| .. | VideoZone 4 – The International Video Art Biennial in Israel The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv November 25 – December 1, 2008 PARTICLES IN SPACE Industrial Films, Early Computer Art, and Abstract Cinema, 1930 – 1977 curated by Florian Wüst In the early 20th century, with its unprecedented mass production and division of labor, mechanization became an inevitable fact of modern life. Along with it, new art forms were sought to reflect on the reality of a world increasingly marked by accelerated progress and mobility, and adhering to scientific reason, social hygiene, and the development of new technologies to master nature and the human body. These new technologies, mainly in the fields of electronics and mechanics, optical media and communication, architecture and design, greatly inspired early avant-garde cinema as well as the making of industrial films. But the relationship between avant-garde filmmakers, sound artists, engineers, and industrial commissioners reached much deeper than to share a common vision of a better and technically enhanced future: while renowned artists and filmmakers (like Hans Richter, Len Lye or Norman McLaren) were invited to produce advertisements and corporate films, companies and state agencies showed real interest in cinematic experimentation and abstract expression as a means to promote their products as modern, innovative, future-oriented. Especially the first computer films would not have been possible without the financial support and scientific research of university departments or companies such as IBM or Bell. In 1957, Siemens, for instance, established an in-house Studio for Electronic Music in which electronically generated sounds were modulated for use in films as well as in concrete music. Against this backdrop of the technical and economical advancements, social struggles, and political follies of the Cold War era, Particles in Space combines industrial films, early computer art and abstract cinema, mainly from the United States and West Germany, which stand out for their pioneering quality of electronic sound and image animation. The two short film programs intend to shed light on the reciprocal processes between industrial invention and artistic experimentation, presenting a variety of historical classics alongside works that are rarely shown nowadays. Kindly supported by Siemens AG and Goethe-Institut Tel Aviv. PROGRAM 1 Wednesday, November 26, 17:00h Tel Aviv Cinematheque Lichtspiel Schwarz-Weiss-Grau, László Moholy-Nagy, Germany, 1930, 5' Yantra, James Whitney, USA, 1950-57, 8' Stromrichter, Siemens-Schuckert HWA Filmstelle Erlangen, West Germany, 1960, 18' 7362, Pat O'Neill, USA, 1965-67, 10' Pixillation, Lillian Schwartz & Ken Knowlton, USA, 1970, 4' Poème électronique, Le Corbusier & Edgar Varèse & Yannis Xenakis, The Netherlands, 1958, 9' Powers of Ten™, Charles & Ray Eames, USA, 1977, 9' Cibernetik 5.3, John Stehura, USA, 1961-65, 8' PROGRAM 2 Saturday, November 29, 15:00h Tel Aviv Cinematheque New Sensations in Sound, Mary Ellen Bute, USA, 1959, 3' Film Exercise No. 4, John & James Whitney, USA, 1944, 5' Kahl, Haro Senft, West Germany, 1961, 13' Science Friction, Stan Vanderbeek, USA, 1959, 10' Kommunikation, Edgar Reitz, West Germany, 1961, 10' Poemfield No. 5: Free Fall, Stan Vanderbeek, USA, 1968, 7' Antithese, Mauricio Kagel, West Germany, 1965, 19' Random, Marc Adrian, Austria, 1963, 4' Further information: www.cca.org.il |
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