Daniel Seiple
Film screening and discussion: Rajikon (Radio Control), 2009/2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
6 PM
Fordham University Visual Arts Department
Lincoln Center Campus
113 West 60th Street at Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10023
Room SL24H

Join artist and producer Daniel Seiple for a screening and discussion of his project Rajikon (Radio Control), 2009/2011, 30 minutes plus extra footage.

Project synopsis:
On December 5th in the Tone River, just up from where it meets the Kinu River in Moriya, Japan, the president of the Joso Flying Club, Ono-san, ordered his technical specialist, Sugiyama-san, to crash his radio controlled airplane into my fishing boat, per my request. I had spent the previous month filming and becoming acquainted with two RC clubs who had airfields along the river. The hobby club, which flew scale models including WWII aircrafts such as the Japanese Zero and U.S. B29, talked openly about the Kamikaze. One mentioned its absence from school history books. Another gave an eyewitness account of a plane-to-plane Kamikaze attack. The other group, the Joso Flying Club, was semi-professional and showed more interest in making history, rather than discussing it. When asked if he was interested in real airplanes, one pilot responded, “For me, airplanes are a thing to look at rather than fly.” The hobby club declined to perform the crash for safety reasons, but more likely, because they were not capable. The Joso Club agreed and 8 Japanese RC operators witnessed the attack.

Links:
Travelhome.org
Arcus Residency Moriya, Japan

Biography:
Daniel Seiple was born in 1973. Daniel Seiple has been working on projects which reconsider various “borders” in contemporary society. Mimicking, crossing, shifting, destroying or redrawing boundaries…. They include physical / geographical markers as well as social and psychological territories. Each project is realized for a specific site and situation by employing various strategies and mediums.

Images:
One production still taken during the filming of Rajikon (Radio Control); three frames from Rajikon (Radio Control), 2009/2011.

For further information please contact:
Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock apicellahit@fordham.edu