(OT?) microsound&vision @rotterdam film fest

[Derek Holzer <republikasleazka@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

micronauts,

just spent three days at the rotterdam film fest, and i thought i would 
offer up a micro-review of what i saw and heard as it relates to our humble 
list. purely subjective, highly incomplete, and intended only as a 
spring-board for further explorations:

1) Exposed (shorts program): if you went to the R'dam film fest looking for 
offerings a bit more experimental than the art-house, feature-length films, 
each day offered one or two collections of shorts. "Exposed" focused on the 
art of celluloid, and the formalistic interventions which can be made on 
that specific medium. Siegfried Fruhauf's "Exposed" was actually the most 
"computerized" looking, in that his meticulous use of multiple apertures 
into a running found-footage film loop resembled a digital filter more than 
the more-familiar chemical and solarizing treatments of the other filmmakers 
in the program, as was his use of clipped and degraded optical sound track 
taken from the film stock. The second artist, Peter Tscherkassky has been 
discussed on this list already. The 11 min film "Dream Work" was a tribute 
to Man Ray, and was a beautiful retreatment of found Hollywood footage with 
a dark, moody soundtrack. The last film of the program, "The Dreams", by 
Christina V. Greve & Cartsen Schultz, set the sound work of British artist 
Barry Bermange to incredible 8mm, 16mm, 35mm and video shots. Bermange's 
piece involved interviews with a dozen or so subjects about recurring 
nightmares, which were then skillfully woven together to reveil the 
commonalities between. My personal highlight was a section of chemically 
treated and pigmented b/w stock which erupted into amazing color. At 40 min, 
however, even the most entranced eye can become sonambulistic, and I left 
the theatre more sleepy than invigorated.

2) "Watch That Flicker" (shorts program): This program sought to take the 
kind of digital video many of us are familiar with via the VJ/MAX+NATO scene 
and "cinematize" it for the big screen, with mixed results. One of my own 
personal problems with much up-coming experimental digital video work is 
that it is still in its adolescence, and the fascination with the technology 
of filters and plug-ins still hinders a lot of more mature exploration of 
themes which lie outside the software itself. Program Highlight: "A Not = A, 
or for Devatas who Keep Dancing" by Kawai Masayuki (for transcending the 
GUI).

3) "An evening with DOT.NU": dot.nu is a program initiated by the V2 in 
R'dam for "finding solutions to the idea of live cinema". For the film 
festival, KODI (NL) worked with Tappo Kontakt (DE/NL), and COH (RU) with 
Telco Systems (NL). For the first half, Tappo Kontakt played heavily 
pixelized, lo-fi video clips while KODI produced very nice, minimal tones 
and itinerant beats from a pile of analog gear (in wooden cases even!). 
Being that they were put off-center on the side of the stage, the effect was 
somewhat of a "Wizard of OZ behind the curtain" syndrome, with the 
technology unseen, and therefor more mystified. COH's introduction to his 
and Telco's set turned this around. He described each of the roles of the 
three laptops on stage to the audience, then proceeded to display his 
desktop, running Audiomulch patches, for the entire performance on the 
beamer. The boys from Telco Systems are long time MAX/MSP/NATO gearheads, 
and together with COH they deconstructed a found porno MPEG from the 
internet. By the end, however, I found myself still wondering if all this 
NATO/VJ stuff really makes for compelling viewing, or simply video wallpaper 
while we drink, talk, and (maybe) listen to some music at the club.

4) Odd and Ends: some of the most interesting thematics seemed to come from 
the "What (Is) Cinema?" trajectory, which also posed 24 questions (= 24 
fps...) for each day, such as "Why has the history of film so much focused 
on narrative film?", "Is dubbing a way of neutralising the foreign content 
of a film?", or "Is a satellite dish a social sign?". A comprehensive 
retrospective on American experimental pioneer Stan Brakage reminded me why 
I get nauseous from too much camera movement. The UK's "Light Surgeons" 
played a (by 2nd hand accounts) fantastic video, film, slide and sound 
performance at at side-event at the Off-Corso. Much schmoozing was to be 
done in the bars and lobbys, and also much drinking into the wee hours. As 
it should be... The film fest runs until this Saturday, and the Dot.Nu event 
will be repeated this Sunday night at the Paradiso in Amsterdam (if you're 
in the neighborhood...)

best,
Derek

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