EXTERNAL SHUDDERS. Studies of a New Insect Cinema

By Ojoboca 

35mm slides, external shutters, rotating screen, sound. Ca. 40 min.

We present our existing attempts at creating a new insect cinema based on the theory of spirit anarchy put forth by Dagmara Král, creator of the first insect cinema.

(Please keep in mind that this cinema is not intended for human subjects. This presentation is meant to be solely illustrative. Any experiential effects are strictly peripheral.)

Performers:

Anja Dornieden and Juan David González Monroy are filmmakers based in Berlin. They work together under the moniker OJOBOCA. Together they practice Orrorism, a simulated method of inner and outer transformation. They have presented their films and performances in a wide variety of venues and festivals worldwide, among them the Wexner Center for the Arts, Österreichische Filmmuseum, Anthology Film Archives, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Kunstverein München, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Berlinale, New York Film Festival, Visions du Réel, RIDM, Ann Arbor Film Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival. Both González Monroy and Dornieden are members of the artist-run film lab LaborBerlin.

Ebb and Flow

By Lichun Tseng and Robert Kroos

4x 16mm projectors, 30 min.

'Ebb and flow' is inspired by the I-Ching, the book of change, Chapter 42 - Yi (Increase).

Yi is a message about expansion and fullness. It is simply another cycle of life as it flowers, decays, and achieves rebirth.

Ebb and flow, darkness and light, life and death... ‘What is’ springs from ‘what is not. The end of the world is also the beginning of something new.

Lichun and Robert use 16mm film projectors and analog generated waveforms to create an immersive, trance-inducing journey. Through layering, constructing, and deconstructing visual and auditory textures they strive for a sense transcending experience where the spectator is no longer consciously watching nor listening. Just being.  The ‘end' is often frightening but also charged with eternal possibility.

Performers:

Lichun Tseng  is a Taiwanese artist based in the Netherlands. In her works, she is interested in searching for the experience of the vital dimensions of life, absorbing and partaking in it, grasping its wholeness; in which exploration and reflective contemplation are profound mental drives. She approaches her research and practice mainly with 16mm film, installation, and performance in the last years. She is a member of Filmwerkplaats Rotterdam. 

Robert Kroos is a Rotterdam based musician, sound designer, and field recordist exploring music and sound in all its manifestations. He prefers to use his skills to support film, animations, and installations. Lately, his interests focus on sine-waves, the proximity of sound, binaural recording, and brainwaves.

TARAN

by Rouš / Šmitmajer / Týmal

film slides 6x6, 35 min.

The historically first aerial taran – a combat maneuver in which the pilot deliberately guides his airplane into an enemy apparatus for destruction, took place on September 8, 1914, in the sky above the Ukrainian Zovkva. Petr Nestěrov who was a russian pioneer of aeronautical acrobatics, swept away from the sky an Austrian airplane piloted by František Malina at the cost of his own life. Malina became the first Czech aviator killed in the air combat. TARAN, using experimental live animation techniques, reconstructs this incident, and at the same time displays the transformation of aviatics into a devastating weapon that has changed the form of warfare.

Performers:

David Šmitmajer (CZ) studied a Bachelor’s program in advertising photography at Tomas Bata University, Zlín, and a Master’s program at the Center of Audiovisual Studies at FAMU, Prague. His profession is digitizing and preserving  archival audio magnetic tapes, and the manufacturing of the audio cassette tapes at Headless Duplicated Tapes. In his artistic activities he moves in the field of performative sound improvisation and the development of audiovisual electro-mechanical objects and installations.

Jiří Rouš (CZ) is studying in a Master’s program at the Center of Audiovisual Studies at FAMU, Prague. His artistic activity comprises improvised sound performances, live programming or designing and constructing virtual and/or physical electromechanical systems and devices. 

František Týmal (CZ) graduated from FAMU, the Center of Audiovisual Studies. Lives and works in Prague. His artistic work is focused on experimental film, traditional film technology and obsolent media. Beside traditional film screenings, he explores possibilities of using analog film in scenography, audiovisual performance and gallery installations. As a film lecturer he cooperates with FAMU and the National Film Archive, where he spreads knowledge about photochemical film processing and screening methods. 

The team of three authors has been exploring limits of possibilities of human visual and hearing apparatus for eight years. Their live performances combine film projection altogether with analogue synthesis and sound restructuring. Taran is their third collaborative work after Swan Desert and Boghor Hunting.