Visual Music Archive

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The Drowning 

(2009) 

by Kasumi explores the impressions running through a man’s mind in the moments before his death: the sensation of time slowing down, of heightened bodily perceptions, and the simultaneous unreeling of an internal cinema of images.

Image/sound: Kasumi

Dancer: Chan U Hong

 

3 video channels, 6 audio channels (mixed down for Vimeo)

 

"The Drowning is a shorter version of my work MO-SO, an EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission 2009-2010, supported by the Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts, Experimental Media and Performing Arts, Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.

 

In The Drowning, I wanted to explore the impressions running through a man’s mind in the moments before his death: the sensation of time slowing down, of heightened bodily perceptions, and the simultaneous unreeling of an internal cinema of images – seemingly unrelated – that create an unconscious narrative of personal history and emotion. The story in his head changes in the last seconds as the oxygen-deprived brain starts shutting down, speeding faster and faster, turning into a surreal, psychedelic collage of colors and primary symbols, the foundations of learned experience reduced to their individual blocks of information, electrified and dispersing like split atoms or dying stars."

 

Source: Kasumi on Vimeo

 

 

The Drowning, choreography, multi projection, Installation

Reading

Expanded Cinema (1970) - In a brilliant and far-ranging study, Gene Youngblood traces the evolution of cinematic language to the end of fiction, drama, and realism. New technological extensions of the medium have become necessary. Thus he concentrates on the advanced image-making technologies of computer films, television experiments, laser movies, and multiple-projection environments. Outstanding works in each field are analyzed in detail. Methods of production are meticulously described, including interviews with artists and technologists. (John Coulthart)

Rewind, Play, Fast Forward (2010) – The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video by Henry Keazor, Thorsten Wübbena (eds.) brings together different disciplines as well as journalists, museum curators and gallery owners in order to take a discussion of the past and present of the music video as an opportunity to reflect upon suited methodological approaches to this genre and to allow a glimpse into its future. (transcript Verlag)

The Art of Projectionism (2007) by Frederick Baker (in German) sets out the principles behind his use of projectors in the film making process. He defines a projectionist school of filmmaking and media art. In this publication he also presented Ambient film, a surround experience that can be shown in specially developed cinemas. (Wikipedia)

Links

 

SEE ALSO

Animal (2011) by Arnaud Gillette and Yannick Jacquet is a desire of contrast, a graphic point of view on a subject in variable curves, a show where the equestrian universe tells the classic space of the theater stage. The main actors of this part into dialogue with digital and music art are four horses, using lights and video installations. (Arnaud Gillette)

Shutter Interface (1975) by Paul Sharits is a hypnotic work a quartet of 16mm projectors stand, figure-like, side by side on imposing pedestals facing a long wall. Four looped films of varying lengths are unspooled and respooled in jewel-like swathes of colour interspersed with single black frames, creating the flicker effect Paul Sharits was the first to explore in colour films. (Frieze Magazine)

Daniel Franke (*1982) works as an artist, designer and music video director in Berlin. His works challenge the restrictions of conventional spatial frameworks and -concepts: digital simulations should no longer be limited to an on-screen-display; instead the digital might be imagined as transferable into real space and thus extend perceptions of the real. Ultimately digital spaces should leave the realm of the virtual and enter the tactile. (Daniel Franke)

Paul Sharits (2008) edited by Yann Beauvais. Known primarily for his experimental cinema and pictorial works, Paul Sharits developed an oeuvre that evolved around two central themes: one, closely related to music and the world of abstraction, the other, within the psychological and emotional arena of the figurative. This complete monograph, drawn from a recent exhibition, explores the connections between these two practices, and in addition provides a general introduction to a remarkable body of work. Illustrated throughout, the monograph also includes several essays, texts by Paul Sharits and interviews. (les presses du réel)

APB - All Points Between (2001) was a live audio visual performance by The Light Surgeons. An feature length performance which skipped around the world through a series of capsule narratives and audio visual tracks. It combined and remixed original documentary material (including the short films Thumbnail Express and The City of Hollow Mountains) wth DJing and a multi screen presentation involving video, slides and 16mm projections. (The Light Surgeons)