The author’s goal was to make a visually stunning sound piece using only the instrument as imagery.

Soundtrack designed by Bruno Gabiro.

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TOM JOBBINS
[UK 1980]

He has just finished his film/animation degree.

Mercurius expands algorithmic animation techniques developed by the author himself; both the audio and visual components have no cuts or edits. What we hear is a continual transformation of one synthesis process, just as what we see is the continuous animation of nearly 12000 individual points. Traditionally the spiral or mandala form has been used to evoke the unity of a meditative state, but the spiral has symbolic associations not only with unity or creative energy but also with destructive forces. Mercurius ambiguously combines multiple sensibilities of the spiral. If there is a unity here, it expresses itself only over time as a single process exhibits rapid changes between a multitude of seemingly-conflicting states.


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BRET BATTEY
[Seattle·USA 1967]

Bret Battey creates electronic, acoustic and multimedia concert works and installations, synthesizing a diverse professional and educational background in music composition, computer science, graphic and web design and electronics.

He completed his Bachelors of Music in Electronic and Computer Music at Oberlin Conservatory and his masters and doctoral studies in Music Composition at University of Washington, where he also served as a Research Associate for the pioneering Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media. He is a Senior Lecturer with the Music, Technology, and Innovation Research Group at De Montfort University; Leicester, UK.
http://www.bathatmedia.com

Symmetry is an animated film composed of visual representations of individual sounds that reflect the structure of the music through shape, movement and colour. It is a hybridisation of several traditions — English bell ringing tradition, the music of the gamelan orchestras of Java and the contemporary electro acoustic composition.

The core structure is provided by the rules that generate the complete set of permutations on a set of 6 tones. This structure is made manifest in the context of a layered set of microtonal lines of melody at varying densities and tempi. Each of the 6 tones has its own unique visual character that is comprised of a distinct shape, colour, movement and spatial arrangement.

The music was composed and performed by Kenneth Newby.


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ALEKS DULIC & KENNETH NEWBY

Aleksandra Dulic is a media artist, theorist and experimental animator working at the intersections of multimedia and live performance with research foci in computational poetics, animation and cross-cultural media performance. She is active as a curator, a writer, an educator and a lecturer, presenting and publishing papers.

Kenneth Newby, BA, MFA (Simon Fraser University), is a media artist, composer-performer, educator, software designer, and audio producer. His work is widely presented in concerts, festivals, and radio broadcasts and include compositions of electro-acoustic and acoustic music; interactive computer systems for live performance and installation; software tools for composition, new composition for Javanese and Balinese gamelan ensembles and interdisciplinary collaborations with composers and artists.

The same enigmatic landscape in different moments generates a visual equalizer. The author uses the errors in the texture mapping and the digital composition shifting in time. The soundtrack features “Velocity” by Foraudiofans: Javier Navinés and Andreas Frey.

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NICO JUÁREZ aka ICONISH
[Spain 1971]

Nico Juárez Latimer-Knowles, architect and audiovisual designer. He has developed several online and offline projects for public and private clients, creating and producing websites, interactive screens, CD-rom’s, videos, trailers and credits for television.

He currently works as a creative director and is a professor of the master in Motion Graphics at the Escuela BAU in Barcelona.

A visual exploration of the construction and potential of a circle. The soundtrack features an originally recorded and crafted soundscape of tactile sounds to root the visuals.

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LAURIE GIBBS
[Kingscoat·UK 1985]

He’s been studying media and animation since 2001. Animation has always amazed him because it provides the possibility for anything that can be imagined to be created.

It is only through the experience of making his own work that he learns thousands of practical issues that must be considered and overcome to turn conceptual ideas into completed productions.

http://lauriegibbs.moonfruit.com/

Many of the visuals from this piece are built using software which interprets an audio signal and then converts it to a stroboscopic set of visuals. These visuals were originally too patterned for the author, so he used a "wave generator" filter to modify the results. Bailey has restricted himself to a colour scheme almost exclusively associated with "punk rock" subculture.

This piece is a kind of test / challenge for the audience: will they notice the cultural hints right away, or will they be able to ignore them and ascribe their own meaning? This piece asks which is more important: identification with a cultural tribe, or personal, individual immersion in pure sight and sound.

The soundtrack was designed by Bailey.

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THOMAS BEY WILLIAM BAILEY
[Wisconsin·USA 1977]

Thomas is a multi-disciplinary artist specializing in synaesthetic sound design and intense / threshold experiences. He records and performs under the name "The Domestic Front", making a style of electronic sound sculpture which ironically uses cutting edge technology to reacquaint humans with principles of nature, and to question notions of constant progress.

A somewhat chaotic melody with frequent timbrical changes that defy rhythm. The author uses the digital-analogic synthesis of sound, the live visualization of sound in an oscilloscope and then, the sequentiation of notes and improvisation of synthesis parameters. Audio and video were recording with a miniDV camera in front of the oscilloscope. The soundtrack was designed by the author himself.

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ALBERT CALLEJO AMAT
[Barcelona·Spain 1968]

Self-taught musician, he works as a VJ since 1998. Currently he focuses on live audiovisual performances.

SIGN: In the creation of moving images, one’s job is not to write signs/words in a sequence, but to colour a wall with a sequence of lights.
LIVE: Video generates live images by means of electronic signals. However, almost all moving images are the offspring of film medium.
SIGNAL: Video is a signal translated into light that can be used for a dialogue, as you can reflect light on a mirror. The video dialogue creates rhythms of lights composed into scenes.
NOISE: Of course, a noise is considered as a signal as well.

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Katsuyuki Hattori & Yusuke Shinmura a.k.a Goldenshit
[Tokyo·Japan 1973]

Katsuyuki Hattori began using video as an art medium when he was studying at the Nippon Engineering College, Image Making Department. After graduation, he further studied video-art at San Francisco Art Institute, where he met and studied with Doug Hall, one of the pioneers of video-art.

Since his return to Japan, he has been involved in founding and organizing seminal video-art activities. His video artworks have been screened in many venues and festivals around the world.


Since 2002, the band Goldenshit has been experimenting with the various aspects and possibilities the video as a medium can offer, both recording and live performing.

A homage to Len Lye.

Terra Incognita is a hand drawn animated abstraction in three parts. Soundtrack designed by Jerry Summers..

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DANIELLE YE
[Beijing·China]

Danielle Ye graduated from California Institute of the Arts (CALARTS) School of Film/Video with a master degree in filmmaking.

As an Artist/Filmmaker her work has been shown internationally at places such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MOMA) or Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Currently she is the managing director in the graduate program of experimental film/video in Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), in Beijing. She lives and works in both Beijing and Los Angeles.

Terra Incognita
Danielle Ye
2003 · 6’30’’ · color · drawing · US



Q&A featuring Danielle Ye at the Silent Movie Theater, Los Angeles, Dec. 2nd, 2008

Mecanismo is an extreme experiment in the use of very simple looping images and sounds to produce complex but basically abstract combinations that play with the pattern-recognition efforts of the brain. It is at the same time an exploration on abstract images and sounds and also on the following of those associations, planned or not, that the composition/animation process evokes in the creator, so it is method and result and art piece and social comment. The soundtrack was created by the animator with sound loops as part of the animation/composition process.

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JOAQUÍN KINO GIL
[Costa Rica 1952]

One of the fortunate alumni of the legendary “Conservatorio Castella” in Costa Rica, Joaquin found himself attracted to art almost as much as technology and science.

With formal studies in biology, fine arts, music, architecture, physics and anthropology he continued his studies at California Institute of the Arts, where he graduated from the Experimental Animation program while also pursuing studies in Electro-Acoustic music composition and the Live Action program of the Film School. After a short run of free-lance animation jobs around Hollywood he worked for animation pioneers Wavefront Tech, and created custom work for Silicon Graphics and Sony Pictures Imageworks’ Los Angeles facility.

He currently works in his own production company in California.

Soundtrack and moving images are equal parts in this film. They develop a quite loose relation and, as the film progresses, they get more synchronous. Inspired on Steve Reich’s work, Hagenguth and soundtrack designer Dennis Graef, used visual and musical loops of different lengths. Thus, the viewer may find different connections. This work was produced in a two-way process: first there were the pictures, then came the music, and finally, the editing.

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ASTRID HAGENGUTH
[1978·Germany]

Since her graduation at Kassel School of Art in 2005, Hagenguth has worked on various film-productions, like participating as a story consultant on the feature film “The House Is Burning”.

She is currently finishing her work on a animated short-film.

Loop 12/06
Astrid Hagenguth
2007 · 5’17’’ · color · scratch · 35mm Braunschweig, Germany

Experimental video of total abstraction.

Color lines surf the screen at high speed. Entirely realized with a computer and edited in FinalCut.

The soundtrack features Dave Clarke’s “I want it”.


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CALPURNIO
[Zaragoza·Spain 1959]

Calpurnio is a cartoonist, illustrator, VJ, screenwriter and director of animated films.
www.calpurnio.com

A very funny and suggestive animation made in Flash.

Soundtrack by John Bungle and Chris Casady.

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CHRIS CASADY
[California·USA 1952]

He learned to animate by accident. He was hired to rotoscope explosions on large paper, so he spent hours and hours behind a black curtain tracing mattes around explosions frame by frame. After seeing dozens of explosions this way, he understood how to animate them.

He grew into an effects animator, added water, lightning, fire, shadows and bubbles to his repertoire and worked freelance on the fringes of Hollywood during the 80's and 90's.

He worked on the first 3 Star Wars films, also Airplane!, TRON, Beetle Juice, Highlander, among many others. He also made commercials for cigarettes, raisins and Michael Jackson, and directed a music video for the Beastie Boys.

Now he makes illustrations for the National Park Service. To him, animation is for fun only.

Puddle Jumper
Chris Casady
2’10’’ · color · cgi · 2007 · L.A., USA


Q&A featuring Chris Casady at the Silent Movie Theater, Los Angeles, Dec. 2nd 2008