Edwin Carels - three artists who make use of a dead media
A paper on three artists who make use of a dead media by Irma Oldenburg
Introduction
In the field of lens-based media it wasn’t hard to find an artist working with recirculating material and techniques of communication that had been lost. I sense the passion of the analog material by many colleagues, in this contemporary digital world I think that many long for working with a material instead of spending time behind a computer monitor. Studying photography in the first years of the 21st century I consider myself as the last generation that was educated in analog form for commercial purposes. During this period I remember many debates about the increasing quality of the digital single lens reflect camera. Although much were convinced that the technological development of this medium was already on a similar level as my beloved analog film, I couldn’t take distance from my Leica R3 Reflex camera. I enjoyed the days alone in the dark room, the magical moments that your image developed from one chemical bath through the next one. But then comes the point in time that my workflow becomes less effective, technological development increased and it is simply too expensive to keep on working in the analog form. What used to be the standard way of working became a form of art and my point of view changed. I like to stay critical in my observation, understanding the excitement of creating content with this dead media, does the work and communication benefit from working with this material? I think the artist must be able to justify the conceptual value of this chosen material. I have chosen three artists who strongly consider what media works well with their concepts and chosen a work whereby I believe the story benefits from the chosen material.
Michael Gondry
Michael Gondry, a French filmmaker most famous for features like “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”(2004), where he took the script of Charlie Kaufman and created the film with great dedication limiting the use of digital effects, but manipulating the viewer with optical illusions. He is known for several blockbuster movies and music video clips, nevertheless, Gondry also creates well-known work which I consider more personal and interesting. He often tells his story by making use of analog materials instead of a digital form. His film “Is the tall man happy?” is an animated documentary with the duration of 1 hour and 28 minutes using four dialogues between Gondry and philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky. After seeing several documentaries including “Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media” (1993) Michael Gondry thought of Chomsky as the most important thinker alive and wanted to create a film being a representation of the scientific work of Chomsky. He used a Bolex hand-drawn 16 mm film camera to record the interviews, mixed with hand-drawn animation on transparent paper recorded above a light box, again with the same Bolex camera. The drawings are mixed with negative photographic pictures placed behind the transparent paper, making it positive after the developing process. After Developing the film there is no more post-production. During the film, Gondry lays bare his own working process as well as his intellectual anxieties. I see this work as an animated documentary where Gondry takes the public on a personal journey during his interview with Noam Chomsky. The personal approach, letting the public being part of his thoughts and insecurities is in balance with the raw approach of using the materials. By showing the edges of the paper, the chosen materials and explaining his technical workflow, he makes the viewer part of the process. This makes me feel part if his journey of picking the brain of the intellectual Mr. Chomsky.
Other connected links: • The director Michel Gondry narrates a scene from his animated documentary interview with Noam Chomsky, “Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?” http://www.nytimes.com/video/movies/100000002562390/anatomy-of-a-scene-is-the-man.html?action=click&contentCollection=movies&module=lede®ion=caption&pgtype=article
• Creators Project Interview https://vimeo.com/81607762
Virgil Widrich
The second artist I would like to present is the Austrian artist named Virgil Widrich (Salzburg, 1967). I’m familiar with his work for several years, he works on numerous multimedia and film productions. His first feature film is “Heller als der Mond “ (Brighter than the Moon) but for this paper I would like to focus on one of his short movies whereby I was intrigued with the use of media. The film “Copy Shop” (2003) is a wordless black and white movie of 12 min. It appears to be shot in images that would generally be produced by a copy machine, grainy, crinkly, and rhythmic. The film is shot with a digital SD camera, in the post-production the frames where digital equipped with special effects, then printed frame by frame with a black and white laser printer. It consists 18000 photocopied frames which are animated and filmed with an analog 35 mm camera. The storyline is based on one character, Alfred Kager, a middle-aged man who works in a photocopy store in a small town. At the beginning of the story, the viewer sees Alfred waking up, going to the bathroom and making his way to work. While he is making copies, the machine starts generating images of him waking up and going to the bathroom. A little frightened by this, he leaves work and heads home. Throughout his day, he begins to see more and more images of himself in more and more places, each scene adding layer upon layer until the final collapse into madness. The film earned Widrich an Oscar nomination in 2001 – the first received by an Austrian director in over 25 years Drawn by the movie cover in a museum shop several years ago I bought this DVD with multiple short movies of Virgil Widrich. I’m mostly impressed with the paper cut out techniques which he mixes with digital media and I’m thankful of the open communication around his workflow. Although his inspiring animation techniques never had a conceptual value in my own work, I consider his animated films very inspiring.
Sverre Fredriksen
The third artist I would like to present is Sverre Fredriksen, a Norwegian artist based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He works as a director, animator and designer for a wide range of international clients. I got familiar with his work watching a Dutch television documentary program about philosophy whereby Sverre was responsible for the short visual interventions in between the interviews. For this assignment he made paper cut motion graphic animations which got me interested in his work. I discovered his interest in experimenting with several animation techniques, for example the music video he made for Dutch indie rocker Tim Knol, it’s a Stop-motion with handmade artwork from wood, created with a hacksaw. He attempted to re-create a forest film set with these similar elements while we follow the main character, also made with the same technique. Although the stop motion is made with a digital foto camera, the choice of the wooden material gives the animation an atmosphere of old media. Conceptually I’m mostly impressed with his short animation film called "Power up"(2005) Hereby Sverre gives a critical view on today's politics presented through a twist on classic video games. This work was created with stencils, spray paint and a super-8 film camera. In my opinion, this is where the conceptual value and the animation technique comes together to give a critical statement as a contemporary artist. The content, the technique and the materials make his statement stronger.
Music Video for Tim Knol
Power Up