Imagesounds, (Athens), Film, Sound and Expanded Cinema
Studio 11 asfa within the context of Platforms Project would like to invite you to the
(I)MAGESOUND(S)
A Touring Programme of Artist Film, Sound and Expanded Cinema
in partnership with The University of Greenwich, Studio 11 asfa and Platforms Project
Friday 17 May 2019, 20:00
Athens School of Fine Arts -
256 Peiraios str. / Old Library of ASFA
Free Entrance
Jim Hobbs & Andrew Hill
with filmic work by:
Mary Ellen Bute, Stan Brakhage, Bruce Conner, David Leister
Guy Sherwin & Lyn Loo, Hiroshi Yamazaki and Ben Rivers
special guests: Maria Glyka, Vassilis Vlastaras
«Some have suggested we drop the term “cinema” and substitute “motion pictures,” and certainly the term says and includes much (though the role of sound seems muffled by it). I myself think we should stick with the term “cinema”, not only because it refers to the effect, the motion we see on whatever type of screen, but also because it has a long history, including various genres, styles and major technical transformations. (silent to sound, the various color systems, and digital and analogue processes)»
Tom Gunning, What is Cinema? The challenge of the Moving Image Past and Future, 2016
The striking argument stemming from Gunning’s statement is not so much his attempt to define a certain genre, but rather his desire for inclusivity amongst the various forms and formats of the medium. He is searching for a means of totality, which embodies the past within the present - and future - experience of cinema. Moreover, he readily admits that the role of sound has often been silenced (or at least turned down) in discourse as if it takes a back seat to the visual. However, it can be argued that image and sound are both inextricable, equally necessary in the total cinematic experience. Another aspect, often segregated and neglected, is that of liveness and performance. Improvisational and interactive cinematic events can create new dialogues between filmmaker and composer / musician, artist and audience expanding the roles and rules of cinematic experience to inhabit/define a transformed cinema space.
(I)MAGESOUND(S) is a project that embraces an expanded experience of the cinematic, locating historical and contemporary artists’ work alongside the work of Jim Hobbs and Andrew Hill. The concept for the programme was originally born out of a research project/commission by Mono No Aware and The New York Public Library (NYPL) for the Performing Arts, as part of the annual Cinema Arts festival MONO X. Working with the NYPL for Performing Arts film archive, contemporary individual artists, musicians and film distributors, the original project created performative event that brought together a variety of approaches to cinema, ranging from single screen films to more expansive works.
The project is now set to tour the UK and Europe where it continues to celebrate the relationship between image and sound and emphasise the collaborative and generative possibilities between artists of diferent disiplines.
In this spirit, Jim Hobbs and Andrew Hill have chosen to invite additional musicians/artists from each city where the project will be performed. For Athens, Greek artists Maria Glyka and Vassilis Vlastaras will join to offer additional sonic elements throughout the evening.
The programme is divided into 4 movements, and begins with Hobbs’ 16mm film Nature Morte - a suite of 16mm films composed of different floral arrangements, whereby the subject matter also transforms into a source of sound. Looking back towards Robert Mapplethorpe’s early flower photographs, Hobbs takes on board the ideas that the flowers represented here are simultaneously life and death – and as such have a frequency that hums with tension. With a focused and durational gaze, each “still life” explores the visual beauty of a staged composition, while at the same time searching for moments within the frame that utilize the optical soundtrack on the film’s surface to create sonic equivalents. The output of these sounds is manipulated live creating alien noises that challenge and shift the imagery. (10 mins)
Score and (Re)Score is a curated selection of both historical and contemporary artists single screen works which focus on the image/sound relationship. Scores, both original and new are paired with 16mm works to expand and explore the influence on the films.
Works selected from the New York Public Library of Performing Arts (New York), Light Cone (Paris), The Conner Family Trust (San Francisco), LUX (London), Image Forum (Tokyo), and from individual artists include:
Mary Ellen Bute - Rythm in Light, 1936, 5 mins (new live score)
Stan Brakhage - Garden of Earthly Delights, 1981, 2 mins (silent)
Bruce Conner - Cosmic Ray, 1961, 4 mins (original score)
David Leister - Headgear, 1998, 6 mins (new live score)
Guy Sherwin & Lyn Loo - Washi 1, 2014, 4 mins (new live score)
Hiroshi Yamazaki - Heliography, 1979, 6 mins (original score)
Ben Rivers - House, 2006, 5 mins (new live score)
Projections is an electroacoustic composition for 16mm projector and pre-recorded sound. Sounds of the projector are sampled, transformed and spatialized bringing the humble projector into focus. Instead of light it is the sound which is projected out into the space, shifting, moving, circling and transforming our relationships to the projector. In this postacousmatic work the sound source takes centre stage where the physical sounds of the projector are mixed with the recorded sounds. Sonic materials were originally recorded in Hobbs’ studio in St Leonards-on-Sea UK, and composed/edited by Andrew Hill at NOTAM in Olso, Norway. (10 mins.)
Vientos Fuertes (Strong Winds) is the final work in the programme and is a performative piece using multiple projectors/screens and manipulated improvisational live sound. Taking Miguel Cervantes’ Don Quixote as a starting point, the work forefronts windmills as mechanical and monumental sculptures in the landscape – giants whose presence is felt visually, sonically and physically. Loops of film are run through projectors, mixed and overlaid onto each other, while the sounds are composed from the optical soundtrack on
the films and various digital sources. It is a cinematic imagining of the experience of Quixote - at first amazed and frightened by the sight, then charging full ahead with confidence, yet ultimately being churned up and spit out at the other end by the spinning arms of giants. (15 mins)
(I)MAGESOUND(S) has been made possible with generous support from the School of Design at The University of Greenwich, London.
Jim Hobbs and Andrew Hill would like to thank the following people:
Guy Sherwin & Lynn Loo, David Leister, Ben Rivers, Elena Rossi-Snook, Steve Cossman, Light Cone, The Bruce Conner Family Trust, Image Forum, LUX, NOTAM, Christopher Sand-Iversen, Sam Belifante, Mat Fleming, Maria Glyka, and Vassilis Vlastaras.
(I)MAGESOUND(S) was originally performed at The Bruno Walter Auditorium in Lincoln Center, New York on December 1, 2016 with Jim Hobbs, Andrew Hill, and Dennis McNany
(Museum of Love, Jee Day, DFA).
