流動於空間的活動影像 Spatialized Moving Images…

wmc_e6 2018.11.04 | immediate release 即時發佈 | Bryan Chung in conversation with Hugo Yeung and Wong Chun-hoi in “Spatialized Cinema” 3:00-4:00pm at ACO Bookstore, 14/F, Foo Tak Building,  365-367 Hennessy Road, Wanchai | 藝術家講座-《流動於空間的活動影像》| 鍾緯正與展出藝術家王鎮海、楊鳴謙對談 | 11.4.2018 下午三時至四時 | 灣仔軒尼詩道365-367號富德樓14樓艺鵠書店 | exhibition on on 6/F until 2018.11.18 繼續於六樓開展直至2018.11.18 | Media Contacts: Tobias Tang (Exhibition Producer) Mobile: 65748872 傳媒聯絡:鄧志韜(展覽監製)| Email: writingmachinecollective.e6@gmail.com

展覽同時展出王鎮海、楊鳴謙兩位年青媒體藝術家的作品。The exhibition features works by two young artists, Wong Chun-hoi and Hugo Yeung (Yeung Ming-him).

The possibility of moving images is never restricted by the screen. Running, Walking, Jogging along the timeline with the same speed features two young artists, Wong Chun-hoi and Hugo Yeung Ming-him, each articulating their views on 21st century moving images. The event showcases two independent but connecting “video” installations, both revolving around the process of image-making, to explore the “raw materials” that “unfold” the micro elements of image discourses.

Wong Chun-hoi’s hardworking circuit #1.4 – A switched-on projector [work-in-progress] (2018)

A circuit physically functions as a sequence of successive on-off switches that form a domino structure. A bunch of switches, turned on sequentially in serial ordering, will “terminate” after turning on all electronic/everyday objects one by one. The selection of objects to be turned on the sequence is the key to discovering the playful artistic possibilities afforded by the timeframe generated by the circuit’s physical manifestation. Each iteration, ignited by pressing the “on” button, initiates a process comparable to a movie sequence unfolding in the form of x frames per second, like a micro narrative, whereby the audience study the causal drama of electricity dancing through within a set timeframe with a visible, spectacular process and a curious “denouement” [結局、終局].

王鎮海《勤力電路1.4 ‒ 開著了的投影機 (持續創作)》利用冗長電路,只為啟動玩具。Wong’s hardworking circuit #1.4 – A switched-on projector [work-in-progress] (2018) makes use of a long sequential relay of circuit to turn on a toy.
The repetitive relay designed into the circuit ends with an electronic clock, the “denouement,” whereas the conspicuous objects along the relay are suggested or revealed on a TV monitor connected to hidden web cams in various parts of the venue. While electricity has always been taken for granted in media art, Wong takes up electricity as an artistic raw material, to perform its manifestation in many physical forms.It takes several seconds to turn on all sections of relay successively one by one. With this, Wong preserves his work’s allusion to cinema in a conceptually expanded form. The question remains: how do visitors experience this procedural visual presentation? How would they describe their experience of time in this work? What would visitors get out of each of the many 5-second relay narratives in the show? And what about a narrative they may construct on the spot with many continuous, consecutive 5-second segments?

The hardworking circuit series began in 2015 as experiments, published at Oil Street and the Floating Projects. hardworking circuit 1.3 has won the Gold Award, Media Art category in the ifva 2018 competition. Gao Shiqiang, one of the jurors, commented, “This artist attempts to delay the completion of the route from A to B, and makes something out of this clever idea. The root itself is very complicated, and reflects what our daily lives are about, that you often have to go through a lot of things before you get to the final destination.”

Hugo Yeung’s Harmonic Montage (2018)

Harmonic Montage is an ongoing exploration of an audio-visual algorithmic generative system that utilizes Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), used also in the artist’s former computational cinema pieces What Death Tells M and UnSilent Cinema. This system was created to be a tool to invent and expand new aesthetic qualities of cinema by foregrounding lower-level data such as image pixels, audio waveform, temporal linearity and so on.

One of the main objectives of Harmonic Montage is to expand the definition of “editing” and to open up new ways to implement montage by deploying signal interference as a mediator between juxtaposed images. The work also allow participants to engage in the production of both the audio and visual elements using the system the artist custom-makes. In this way, the artist turns “montage,” which primarily means the juxtaposition and succession of images, into the spatialization of different visual-audio objects via a centric formation. A screen hangs in the central position of the venue showing interchangeably dominant images, suggesting the different sound sources that trigger different images. Sound sources are in fact sound-making objects lying around the venue, like musical instruments awaiting visitors to play them. Harmonic Montage is visitors’ collaborative reconstruction of Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon. (1943), a dream narrative now further disintegrates as visitors chance their interference through sound-making.

Harmonic Montage uses Discrete Fourier Transform, a family of algorithm, also used in his early works What Death Tells Me (2015) and UnSilent Cinema (2018), to explore the importance of sound in films. What Death Tells Me, for example, allows the soundtracks interfere with the visual elements. In the Jockey Club ifva Carnival, his commissioned artwork UnSilent Cinema creates visuals by the piano sounds audience “played” on the site. an experiment that Yeung carries on in Harmonic Montage. In this show, the sounds visitors create with the different “instruments” push certain prepared images from the periphery to the centre of the screen. This generative audio-visual piece also takes advantage of a flat screen space with multiple windows — i.e. 4 smaller windows surrounding the central window — to play the game of domination-recession based on audio input.

Both artists will attend the artists’ talk “Spatialized Cinema” on 4th November 2018, moderated by media artist Dr. Bryan Chung.

Hugo Yeung’s Harmonic Montage (2018) creates generative audio-visual montage with various musical instruments and sound-making objects. 楊鳴謙《諧波蒙太奇》利用不同樂器及發聲物件,合併出衍生性的聲影蒙太奇。

影像的可能性豈止於平面的熒幕之上?王鎮海、楊鳴謙兩位年青媒體藝術家聯手雙個展《假如速度與跑姿換腳幅度無關》,展示兩組截然不同卻相互緊扣的影像裝置創作,擺出他們的廿一世紀影像研究。兩組創作不約而同地實驗電影「造影」的過程,研究電影劇情之外的微敘事「原材料」。

王鎮海:《勤力電路1.4 ‒ 開著了的投影機 (持續創作)》(2018)

王鎮海的《勤力電路1.4 ‒ 開著了的投影機 (持續創作)》把交流電化作電影的素材。作品以多個繼電器串聯而成,骨牌式的接連啟動,直到沿途各個終端電器被開啟。開關按鈕開啟,數秒間近百個繼電器逐個啟動,近似傳統投影機每秒鐘運行24格菲林般,只是王的作品的「數秒」卻重新喚召訪者的好奇 – 到底「數秒」有多長?「數秒」所盛載的微細過程和精巧描述有甚麼可能?訪者觀看著電力飛舞間斷的座落於藝術家隨心設定的多個落點以至最後「終局」。王鎮海所安排的電「路」書寫著具時間性的流程,帶鮮明的起承轉合,是絕不苟且的微敘事。故事呢?就由觀者自行想像了。

《勤力電路》(2015)在油街和「據點。句點」開始實驗發表,漸進成持續的系列。《勤力電路1.3》曾獲2018年ifva比賽媒體藝術組金獎,其中評審高士強稱讚道:「(作品)把從起點到終點的過程不斷延遲,跟我們的生活經驗有一點的切合。他把過程延遲,就像電影中的特寫鏡頭,把這過程放大,形成特別深刻的意義。」

楊鳴謙:《諧波蒙太奇》(2018)

另一邊廂,楊鳴謙的《諧波蒙太奇》嘗試重置聲音在電影剪接的地位。裝置由一個投映及多件小型發聲物件組成,在觀眾使用物件發出聲音時,投映根據聲音頻率而剪接出相應片段的影像頻率到畫面中。在各種聲音的合奏下,投映由不同片段的局部影像頻率交織構成,成為由觀眾主動參與衍生成的聲影蒙太奇。

《諧波蒙太奇》與前作《死亡如是說》(2015) 及《有聲默片》(2018) 同樣利用「離散傅立葉變換」(Discrete Fourier Transform),分別探討聲音在電影中的重要性,《死亡如是說》透過電影配樂干擾影像;賽馬會ifva影像嘉年華委託創作《有聲默片》則讓觀眾透過現場「玩」鋼琴為電影「配樂」而催生影像。是次創作《諧波蒙太奇》把《有聲默片》推前一步,依然是以觀眾現場「造」聲去推動場館中央布幕上的框內蒙太奇。現場樂器隱約接連藝術家預先儲藏的片段音剪接影像,一時徘徊於外圍,一時成功進佔中央地帶,就靠賴所選的樂器、所造的聲頻。看似一場力氣改動空間的角力,從創作者而言,是衍生性藝術、膨脹錄像的體驗。

楊鳴謙所選的素材是美國實驗電影女藝術家 Maya Deren 的 Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)。原片的「夢」邏輯的敘事以「斷、碎」和時空上的失接創作了另一種「連續性」,設合了《諧波蒙太奇》的隨機換位,以平面上單位的近鄰性取代線性的排序。

兩名藝術家於11月4日亦會出席藝術家講座《流動於空間的活動影像》,與資深媒體藝術家鍾緯正博士對談。

「諧波蒙太奇」遇上「勤力電路1.4 – 開著了的投影機」Harmonic montage with a switched-on projector operating on hardworking circuits

wmc_e6 2018.10.27 | Opens today:  Wong Chun-hoi’s “hardworking circuit #1.4 – A switched-on projector [work-in-progress]” & Hugo Yeung’s “Harmonic Montage” | 6:30 opening reception | 王鎮海的《勤力電路1.4 – 開著了的投影機(持續創作)》和楊鳴謙的《諧波蒙太奇》| 今天中午12點開展,下午六點半開幕酒聚。|

Continue reading “「諧波蒙太奇」遇上「勤力電路1.4 – 開著了的投影機」Harmonic montage with a switched-on projector operating on hardworking circuits”

Opening this Saturday: “Running, walking, jogging along a timeline with the same speed” by Wong Chun-hoi and Hugo Yeung 假如速度與跑姿換腳幅度無關:王鎮海與楊鳴謙對話周六開幕

wmc_e6 2018.10.23 | 假如速度與跑姿換腳幅度無關,文字機器創作集第六輯展覽「象裡有象。通電造影」之三 2018年10月27日至11月18日灣仔富德樓本星期六開幕 Running, walking, jogging along the timeline with the same speed | 2018.10.27-11.18, part 3 of WMC_e6 “Cinema Expanding” opening this Friday at Fu Tak Building, Wanchai

hardworking circuit #1.4 – A switched-on projector [work-in-progress]
勤力電路1.4 – 開著了的投影機 (持續創作)
王鎮海 Wong Chun-hoi (Hoi9)

Harmonic Montage 諧波蒙太奇
楊鳴謙 Yeung Ming-him Hugo

27 Oct to 18 Nov 2018
12:00 – 19:00

灣仔軒尼詩道365-367 富德樓六樓 L6, Foo Tak Building, 365-367 Hennessy Road, Wanchai

由兩位年青媒體創作者合成的雙個展,「跑姿」確有不同。王鎮海對活動影像的「動」作出物理上的重塑;楊鳴謙則意圖打開誰是觀眾、觀眾與影像的主客關係的種種問題。王鎮海的《勤力電路1.4 – 開著了的投影機(持續創作))》把交流電流化作為待發的單子(monad)、創作的原素材,書寫著像電影般具時間性、強調流程、帶起合和清晰結尾的微敘事。說是「膨脹」電影的搞作,箇中是對合成媒體的解構,潛進至深至微處,憧憬著未來的電影,卻不忘「電」的原塑力。今天,我們對「電力」的存在於人間看成理所當然,王鎮海讓我們重新「看」到電的實時表演,寫出可看的新電影。楊鳴謙的《諧波蒙太奇》以數學上的「離散傅立葉變換(Discrete Fourier Transform)作為編碼的運算基礎去編排預先處理好的影像,空間的安排上以音樂的和聲(harmonics)和合奏(ensemble)為基本法則,透過觀眾與現場發聲物件的互動寫出聲與影的彈道(trajectory)

Presented by two emerging artists Wong Chun-hoi and Hugo Yeung, the exhibition, Running, walking, jogging along the timeline with the same speed, highlights two different responses to the call of cinema’s possible expanding. Wong Chun Hoi demonstrates the “motion” of moving image in physical reconstruction in “hardworking circuit #1.4 – A switched-on projector [work-in-progress],” while Hugo Yeung attempts to question the definition of “audience” by challenging the power relationship between audience and images in his “Harmonic Montage.”

While electricity has always been taken for granted in media art, Wong takes up electricity as an artistic raw material, to perform its manifestation in many physical forms by highlighting the relay process of electricity flow as if it is a moving image sequence with a plot-structure and a denouement.

In Yeung’s “Harmonic Montage,” he designs an audio-visual algorithm that foregrounds lower-level data such as image pixels, audio waveform, temporal linearity and so on, with the aim to expand the definition of “editing.” Is it possible to execute “montage” through signal interference, like an intrusive mediator between juxtaposed images? The project will also allow participants to engage in the production of both the audio and visual elements using the system the artist custom-makes.

“Theorem 9: Latent Figures”: images within an image (2018) 潛影像:第九定理,象裡有象 (2018)

wmc_e6 2018.10.22 | more works by Hector Rodriguez from his solo “Hidden Variables”: Theorem 9: Latent Figures (2018) | 羅海德作品繼續介紹:《Theorem 9》(第九定理)的「潛」影像(2018)|

《Theorem 9: Latent Figures》是《Theorem》系列的最新近的衍生作。 Continue reading ““Theorem 9: Latent Figures”: images within an image (2018) 潛影像:第九定理,象裡有象 (2018)”

Z (2014-2016, 2018)

wmc_e6 2018.10.21 | more works by Hector Rodriguez from his solo “Hidden Variables”: (2014-2016; 2018) | 羅海德作品繼續介紹:《Z》(2018版)

Z is a moving image analysis system that produces abstract representations of video sequences using a system of predefined grayscale disks, thus facilitating the critical understanding and aesthetic appreciation of cinematic rhythm.

Each disk responds to different aspects of the brightness of each frame. Changes in the higher frequencies reflect changes in the smaller details of the source image. Changes in the lower frequencies reflect changes in the overall shape of the source image.

Z employs a mathematical framework originally devised by physicist Frits Zernike to describe the aberrations of microscopes, telescopes and other optical systems.

Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (1957) deconstructed analytically by Rodriguez’s self-authored software “Z

In the WMC_e6 exhibition, two source films, of varied motion and brightness contrast, are used to heighten the visitor’s study of the power of the software. On one wall is Bela Tarr’s The Man from London (2007) and, on the opposite wall, Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (1957).

***to watch demo videos that explain the work [… …]

 

《Z》是一個透過預設的灰階圓盤組合的抽象影像的分析系統,背後概念來自物理學家弗里茨・塞爾尼克用於計較算光學像差(如顯微鏡誤差)的研究。程式將每幀影格不同光暗層級呈現於不同的灰階圓盤內,複雜的圓盤圖像用於分析電影的影像細節,相反單格的圓盤圖像則用於分析電影的整體結構。

 

The visual interface of Z as an analytical tool and display of changing brightness and amount of visual information within each frame… The symmetrical structure represents the complex numbers involved in the calculation. Discs at the bottom line add up vertically to the discs on top. Horizontally, the discs at top of the screen add up from outside towards the centre into 2 images, which then combine to form the single disc in the lower centre, which is the closest approximation of the film’s original image.
an on-site view of Z (2018) at WMC_e6. in the room adjacent to Gestus: Redux (2018) and Inflections (on the L in the background), 2018.09.26-10.15, at the Sheung Wan Civic Centre Exhibition Gallery, Hong Kong
The two parts of Z on site face to face: Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (R) and Tarr’s The Man from London (L)

“Gestus Redux” (2018, original version 2010-12) 姿態。微塑。

wmc_e6 2018.10.20 | More works by Hector Rodriguez from his solo “Hidden Variables”: Gestus (2010-2012; 2018) | 羅海德作品繼續介紹:《姿態》(2018版)|

Gestus: Redux (2018, Hector Rodriguez). In this most recent version of the “Gestus” series, the original movie, Judex (1916, Louis Feuillade) is colour-coded by episode. Windows of same colouring suggest they are from the same episode of the 14-part serial. “Colouring” follows two principles from the silent film period: tinting (for brighter areas) and toning (for the greyer areas.

Gestus is a moving image processing framework that uses computer vision techniques to explore the artistic possibilities of the vector as a symbolic form. It consists of a custom software that generates a vector analysis of the movements of videos in a database, identifying sequences that contain similar micro-movements and rendering them side by side.

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Gestus Redux analyses the movements of source videos in a database, identifying sequences that contain similar micro-movements and rendering them side by side. The current version uses source material drawn from Louis Feuillade’s 1916 serial film Judex.

The source film is shown without interruptions in the centre of the screen. The software identifies and displays eight shots, all from Judex, whose movement (speed and direction) resembles the central segment.

This work draws attention to pure movement, as distinct from the object that moves. Whereas our experience of the cinema is normally directed towards people, objects, and events, Gestus encourages spectators to disregard narrative content and pay close attention to visible movement as an end in itself.

The original film Judex (1916) was shown in cinemas as a serial in 12 chapters, a prologue, and a brief epilogue. Each episode has an average length of less than half an hour. The total running time of the film is 300 minutes. For this installation, each episode has been assigned a specific colour. The colours are designed to approximate the combination of tinting and toning, which was often used during the silent movie period.

an on-site view of Gestus: Redux(2018) at the second of WMC_e6’s exhibition series, “Hidden Variables.,” 2018.09.26 to 2018.10.15, at Sheung Wan Civic Centre, Hong Kong

***More details of Gestus: Redux (2018) with video demo [… …]

***An earlier version of the work: Gestus: Judex (2010-2012) [… …]

 

《Gestus Redux》透過分析影像微動態把電影中有相同動態的不同片段並置同時同步播放。是次版本以路易・費雅德《猶德士》(又名《審判者》)作為影像庫。

畫面正中播放著電影原片,而外圍則播放著速度與方向與之匹配的電影選段。作品強調純粹的動態,並非畫面的人情事物。
《猶德士》是篇連劇,總片長約300分鐘,分成12章,附楔子與結尾,每章約長30分鐘。《GESTUS REDUX》中每章均配以特定的顏色,以仿效當時默片常用的染色法。

Gestus: Judex (2010-2012), on-site at Taipei’s DAC (Digital Art Center Taipei) in “Descriptions of Hearing”「聽覺摹寫」, 2012.02.11-03.15

“Fluxions” 流數 (2012, 2018)

wmc_e6 2018.10.18 | more works from Cinema Expanding: “Hidden Variables” by Hector Rodriguez 「膨脹電影」繼續:羅海德《歧路結節:開合解謎》網上逐一介紹 | Fluxions 《流數》(2012)

Fluxions [1], Lambda print on metallic paper, 120 x 73 cm
Fluxions is an image processing system that visualizes video sequences as changing configurations of pixels. It segments the original video into short clips and applies a motion tracking algorithm to produce a vector description of their movement. It stores the first image of each clip as a key frame, and gradually shifts the values of its pixels based on the vector descriptions of the subsequent frames.

The result can be seen as an abstract visualization of the variation in the original movie. Viewers can also try to recognize or infer the missing objects and events. This tension between figuration and abstraction, between presence and absence, is the heart of this project.

On site at “Hidden Variables,” the artists showed us three metallic prints and one video.

Fluxions [6], Lambda print on metallic paper, 120 x 73 cm, based on The Rape of the Vampire (1966) by Jean Rollin
Fluxions [2], Lambda print on metallic paper, 120 x 73 cm
《流數》(Fluxions) 是個處理影像的系統,把本來的錄像片段呈現為像素的重複組合。程式把原有的錄像切割成小段,以動態捕捉技術分析電影選段畫面,從而生成出影像動態的向量表,其後以選段的第一幀畫面作為關鍵影格,跟據計算出的向量表而逐漸改變像素數值以構成下一幀影格。影像除了是電影的抽象變奏外,觀眾亦可嘗試辨別畫中沒被顯現的物件與情節。因此《流數》經常處於抽象與具體之間,存在與不存在之間,而這正是作品的核心。

作品靈感來自影像壓縮方法。影像壓縮通常從一段長片中只儲存數個關鍵影格,再以動態向量計算出其他省略了的影格,諷刺的是這種影像處理技術卻推翻了傳統電影由每幀獨立影格組成的概念。

在「歧路結節」展場中,藝術家選了三幅圖像和一個錄像去展示他的實驗探索。

“Flowpoints” (2010): an animation “Within the Walls” (2017) and 6 prints on metallic paper 從「流點線」(2010)到《圍城私語》(2017)

a video still from Within the Walls圍城私語 (2017) by Hector Rodriguez

wmc_e6 2018.10.17 | “Hidden Variables,” part 2 of WCM_e6 “Cinema Expanding” is over. Please continue to visit this website where works in the show will be featured one by one| Flowpoints (2010), software written by Hector Rodriguez has churned out six prints and one animation with connected lives.

《Flowpoints》探索數碼的抽象性與電影手法再現之間的張力。
作品透過捕用以捉動態的程式去分析電影的逐格畫面並衍生成抽象線條,線條的構成源於線性的抽象化,但線條的形態無疑地指向程式所處理的電影素材。

圍牆之內,身份逐漸變模糊。前景的人物變成背景的襯托,身體變成影子,自我化為他者。角色融進這個裹覆著一切的建築,再重那裡冒出來。陌生人聚集,或許罪案亦在此發生。
《圍城私語》(Within the Walls)延伸著《流點線》(Flowpoints) 所探索的;這回的視像素材來自亞弗列・希治閣《 第十七號》選段。如《流點線》的操作,演算將每幀影格轉換成半抽象的彩色線條,組合構成煞有介事的敘事活動,卻又令人困惑而不知所措、難以定性的敘事空間。

The Flowpoints presented at WMC_e6 comprised of six digital prints and one animation titled Within the Walls.

Flowpoints the digital print series explores the tension between digital abstraction and cinematic representation in the information age. A motion tracking program analyses frames from classic films and uses the resulting data to generate abstract line renderings. While the resulting images are linear abstractions, they nonetheless hint at the contents of the films from which they were extracted.

Flowpoints [5], Lambda print on metallic paper, 117 x 90 cm
Flowpoints [4], Lambda print on metallic paper, 112.5 x 90 cm
Flowpoints [3], Lambda print on metallic paper, 117 x 90 cm

Flowpoints [6], Lambda print on metallic paper, 120 x 66.5 cm
Flowpoints [9], Lambda print on metallic paper, 120 x 92.5 cm

 

 

Within the walls of an enclosed space, identities become unstable. Figure becomes ground, the body becomes its shadow, and the self becomes other. Characters blend into and emerge out of the enveloping architecture. Strangers gather and perhaps crimes are committed.

Rodriguez’s Within the Walls integrates video art with mathematics and computer science, exploring the tension between digital abstraction and cinematic representation in the context of an ongoing engagement with film history. This video is a collage of isolated moments from Alfred Hitchcock’s crime drama Number Seventeen (1932), which invites and yet frustrates the construction of a coherent narrative action and a narrative space. The work adopts the same motion-tracking system in Flowpoints with updates.

The work can be seen as a combination of experimental rotoscope animation and found footage cinema. The soundtrack is composed in the manner of musique concrete, using brute sounds from the original movie soundtrack, a method that Hitchcock himself adopted many years later in The Birds (1963).

***to watch Within the Walls… …

CREDITS
Produced and directed by: Hector Rodriguez
Computer programming and video editing by: Sam Chan, with Hector Rodriguez
Based on source code by: Philip Kretschmann and Hector Rodriguez
Mathematical consultant: Felipe Cucker

Last day, don’t miss… A visitor’s notes. 最後今天請勿錯過。訪者留言。

wmc_e6 2018.10.15 | 歧路結節,開合解謎 Hidden Variables | 羅海德 Hector Rodriguez | 最後今天 Last day of the show, 11:00 – 19:00 |

A student visitor’s notes to the Artist shared here with her permission:

Research Room occupies the central zone of the exhibition venue, where visitors may take time to read the many conceptual, mathematical and technical issues the Artist had worked through in making the works in this retrospective (2011-2018)

 

Hi Hector,

I and …my friend… said we like your works. I hope you know that was not for being polite, you know, we are young people, we like what we like. ( ????) We both think that the exhibition is interesting. Although we may hear and see some of your works before in class, it helps a lot when we know more what is actually going on inside your works (but still some works speak more by themselves).

You recommended us to watch Ken Jacob’s Tom, Tom, the Piper’s son before in your Walter Benjamin’s note. I find that your works are highly related to this film. I love cinema (maybe not as much as you do) and this film changes how I think towards cinema. When people talk about how great a film is, they talk about the theme, the narrative, the characters, the mise-en-scene, the editing…etc. but always neglect (are not/cannot be conscious of) how those basic graphical and sonic units combine together [and how that] stimulates and please our brain. We all take those magical perception processes for granted and therefore miss the chance to find a new way to experience cinema. But your works do make those fundamental conflicts be brought to the surface — some conflicts among the units that were not yet discovered. 

I like simple pieces, among those my favourites are Inflections and the one with ongoing 3D terrain indicating the fading memory [Entropic Envelope]. These two give me a poignant feeling right away but the last one you showed us, Z,.. it stands alone. It is very challenging to the audience but also intriguing. Those wheel-like disks make it like a hardworking machine powered up by the film. And then I have a hypothesis for your whole exhibition. Maybe it is a superficial interpretation that you won’t like — you give all these vision machines some characteristics about their processes; they are all struggling but hardworking. And especially in Theorem 8. — why do you give them only 21 frames to reconstruct the movie? They seem really struggling ( ????). 

Forgive my mumble, I am writing this email to just express that your works mean something to me, again not for being polite. Can I ask you a question? How do you choose which framework or theory to work with different ideas? Do you find the theory interesting first or do you find it very related to what you find interesting first? And one more — I hope I will understand the math one day ( ????).

Sophie

Art meets Mathematics, 2 instances. “Approximation Theory” (2017) and “The Entropic Envelope” (2016-2018)

“Entropic Envelope” (with Stan Brakhage’s Mothlight)

wmc_e6 2018.10.12 | 歧路結節,開合解謎 Hidden Variables | 羅海德 Hector Rodriguez | 最後四天 open until 15 Oct 2018, 11:00 – 19:00 daily | The collaboration between artist Hector Rodriguez and mathematician Felipe Cucker results in “Entropic Envelope” (EE), the visualization of an image analysis process, and “Approximation Theory” (AT), visualized mathematics in prints and a video. AT interrogate the tyranny of our image culture. Continue reading “Art meets Mathematics, 2 instances. “Approximation Theory” (2017) and “The Entropic Envelope” (2016-2018)”