Picture Show

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:17:16 -0400

The Criminologist in the study says, “… found the assistance they required or had they?” As soon as you see the lightning bold of video split the screen, showing the gargoyle at the front door, start track 1 “Hotel California”.

Before revealing Rocky under the red cover, Frankenfurter says’ Tonight is the night!” and snaps his glove and snaps his glove. As soon as the glove snaps, start track 2 “New Kid in Town”.

As soon as the red light starts blinking on the “Deep Freeze”, start track 3 “Life in the Fast Lane”.

The Criminologist says, “Show them to their separate rooms” and the video shows an enlarging key hole. As soon as you see the key hole, start track 6 “Victim of Love”.

As soon as Janet sees Brad smoking with Frankenfurter in the background, start track 4 “Wasted Time” and follow it with track 5 “Wasted Time (reprise)”

As soon as you see Frankenfurter chase Janet back into the lab, start track 7, “Pretty Maids all in a Row”.

As soon as the lights shine on the stage curtain, start track 8 “Try and Love Again”.

As soon as Extra-terrestrial Riff-Raff and Magenta first show up in the door, start track 9, “The Last Resort”.

Old Skool & A New Contest!!

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:45:14 -0400

In effectively “reposting” my old “What is Synchronicity” intro, it kinda got me thinking a bit about how much in this little hobby has changed. Back then, DVDs were just starting be talked about as an upcoming technology, everything “consumer level” was still very much VHS (with a little sprinkling of laserdisc for the “enthusiasts”). VHS was convenient, in the sense of being widely available. And since most people didn’t really have their stereos as home theatres per se, it was relatively easy to manually set up a synch. Just pop in your movie, pause it… pop in your CD, pause it… and unpause both.

The manual method pretty much ruled. When it came to creating a digital synch, a lot more was involved. You had to find some way to get the VHS movie into your PC, and then remove its sound. The audio piece was comparatively easy, but even there, it wasn’t quite as easy as it is now. There were still nowhere near the range and breadth of tools for audio conversion that there are now.

Nowadays, the tools for creating digital synchs are readily available. Because of the weak copy protection on DVD, you can easily find both free and paid programs to rip movies from DVDs. Same for CDs, which don’t have any copy protection. And even combining the two, there are many free and paid programs that will let you do just that. And with YouTube and other video sharing sites, you can even easily share clips with friends and strangers.

Not at all like it was. It definitely illustrates how “out of touch” now that reposting is. It really needs updating. In fact, it has started to seem to me like a lot of the Arkive needs updating. It’s a familiar refrain, that I’m a bit behind… so I thought I’d try something different to both involve the community and maybe re-energize myself a bit.

So… a challenge to the community. To help rewrite the definition of Synchronicity, for all those new visitors out there. This will be the Arkive’s new contest.

Details:

You can use what I reposted as a “seed” if you’d like, or you can come up with your own version.

Submissions can be in any format, any length, and must be made by April 20th, to arkiver@xnet.com.

Looking for this to be informative and complete for people new to the hobby, well-written (although I can do some clean-up on a submission that’s got a good core).

I’ll do 2 runners up and a winner, with prizes (TBD).

Are you up to the challenge?

peace,

Rainbow In The Dark

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 07:04:07 -0500

This more metal orientated version of Oz will send you on a trip, to what you once thought was familiar teritory, into the unknown.

First Put in your copy of Wizard of Oz im using VHS.

Put in your copy of Holy Diver by Dio.

Here's the Tricky Part, Set your cd player to track seven "Invisible". If you ask, "why dont you start at the begining of the cd?"Then try it that way but you will have a much more dissapointing experience. I chose to start at track seven because i love that song, and also because the second track to play would be Rainbow In The Dark. Oddly enough "rainbow in the dark" starts playing right around when dorthy starts singing somewhere over the rainbow.

So to reiterate set it to track seven, also on repeat, then push play when MGN presents fades all the way in (this is after the lion intro). If you do this correctly it should look like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSImmOHjlUo

There are tons of synchs, i would put up a synch list but why if no one is gonna watch this. Hopefully the arkive will review this new piece to further indulge you to try it.

The Starship Trooper.

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:35:20 -0500

Take a trip on this galactic Iron Maiden experience. I found this to be a surprise at first but as soon as i started to watch this i realized that i stumbled upon a masterpiece. The CD is full of War related songs and i didnt notice it until i started watching it. The reason why i picked this CD was because of the 5th track "The Trooper". Surprisingly this was really good much better than most of the synchs ive watched (maybe better than DSotM).

Put in your copy of Starship Troopers and press play on your cd player three seconds into the film before the Tristar logo pops up and enjoy.

I would create a big list of rainbow connections but i dont have the time to do so. But here are a few from the first song:

Where eagles dare:

The name of the track is "where eagles dare" and there are lots of flags with eagles on them.

later in the song gun shots synch with the movies gun shots.

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Please leave comments i want to know what everybody thinks.

Max Cohen's Binary Universe

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:00:43 -0500

This is a synch with Darren Aronofsky's film Pi and BT's cd This Binary Universe. I had to give this a try because one of that tracks on the CD is based around the golden ratio. The result was very cool. The ethereal tones, orchestral music, and IDM sounds fit perfectly with different parts of the film.

Unpause the start of the first track of CD once the Artisan logo fades out. Have the cd set to repeat and the film will end a few minutes into the second instance of the first song.

Great Backyard Bird Count

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:40:16 -0500

To visualize this rare bird, you need to pull out some binoculars and turn to page 372 in the field synching guide.

Page 372.
Genus: Electric Light Orchestra
Species: Face The Music
Range: Munchkinland
Field notes on singing activity:

When “Somewhere over the rainbow” is finished, as soon as the view changes to the road Ms. Gulch soon appears on, start track 5.

Professor Marvel will gaze into his crystal ball. He will say, “What’s this I see?! This, that, and a BARN!” As soon as he says “Barn” start track 1. Follow track 1 directly with track 6, and 7. 1 minute 38 seconds into track 7, restart track 7. Follow it directly with track 3, and 8.

As soon as you see the Tin man’s foot when Dorothy is picking up apples, start track 2.

As soon as you hear the lion roar for the first time in woods before he jumps out, start track 4.

The Hidden Crystal

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:30:17 -0500

Children, Children, time for bed.

The kids moan and start chanting "book, book, book..."

The oldest child states, "Daddy, we claim right of book" and on cue one of the littlest ones runs up with a thick paperback. It is Arthur C. Clarke’s "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Oh, stalling for time. I’ll pretend to read and create my version of this story.

Everybody gets on their pajamas and brushes their teeth. Then when everybody is under the covers, I start flipping through the pages as if I were reading.

Once upon a time there were 10 college boys and girls who were out on a wilderness hike. Their camp was set up miles from anywhere. All you could hear was the birds and the bees. While they were out hiking, a clear light bending shape descended out of the sky and set down near the camp.

I grabbed one of the kids clear plastic toy cases and circled it around in the air.

When the kids returned from a day of exploring, they did not notice this strange box in the fading daylight. Was it going to eat them? Was it going to catch them? A campfire was lit and the kids told stories. As the night chill came on, the lads and lasses paired up to keep warm. Their eyes were full of wonder and excitement. Then the clear light bending shape started to glow.

I turned off my kids room light and pulled out my flashlight. I shined it through the clear plastic case. Lines of light started to move across its invisible surface. The lines moved faster and faster. Shapes and patterns were formed. Rainbows were prismed everywhere.

The light show caught the attention of the couples warming up by the fire. The clear light bending shape then began probing the kid's minds and knew they wanted to eat ice cream. Chocolate and vanilla ice cream smothered with whipcream. Then controlling their minds. It made them learn math and multi-dimensional shapes. It changed their brains so they could communicate over distance and time. It also gave them power to move objects without touching them. They were altered in ways that would pass these traits on to their descendants.

The next morning, the kids arose from their sleeping bags but did not remember going to sleep. Strange. One person said they had the weirdest dream about a glass block alien. Wait! Everybody in the camp had the same dream. They
had been given strange powers. They could read each other’s minds. They could now move objects with out touching them. They could see through time. The extent of their capabilities would not be apparent until technology could catch up centuries from now. For now, their abilities would be limited to party tricks like matching movies to music.

The first thing they tried was matching Ozric Tentacles "The Hidden Step" with the movie "The Dark Crystal." Just start "The Hidden Step" when "A Jim Henson Production" disappears from the screen at the beginning of the movie.

The end!

My kids groan "Daddy, we’re gonna tell Mommy that your talking about music movie madness again! We want a real story!"

Ok, Ok. How about "And to Think that I saw it on Mulberry Street" by Dr. Seuss. The kids burst out, "Yeay!"

The Hidden Simultaneity

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:21:03 -0500

I started on a camel in a perpetual dust devil in the middle of the burning Sahara Desert. My lips are parched. The dust storm engulfs me. As the sand grains race by, they call to me to join them in their timeless race. I see nothing but a swirling vortex. I know not where I am. It has been a long time since I had a drink of liquid. My lips are parched.

The endless sand shimmers in the mid-day heat. Then I come to a pyramid of the Princess Nubian. I have dreamed of this place often. The Princess summons me into the shade of the pyramid. As I enter the shade, I notice her nude chocolate body and her glowing eyes. I am mesmerized by her beauty. Through her longing eyes, she imparts a timeless spiral of energy into my soul. Our minds become one. Have I died or am I reborn? Our shadows dance together on the flame lit walls.

She offers me a cold drink to quench my endless thirst. She reveals that we are familiars from alternate worlds. Then she shares, "Start Ozric Tentacles' 2000 'The Hidden Step' as soon as you see the space ship after the intermission in the collectors edition of '2001: A Space Odyssey'."

The door to an alternate reality opens up before me. The princess and I flow together as the music and movie. A reality upon a reality. The simultaneity of events interwoven. Unconnected yet connected. Each fulfilling the other. Over and over. Where has this beautiful woman been all my life? I will never be the same now that we have found our counterparts. "The Hidden Simultaneity" is now crystal clear.

What is Synchronicity?

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:22:12 -0500

An Introduction to Synchronicities

synchronicity: The match formed by a piece of visual imagery (video tape or film) with an unrelated piece of music, which forms a new and different experience from that originally intended by either work.

Synchronicities are instances where a certain clip, or even a whole movie, are found to fit extraordinarily well with different music, specifically music that evokes a surreal, or psychedelic, feel, that is intensified by the pairing.

This site takes its name from the Jungian term of "synchronicity," of a resonance formed between two events unrelated in time and space. This non-local, non-linear connection defies rational explanation. Although the majority of examples listed here cannot really be considered synchronicities in Jung's terminology, the term seems to describe the emotional state evoked better than anything else.

Early in the history of film, it was discovered that the music a piece of visual imagery is displayed with has a powerful influence on how it is perceived and received by the human mind. Films with highly emotional, majestic scores were found to have a greater emotional impact on their audience than similar scenes with no music, or even silence. William S. Burroughs, always an experimenter with the art of montage, was one of the first pioneers to put random clips of film to different unrelated music, creating the art of the synchronicity. The concept was an integral part of the psychedelic scene of the 1960s.

Part of the appeal of synchronicities is that it allows the viewer a more active degree of participation in the viewing experience. Instead of just sitting there passively, you get to take part in what you see, by setting things up, by trying new combinations yourself. It's kind of subversive that way, because what you see is not necessarily what was originally intended as the viewing experience. It allows fans to reclaim participation in what they're seeing and hearing. It's a true multimedia experience, interactive at its easiest.

What do you need to venture into the world of Synchronicities??

An Open Mind, a sense of humor,
and, most importantly, WONDER!!

A Stereo.

A programmable CD Player is the easiest way to do the Synchs.
Records (Vinyl), tapes, or 8-Tracks have been used as well, although much more difficult.

A Television, for your viewing enjoyment.
The bigger, the better...

A VCR, for the video portion of the Synch.

I first became interested in synchronicities when a friend of mine showed me the Jupiter And Beyond The Infinite synch listed here. I think if you try this, you too will be hooked on the concept. Give it a try.... experimentation is the name of the game here. Ideas and thoughts can be discussed on the SynchBoard.