Zombie Bling
Azimuth
Fabric scrims, sunlight and snowlight commingle as a process of rhythmic cutwork and stop motion animation conjure up the well known SMPTE test card pattern. As the angle of the sun shifts the everyday color stripes are entangled into a hypnotic, ritualistic signal test that takes over the screen. The second of three chapters, Aurora, Azimuth, and Arrhythmia.
Light sleeps and rises, and sleeps again along the shoreline of day. Dramatic winkings to the surprising glory of summer. – RT
Luminiferous Aether is titled after the 18th-19th century hypothesis that the Earth moves through a medium of aether that propagates light. Through a combination of animation and live video, I collage electronic pigment, archival images, sourced sound, and video footage in order to make visible the illusive orgone energy psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich saw when he looked skyward.
I began this project when I saw a photograph of an FDA official modeling the use of an orgone shooter, blanket, and hat in Cabinet Magazine. The photograph, dating from 1956, accompanied Christopher Turner’s article on the cultural significance of Wilhelm Reich’s legacy. In 2012 I traveled to Orgonon, Maine searching the sky for answers to ideological questions. I followed the footsteps of Wilhelm Reich, Dusan Makavejev, Kate Bush, William Burroughs, and fellow curious travelers. So began my journey, waxing on unintended consequences, irrational beliefs, natural phenomena, and the wonder of error. – AH
The Take-Up consists of one take, a fixed frame, variable speed flicker effect, and just a single sound edit. For all this, the film unspools an audio-visual mystery that looks at digital video anew, and at celluloid sideways. This dark puzzle mixes documentary didacticism and mechanical movie magic to reveal the wonder that lies dormant in a mundane street scene. – PT
Emotional Sundiving considers the New Age as a path toward total fulfillment. The sun’s rays are transmuted into the substances of life through the power of belief. – TB
Is it a window into the cosmos or the mind of a wanderer? It is in fact the sun’s reflection, still and flickering, on the surface of a dark lake. The light dances and skips as dragonflies traverse the landscape and fallen leaves and debris float in the direction of the wind. The video offers a moment of contemplation on one’s own journey and the sun as a beacon and companion, illuminating and steadfast. – KYC
Excerpted from a larger work concerning fiber optic technology in South Africa, Nature Gaping exposes fugitive infrastructure hidden among the trees. Throwback audio from the 80s miniseries Shaka Zulu leads to a moment of suspension. – ML
“Everything becomes and recurs eternally – escape is impossible!” – Friedrich Nietzche
