Altering Perceptions
LOMAA – London Ontario Media Arts Association is pleased to present ‘Altering Perceptions’, a programme of contemporary experimental film works by various Canadian and international artists, uniquely exploring the boundaries and possibilities of the photo-chemical medium.
All films will be presented on 35mm.
$5 admission
Free for high school students with valid ID
Featuring an assortment of works (in alphabetical order) by: Louise Bourque, Kelly Egan, Eve Gordon & Sam Hamilton, Alexandre Larose, Mark Loeser, Tomonari Nishikawa, John Price, Daïchi Saïto, Robert Schaller, Mark Street and Peter Tscherkassky.
We wish to thank the London Arts Council for their financial support, without which this event would not be possible.
brouillard (Alexandre Larose, Canada, 2012 ) 5 minutes – silent
“A path that extends from my family’s backyard into Lac Saint-Charles in Quebec City, condensed in multiple temporal layers” (A.L.)
Guiding Fictions (Mark Street, USA, 2002) 5 minutes
“Images shot on walks in the forest with an old, twisted 35mm camera. The film trudged through the camera, on a last mission. I buried the film in the front yard. Let the dirt on the film kiss the dirt in the ground. Maryland humidity wore it down to its wisps. Much later, sound recorded in Brooklyn. Teenage skateboarders smoking cigarettes and jumping off the steps at my local subway entrance. A Russian festival in the park, much singing and speechmaking, all incomprehensible to me. The schism between the country and city, so clear at last.” (M.S.)
Party #4 (John Price, Canada, 2006) 3 minutes – silent
“A special one for my first son… his last as a lone ranger (only child). Shot on double-perforation B&W 16mm, the film ran through the camera twice and doubled the consumption of ice cream and cake.” (J.P.)
Sugar Beach (Mark Loeser, Canada, 2011) 4 minutes – silent
“Sugar Beach is one in an ongoing series of fixed-camera, multiple-exposure compositions on a single roll of film” (M.L.)
16-18-4 (Tomonari Nishikawa, Japan, 2008) 2.5 minutes – silent
“This film was shot by a still camera with 16 lenses, which takes a series of 16 pictures within 1.5 seconds, fitting onto 2 normal frame areas. The film shows scenes of the event at Tokyo Race- course, when it was holding the biggest race of the year, Japanese Derby (Tokyo Yushun). The excitement of each race lasts about 2 minutes and 30 seconds.” (T.N)
c: won eyed jail (Kelly Egan, Canada, 2005) 5 minutes
“This film explores experimental narrative and structural forms through the use of traditional “women’s work.” Narratives are told through the symbolic patterning in quiltmaking practices. I wanted to collect and re-present images in order to create a formal narrative guided by structural concerns. I decided to use only found film for this project, incorporating both 35mm still negatives and 35mm motion picture. Although 35mm still photography film and 35mm motion picture film are made from the same stock, there are huge differences in the size of the frame and the intended directionality of the filmstrip. Playing a print consisting of still picture negatives through a motion picture projector has a dramatic effect on the perception of the image. The result is almost like a collage unfolding and accumulating in real time before your very eyes.” (K.E.)
L’Arrivée (Peter Tscherkassky, Austria, 1998) 2 minutes
L’Arrivée is Tscherkassky’s second hommage to the Lumiére brothers. First you see the arrival of the film itself, which shows the arrival of a train at a station. But that train collides with a second train, causing a violent crash, which leads us to an unexpected third arrival, the arrival of a beautiful woman – the happy-end.
Intermittent Movement (John Price, Canada, 2006) 7 minutes – silent
Disparate moments…. some shot on 16, some on 35, some hand cranked, some not, some spherical, some anamorphic, some black & white, some color, some grainy, some not, some solarized, some not, all processed by hand. The film was commissioned by Niagara Custom Labs for their “Short & Wide” 35mm omnibus project. (J.P.)
Going Back Home (Louise Bourque, Canada, ) 1 minute
“Turmoil of unsheltered childhood: the dwelling as self.” (L.B.)
Triptych (Robert Schaller, USA, 1996) 3 minutes – silent
An excursion into the world of hand-made film emulsion and an exposition of some formal possibilities of using three images side by side. A dancer’s brief gesture is treated, repeated, and juxtaposed, becoming the fabric of a visual construction that is less about representation than rhythm and time. Originally created to be projected on three interlocked 16mm projectors. (R.S.)
Blue Tide, Black Water (Eve Gordon & Sam Hamilton, New Zealand, 2008) 9 minutes
“Through macro-photography, BLUE TIDE, BLACK WATER explores the chemical reactions of different liquids to heat. Materials such as paint, India ink, honey and wax are observed boiling and flowering in extreme close up. The resulting microcosm seems a rich primordial soup.”
Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis (Daïchi Saïto, Canada, 2009) 10 minutes
“Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis” is Saïto’s second collaboration with musician Malcolm Goldstein, who composed and performed the original structured improvisation score for the film. The film explores familiar landscape imagery Saïto and Goldstein share in their neighbourhood at the foot of Mount-Royal Park in Montréal. Using images of maple trees in the park as the main visual motif, Saïto creates a film in which the formations of the trees and their subtle interrelation with the space around them act as an agent to transform viewer’s sensorial perception. Richly colored and entirely hand-processed, “Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis” is a poem of vision and sound that seeks perceptual insight and revelation through a syntactical structure based on patterns, variations and repetition.
VILLE MARIE (Alexandre Larose, Canada, 2009) 12 minutes
“An optically printed dream of falling, both gorgeous and ominous. The body in mid-air. A canyon of high-rise buildings.” (A.L.)