Skanu Mezs 2007 :
11.+12. May 2007 Riga / Latvia
Now you see it, now you don’t : Radiophonics, aether and the politics of waether..
An Apartment in Beirut
Directed by Renate Zentschnig, Sound : Justin Bennett, NL 2005, 28 min
Charlotte Asseily is an eighty-seven-year-old widow and almost every day, she arrives at her fabric shop in Beirut at nine o’clock. She used to live on the top floor of the building, which was build by her husband back in the 1940s. Now it belongs to her son, whose wedding party in 1969 was disrupted by fights between the Lebanese army and Palestinian troops. Since his parents relocated from their London-exile in the mid-seventies, they never ever again entered the appartment. ‘An Apartment in Beirut’ presents the deserted and decrepit location and follows its history through the long lost memories by Mrs. Asseily in cross reference with street scenes of present-day Lebanon and Justin Bennetts slowly evolving but distinctive sound design.
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Directed by Transforma, sound by O.S.T., FRG/US, 2007, 55 min
With a mix of abstract images, graphic animation, digital image effects and complex film sequences, Synken creates a fantastically spaced out, darkly romantic scenery, in which gloomy forests, tunnels, timeless lakes, cellars inhabitated by rat people, and a mysterious vagabond play the main roles. O.S.T.‘s arrhythmic crackling electronic soundtrack bathes the images in an eerily hypnotic flow. Imagery and sound together open up subtle leads that can never be read only as a linear narrative. Synken consists rather of individual narrative modules that can be potentially combined in any number of narratives.
www.shitkatapult.com
www.transforma.de
www.amhain.net
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Directed by Esther Johnson, UK 2006, 15 min
By connecting documentary with a textured soundtrack, Tune In transects the politics of space and social communication unveiling the peculiar world of the amateur radio operators called HAMS (translating as an acronym for ‘Help All Mankind’). Although amateur by definition, undertake a rigorous licensing exam covering strict regulations and intellectually challenging technical knowledge. As well as being considered the fourth emergency service, providing backup when power and phone lines are down, HAMS, once they master the know-how, can be transported beyond the confines of their everyday existence with ‘do-it-yourself’ radio technology.
www.blanchepictures.com
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Directed by Christina Kubisch / Veit-Lup, FRG 2007, 11 min
Since the end of the 1970s, Berlin Sound/Installation-artist Christina Kubisch works with the system of electromagnetic induction. After a period of experimentation in 2004 she developed a series of works in public space, titled Electrical Walks. On these city routes, the participiant explores the invisibility, but incredible presence of electromagnetic fields in the urban surrounding through specially constructed, sensitive wireless headphones, that reveal a site-specific and unique environment of the the unseen. This short documentary sees Christina Kubisch explain the techniques behind the scenes and gives a historical view on her most recent work.
www.christinakubisch.de
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(Composers Improvise As Collective) Directed by Theo Gallehr, FRG 1967, 47 min, english subtitles
Founded as the first experimental composers collective back in 1964, Rome-based avant-garde ensemble Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuovo Consonanza was dedicated to the development of new music methods working with anti-musical systems, noise techniques and tape experiments in an attempt to redefine and explore the possibilities of group improvisation. Consisting of the then-burgeoning soundtrack composer, Ennio Morricone, other group members included Franco Evangelisti, Egisto Macchi, Antonello Neri, Giovanni Piazza, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Mario Bertoncini and finally Roland Kayn, this film is a unique black and white documentary produced for the German public television and captures the rehearsals for their Rome concert back in 1967.
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Gospels
Reconstructed by Erik Bünger, FRG 2006, 23 min
Swedish media artist Erik Büngers work-in-progress, Gospel, is a yet irritating but humorous reflection on the theme of creative
inspiration and its different ways of reception. As a found footage interview collage, consisting of snippets from artists talking about their inspirational and intuitive moments, this video work tracks with a lack of clarity into a narrative, canon like homage to the source of inspiration, the godlike Him.
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Otomo Yoshihide – The Multiple Otomo Project (excerpt)
Directed by Masako Tanaka / Michelle Silva / Tim Digulla, USA 2007, 35 min
Full of jittery images both real and manipulated, flashes of visual white noise, strobe-like quick cuts, multiple split screens and
extreme close ups, this video compilation sets Japans most active free improviser Otomo Yoshihide’s work into a new and unseen visual context. With the turntable as main instrument, being manipulated, scratched, burned, stretched and destroyed, Yoshihides composing is as always a dizzying compliment to bruitist spontaneity and makes his performance a temporary warzone.