Machine Gut

Katherine Bauer has curated a group show of film installation works in a splendidly Rube Goldberg contraption-like fashion: "Machine Gut."

Projectors throw images in all directions, take-up reels cast shadows, the sounds of chewed sprockets and chattering splices fills the space, the film-artists* move about the machinery, tinkering and threading the mechanisms, feeding the devices with ribbons of images.

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Some photos from the opening reception, held on Wednesday.  This coming Saturday, October 1st, will be the show's closing expanded cinema performance.  Not to be missed!

Cheers!
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*David Baker, Joanne Lipton, Rachael Abernathy, Bradley Eros, Lary 7, Katie Torn, Sam Freeman, Jason Martin, Victoria Keddie, Sarah Halpern, Mary Magdalene Serra, Donna Cameron, Joel Schlemowitz, Steve Cossman, Rachelle Rahme, Smith and Lowles, Allison Somers, Celeste Carballo, Casandra Jenkins, Matt Petronelli, Poncho, Jamie Mohr, Dan Bunny, Jessica Gispert, and Kat Bauer.

Cinebeasts "Gowanderlust!"

Coming up October 8, 2011 (postponed from September 24, 2011 due to wind and rain) is Cinebeasts walking tour + cinema:

"Gowanderlust!"

Walking tour by Nathan Kensinger, and films by Kevin T. Allen, Donna Cameron, Henry Hills, and me ("Camera Roll (for Taylor)" and "Silo," both of which were shot in the Gowanus environs). 

Meet outside The Bell House at 149 7th Street at sundown.  Ticket sales for this event are advance only. Attendance is $10 per person; tickets can be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets.

Cheers!

Index Festival "Colo(u)r Sound Culture Mash Up"

Back again to Millennium Film Workshop for the Index Festival's Colo(u)r Sound Culture Mash Up, with works by Geoff Pugen, Jeremy Rotsztain, Collin McKelvey and Kelly Lynn Jones, Liz Wendelbo, Dana Bell, Alyssa Taylor Wendt, Michael Robinson, Tom Ruth, Sadek Bazaraa, Jon Santos, Katherine Bauer, Optipus, Kenneth Zoran Curwood.

The mixing and correlating of the senses is known as "synesthesia," where the sounds of colors are experienced (although it may take the form of other combination of the senses).  The notion of these correlations has been intriguing for its aesthetic potential to a great many artists.  James Huneker wrote of "Painted Music" (1919), which included Whistler's "symphonic" works on canvas, and of hearing unsung music while viewing the works of Renaissance painters.  The color organ, which was used to perform the colors of music, is chronicled by William Moritz in "The Dream of Color Music, And Machines That Made it Possible" (and I've even built a little lightplay machine for expanded cinema performances).

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The films of Kenneth Zoran Curwood and Kat Bauer were among the more notable of the evening, which also included two remarkable expanded cinema performances: Dana Bell's dance piece "A Delicate Balance" with live music and projections, and "Spectrum" by the art collective Optipus, with 16mm, 8mm, slides, and live sound (music and Foley effects).  Some photos:

Cheers!

Independence Returns at Microscope Galley

Microscope Gallery is celebrating its 1st year anniversary, with "Independence Returns" a title which reprises "Independence," the gallery's inaugural show.

The opening night ended with a live film performance by Bradley Eros featuring a condensed feature cut of "The Incredible Shrinking Man" in 8mm.  The performance itself became "The Incredible Shrinking Film" with the projector on a rolling platform, moving closer and closer to the screen -- or in this case, a little cardboard house onto which the image was projected -- so that the projection would get smaller, and smaller, and smaller.  Eventually the image was so small, and projector was so close to the little house, the film could no longer be seen by the audience.

The film performance was dedicated to the memory of George Kuchar, who did so many wonderful things within the smallest of cinematic gauges.

Cheers!