UnionDocs Video Podcast

Somewhere Inside: This video is a document of some private thinking that's being going on. Animation and sound by Christopher Allen and Johanna Linsley.

Somewhere Outside: This video is a document of some anxious thinking that's being going on. Animation and sound by Christopher Allen and Johanna Linsley.

Somewhere. This video is a document of some rambunctious thinking that's being going on. Animation and questionable music by Christopher Allen and Johanna Linsley.

Happy Holidays from UnionDocs! Music by Daniel Cashin. Video by Christopher Allen.

There is a payphone outside 322 Union Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Like payphones all over, it is a public staging ground for private dramas. Raised voices are not uncommon, and conflicts range from relationship management to business affairs (legitimate and otherwise). UnionDocs, a documentary arts collaborative, works inside 322 Union. The members have been observing the payphone outside for over two and a half years. For the Conflux 2006, UnionDocs presented two projects which seek to understand the contemporary payphone experience. Serial Number: T0PS60083A, a project by Johanna Linsley, is the ritual examination of one (until recently) traditionally operational New York City payphone.

This video showing many members of UnionDocs in 2006 was a collaboration between Megan Metcalf and Christopher Allen. It is the documentation of a spontaneous dance event, which was the result of individual directions written on cards and delivered in envelopes to a group of hung-over birthday celebrators on a hill.

This video was one of many pieces that made up The Commons_Berlin, a performance documentary presented at the Volksbuehne Theater in Berlin for the Rollende Road-Schau festival. The Commons describes the space where private spheres intersect - where the relationship of the one to the many, the individual to the collective, is negotiated. In The Commons_Berlin, each short documentary fragment was an answer to the question what is common? Through these brief examinations of public space, intellectual property, the language of political consensus, models of collective living, globalization, and the collective unconscious among other subjects, this inquiry attempted to paint the broadest picture of the myths and realities of what we share today. Music in "Roehre" was composed by Simon Fink and the pictures are by Jesse Shapins.

UnionDocs presented an open studio exhibit of Plans for other days, by the Janfamily, a London-based art collective. Structured as a long list of suggestions for alternative everyday actions, Plans for other days is a kind of whimsical instruction manual. Published in book form in September of 2005 by Booth-Clibborn Editions, it's full of How-To's (How to get in touch, How to make an instant shelter), all illustrating practical solutions to too-often overlooked needs. For two days in the UnionDocs gallery space, the JanFamily and members of UnionDocs interpreted these instructions with photography, video, sound and sculptural projects. Visitors were welcome to come and observe the creative process, which culminated in an opening screening and presentation. Founded by Nina Jan Beier and Marie Jan Lund, both graduates of London's Royal College of Art, the Janfamily share a unique approach to life. They have created an exhibition and publishing platform structured around simple, personal works that take everyday life as their starting point. The group includes an open network of collaborators who take the middle name 'Jan' for the duration of the projects with which they are involved. This video was shot during a dinner with UnionDocs by Chosil Jan.