+ ARCANE PROJECT PRESENTS: THE CHINESE NIGHTINGALE / MAGIC LANTERNS, SUPER 8 MM, 16MM FILM, 35MM FILM & SLIDE MULTI-PROJECTION & HAND MANIPULATIONS, LIVE SONIC DISTORTIONS & PERFORMANCE / BRADLEY EROS, LARY SEVEN, JOEL SCHLEMOWITZ & VICTORIA KEDDIE

Focused on the mythic story of the Chinese Nightingale, mechanical invention and the gift of the automaton gone wild, the projection includes uncanny imagery from myriad sources, both original and found, from subterranean science, biomorphic transformations, mysterious travels, odd flora & fauna, bizarre creatures and industrial detritus, displayed through the translucent exotica of hand-tinted photographs, decayed surfaces & illustrations of the mundane made marvelous. We should mention insect electronics, volcanic erosions, arctic negations & the olfactory organ.

Organizers:
Bradley Eros works in myriad media: experimental film & video, collage, photography, performance, sound, text, expanded cinema & installation. Also a maverick curator, designer, researcher & investigator, his concepts include: ephemeral cinema, mediamystics, subterranean science, erotic psyche, poetic accidents, cinema povera & musique plastique. A catalyst actively involved in myriad aspects of the diverse New York experimental film demi-mode for 30 years, Bradley has initiated, exhibited and curated at a multitude of spaces & venues, collectives and galleries, storefronts, clubs and micro-cinemas: The Kitchen, Exit Art, Millenium, Anthology, ABC No Rio, Galapagos/Ocularis, NY Underground Film Festival, Migrating Forms, Issue Project Room, PS1, Collective for Living Cinema, Light Industry, Participant Inc., MoMA, Arsenal (Berlin), Lightcone (Paris), and most especially, the Roberta Beck Mercurial Cinema at Collective Unconscious, among many others.

Lary Seven is a multimedia alchemist able to coax profane, inscrutable sounds and images from numerous and mysterious devices. His work has been described as that of a magician or scientist – one who may not always be certain of the outcome, but who is determined to see it through to its (il)logical end. Since the late seventies, Lary has been building, soldering, photographing, recording, mixing, filming, playing, collecting, re-interpreting and creating in order to make something happen. He’s the founder of the Analogue Society and co-founder of Plastikville Records and Directart Productions Ltd. Lary has released work on Touch, Diskono, Ectoplasm, Plastikville and Plastiktray records. He has performed in many countries in Europe as well as in the U.S. and Canada. Mr. Seven lives and works in Manhattan’s East Village and is one of the last remaining vestiges of a once-vibrant community.

Joel Schlemowitz is an experimental filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. His work has shown at the New York Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and has received awards from the Chicago Underground Film Festival and the Dallas Video Festival.

Victoria Keddie is an artist and archivist based in New York City. Her work explores space-sound relationships and visual rhetoric. She works in varying media involving film, audio, and performance. As an archivist, she focuses on preserving analog time-based media. Her work has been exhibited throughout the US in addition to public speaking. She holds an MA from NYU in Museum Studies, and a BFA in Painting and Critical Theory from the University of the Arts. She is a Mobility Fellow of California College of Arts. Influential to her work are Structuralist vs Post-Structuralist theory, Existential-phenomenology, as well as Situationalist and Fluxus movements. She has been published in The Brooklyn Rail, Air America, Heeb Magazine, Beyondmainstream.com, and ArtReview magazine.

+ YOUKALI / 16MM PROJECTION & LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT / NOE KIDDER, JESSICA GOLDRING & MARK GALLAY

Tropicalismo visions give warmth to this beautiful travelog.

Organizers:
Noe Kidder studied filmmaking with Tatsu Aoki at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Her films have been screened at such venues as Lichtblick Kino in Berlin, croxhapox Art Center in Gent, Belgium, St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, le Petit Versailles, Millennium Film Workshop and Anthology Film Archives on the Lower East Side.

Jessica Goldring obtained her Masters degree in Music and Theater from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Jessica’s post-graduate education has included studies at musical institutes around the world, including the Baroque Performance Institute in Ohio, the Les Recontres Musicales in Belgium, and the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Austria. She has performed with the Eugene Opera in their production of La Boheme, the New York Repertory Theatre in their productions of Aida and Tosca, and The Composer’s Forum in their premier of The Hidden World. Jessica has also served as a soloist and section leader in various churches, including Grace Church in New York, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Connecticut, and St. Lawrence Church in New Jersey.

Mark Gallay lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Kauai, HI. He received an MFA in Studio Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. He is currently working on a documentary video about post-industrial farming in Kauai County Hawaii. His films and videos have been screened at such venues as Lichtblick Kino in Berlin, Land Territoria in Lisbon, St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, Millenium Film Workshop in New York, and The Siskel Center in Chicago. He has worked collaboratively with artists Noe Kidder, Brian Getnick, Dianna Frid, Co Amado, and Jim Trainor.

+ ERRATA.CINEMA / 16MM PROJECTION & PHOTO SENSITIVE OSCILLATORS & PERFORMANCE / THOMAS DEXTER

Marking, drawing and painting on the surface of the film, Errata.Cinema is an ever-changing performance piece where clear film leader is manipulated until it is no more. As the image changes, the sound is altered by light sensitive pick-ups adhered to the screens surface. This film will be created and destroyed before your very eyes. Do not blink.

Organizer:
Thomas Dexter is a Brooklyn –based artist and performer. He creates synesthetic light and sound works with an emphasis on free improvisation with in process-driven restraints. Thomas’ work has been exhibited at Roulette, Issue Project Room, Experimental Intermedia, The Stone, Sideshow Gallery, Monkeytown, The Tank, Beta Spaces, and 3rd Ward. His collaborative efforts have been with information artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg, sound artist Maria Chavez and as a member of the Future Archaeology collective.

+ THIS GIVE ME FEVER AT NIGHT, YOU GOVERNMENTAL / CORPORATIONAL PIECE OF SHIT! / 16MM PROJECTION & INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCE & AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION / LUIS ARNIAS & KIM FERERO-ARNIAS

Demonstration footage uses the cameras point of view to thrust the audience into the heart of a street protest. Sandwiched between the police and other protesters audience members will be given props and asked to interact with the work. Feel free to B.Y.O.Riot gear, but please try to remember this is a peaceful protest.

Organizers:
Luis Armías (b. 1982) is a photographer and filmmaker from Baruta, Venezuela who currently lives and works in Boston, MA. In 2009 he completed his diploma program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Kimberly Forero-Arnias is an independant filmmaker from New Jersey who graduated from Tufts University and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2009. Her independent shorts have screened throughout the Boston area, including The Coolidge Corner theater and the Somerville theater,and screened in festivals such as “The Big Muddy Film Festival” in Illinois where her film “Penumbra” won best experimental film. She currently works at David Sutherland Productions as an Assistant Editor.

+ UFO EVIDENCE / 16MM FILM PROJECTION & LIVE IMPROVISED SOUNDS / JASON MARTIN

Here are real actual Unidentified Flying Objects captured on reversal film. The reversal process is one perfected by the Air Force in the late 1950’s to alter light waves in remote viewing situations so that they may be captured on film.

Organizer:
Jason Martin is an artist, musician and curator originally from upstate New York. He is currently living in Brooklyn, NY after completing an MFA at NYU Steinhardt School of Visual Arts, where he is making work that includes abstract films of light and water and half –animal people in shiny spandex inspired by 80s workout videos and Hanna Barbera cartoons. Topics include: power structures, species and gender blending, witchcraft, conflict, fake historical documentation, and integration of analog and digital electronics. This work is based in animal-people drawings he made for years and kept hidden away until now. The current work manifests in video, performance, installation, drawing and sound.

+ YOU KNOW THEY WANT TO DISAPPEAR HELL’S KITCHEN AS CLINTON: DEAR E.B. WHITE: I DESIRE YOUR QUEER NYC PRIZES / SUPER 8MM FILM PROJECTION & LIVE SPOKEN WORD / STEPHANIE GRAY

In mysterious silent insistent shots, we see an inspired letter of sorts to writer E.B. White, author of the mid-century infamous little book Here is New York. She imagines some of the NYC images that Mr. White might have seen, and shoots a film essay of old and disappearing Hell’s Kitchen (which developers have been trying to rename Clinton). We see faded or forgotten signage and signs that don’t totally make sense. In between the voiceover are distorted snippets from a 60s surf song. Maybe it should all be Hell’s Clinton, or Clinton’s Hell.

Organizer:
Stephanie Gray is a NYC-based artist: and experimental filmmaker and poet who has received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Film, New York State Council on the Arts Distribution Grant, and an Experimental Television Finishing fund Grant. Her work has been featured in one-woman screenings at the Poetry Project, the MIX NYC Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Fest at Collective Unconscious, Millenium Film Workshop, Thaw Festival, Visual Studies Workshop, Massachusetts College of Art, among others. She has won awards and honors for her films from the Ann Arbor Film Fest, CinemaTexas, Nashville Film Fest, and others. Her super 8 film-video Dear Joan is distributed by Frameline. Her first poetry collection was published in December of 2007, Heart Stoner Bingo (Straw Gate Books).

+ SPALMS / 16MM DOUBLE PROJECTIONS & HOMEMADE ANALOG AUDIO ELECTRONICS / SARAH HALPERN & MATT WELLINS

An external infrastructure changes in a resigned death. Beside us there is a cluttered stockade of usable objects. We know that disaster can occur after a dimensional process and this is our renewing lifestyle. But when will the mist leap? Why does the task occasionally decline? Why cant the container register an incompatible width? We harness these alarmed overtones in order to generate material change but next to the obscure paradox overflows a sneaking prose. The full lecturer completes the event, his finer outlook participating behind the objective. But…. an opposite swims! And we pray that the mountain will crack with an atomic handful of incoherent vocabulary.

Organizers:
Matt Wellins and Sarah Halpern have been collaborating on interdisciplinary projects for 8 years. During this time, they have toured the East Coast, completed a residency at the Experimental Television Center and most recently performed at the VIA festival in Pittsburgh and at Anthology Film Archives in New York. With a decisive economy of means, their work investigates both naturally occurring phenomena and the sundry divertissements of pre- and para-cinematic technologies.

+ UNTITLED / SUPER 8MM & 16MM FILM PROJECTIONS & PERFORMANCE / JEREMIAH JONES, ANN MEISINGER, ZANE STARR & KERRY FARIAS

A display of incredible, vulnerable films projected onto abstract sculptural performers. The film explores lines, points and planes of color and the relationship between these abstractions.

Organizer:
Jeremiah Jones’s work is informed by observation, formative memories and impressions made on him by those who he has come in contact with. Jones’s art embraces his place in American and art history, engaging the viewer through the exploration of ideas and images creating art which points outward. His early art education came largely from books found in dumpsters. He began by crisscrossing the country working with various art and activist organizations while developing a unique visual language and artistic practice. He earned a BA from the Evergreen State College, and now lives in New York, where he works as a teaching artist with the Guggenheim, New Museum, Brooklyn Museum and Folk Art Museum.

+ GRANDFLOWER / 16MM FILM PROJECTION & LIVE SPOKEN WORD WITH CEREMONIAL INCINERATOR / JOSHUA LEWIS, DANICA PANTIC & JOSEPH STANKUS

Culled from a vast collection of abandoned 16mm student films from a now-defunct New York City film lab, the footage presented here has never been projected, never been seen by its makers, and prior to its rescue, was set to be wholly discarded. Wanting to preserve the film in this rare and pristine state, Joshua Lewis viewed the footage through a light table while splicing fragments together into a rhythmic, elegiac pattern. The resulting four-minute film will be screened in silence then promptly placed into a ceremonial vessel (created by Danica Pantic) where the film will be destroyed before the audience in a bath of concentrated bleach.

Organizers:
Joshua Lewis was born in New Jersey. In 2007, he received an MA in art history at the University of Texas-Austin, where he specialized in the history of late-medieval printmaking and metal work. He lives in Brooklyn, works in Manhattan, and produces a range of narrative and experimental films and videos.

Danica Pantic was born in Belgrade, and came to America to develop a passion for performance. She received a BA in theater design from Wesleyan University in 2009. Since then, she has lived in New York, working on a wide array of performance, theater and film.

Joseph Stankus is a musician and filmmaker living in Brooklyn, NY. His work explores American mythology and iconography. He is a motion picture projectionist.

+ CATHARSIS / 16MM FILM INSTALLATION & AUDIENCE INTERACTION / TARA NELSON

Enter a darkened room to the sound of gentle whirring. A screen glows with warm yellow light, while a moth-like silhouette dances in the light, flickering from side to side. There is a slight breeze. Breathe deeply. Be still in the light. Close your eyes. Come closer.
A Catharsis is the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art. This cinematic installation represents a personal breakthrough in the process of pursuing the location of the imagination. It is a filmless film with no set duration which can be viewed in 3 layers: while standing in front of the floating screen; while sitting behind the screen, facing it; and from a sitting position while facing the projector with eyes closed. The latter position gives the viewer the opportunity to experience a film made with their own mind, which only they can see. The audience is encouraged to engage with the light in any way they wish.

THIS IS AN INSTALLATION WHICH WILL BE IN THE SPACE FOR THE DURATION OF THE EVENING.

“Please Close Your Eyes When Facing The Projector Light”!

Organizer:
Hailing from the experimental film mecca of Pittsburgh, PA, Tara Merenda Nelson has screened her small gauge films in basements, backyards and galleries around the United States. In 2008 she was invited to screen her live projection performance, River, as part of a group show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She is currently interning at the Harvard Film Archive while pursuing her MFA in Film from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, MA.