𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺 is an extension of the exhibition 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦-𝘚𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴; currently on view at the PLATFORM until 2 December. This screening of 11 short films exemplifies Ratté’s sensibilities to push the boundaries of digital art, image-building and cinema while exploring technology, architecture, perception, and the nature of reality. The works in this program survey the arc of Ratté’s practice starting in 2011 with her film 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘐, which is where this program gets it’s title. Heavily influenced by Lillian Schwartz, this screening also includes two of Schwartz’s films 𝘜𝘍𝘖 and 𝘗𝘐𝘟𝘐𝘓𝘓𝘈𝘛𝘐𝘖𝘕.
Co-presented with the Winnipeg Film Group. Curated by Meganelizabeth Diamond.
LILLIAN SCHWARTZ, PIXILLATION, 1970, 4 MINS
PIXILLATION occurred at a time when the computer system was linear in time and space; Programs did not yet control pixels as moving, malleable palettes so Lillian F. Schwartz only coded a few lines of computer-generated black and white texture that she intermixed with colored hand animation. She developed an editing technique so that colors between the two media were usually matched, but sometimes mismatched to permit the eye to see an even more saturated color arrangement. The film can be viewed in either 2D or 3D without pixel shifting although one must wear chroma-depth glasses.
“With computer-produced images and Moog-synthesized sound Pixillation is in a sense an introduction to the electronics lab. But its forms are always handsome, its colors bright and appealing, its rhythms complex and inventive.” – Roger Greenspun, N. Y. Times. Golden Eagle-Cine 1971. Moog sound by Gershon Kingsley; Version III: pulls the viewer into a primal experience. Awards:Red Ribbon Award for Special Effects from The National Academy of Television, Arts & Sciences; The Smithsonian Institution and The United States Department of Commerce, Travel Services for Man & His World at the Montreal Expo, ’71; collection The Museum of Modern Art. Commissioned by AT&T. Recent screening at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, December 10, 2012.
LILLIAN SCHWARTZ, UFOs, 1971, 3 MINS
Invented first 2D/3D Film without Pixel Shifting.
UFOs involved developing special color filters used on anoptical bench in reshooting original rolls, but to heighten the color saturation exponentially, black frames were inter-edited so that the eyes’ cones were constantly refreshed, the saturation never diminished, and there was a shift in the brain’s alpha rhythm so that observers had conflicting reations. A film breakthrough that literally created an individualized viewing experience.
Music by Emmanuel Ghent. “UFOs proves that computer animation–once a rickety and gimmicky device–is now progressing to the state of an art. The complexity of design and movement, the speed and rhythm, the richness of form and motion, coupled with stroboscopic effects is unsettling. Even more ominously, while design and action are programmed by humans, the ‘result’ in any particular sequence is neither entirely predictable … being created at a rate faster and in concatenations more complex than eye and mind can follow or initiate.” – Amos Vogel, Village Voice. Awards: Ann Arbor-1971; International award-Oberhausen, 1972; 2nd Los Angeles International Film Festival; Museum of Modern Art collection; Commissioned by AT&T. Recent screening at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, December 10, 2012.
SABRINA RATTÉ, ACTIVATED MEMORY I, 2011, 6.5 MINS
Activated Memory is a journey through a serene landscape where the trees and fields are at once surreal and familiar.Through the use of video feedback, 3d animation and color manipulations, the pictures render a new kind of space, a virtual world where only fragments of “reality” subsist.
SABRINA RATTÉ, AURAE, 2012, 2.5 MINS
AURAE, is a video based on a photograph manipulated digitally and processed through electronic signals. The architectural forms constantly falling apart and their changing textures evoke the ephemeral nature of perception, and suggest the idea of time and its influence on this perception.
SABRINA RATTÉ, THE LAND BEHIND, 2013, 5 MINS
Traveling on an undefined territory where the illusion of a continuous tracking shot emphasizes an unreachable destination. Through the syncopated editing and multiple transitions, images of the area themselves become traveling entities, creating confusion on the level of the depicted space as much as with the level of its temporality.
SABRINA RATTÉ, VISTES POSSIBLES, 2014, 7 MINS
Visites Possibles explores the possibilities of creating 3D environments based on video images generated by electronic signals. Inspired by architectural renderings and the idea of virtual tour, the video invites the viewer to visit its structure through specific parameters. Throughout the visit, entities arise and disappear regularly as if haunting the environment. Visites Possibles also acts as a transitory space where multiple doors open on potential virtual experiences.
SABRINA RATTÉ, BIOMES I & 4, 2017, 5 MINS
Biomes is a series of 4 paintings in motion inspired by surrealist landscapes. Digital and analog video techniques are used to simulate painterly effects in an interplay between soft, harsh, mat and shiny surfaces, different shades of light and the illusion of depth or flatness. Biomes are portraits of post human environments where uncanny life forms materialize and slowly detach themselves from the horizon, to finally melt into their respective landscapes.
SABRINA RATTÉ, UNDREAM, 2018, 7 MINS
Undream depicts an imagined future where utopia and dystopia collapse, inspired by the photomontages of Superstudio – a major force in the Radical architecture and design movement of the late 1960s. Undream leads the viewer through an isolated landscape, overhung by a monumental structure. The architecture morphs between impossible surfaces and underlying order, interfering with the landscape as it undulates in and out of existence. Swept up in this movement, we are suspended in an impossible abandoned territory between the built environment and the natural world.
SABRINA RATTÉ, MACHINE FOR LIVING: MONTIGNY-LE-BRETONNEUX, 2018, 2 MINS
Machine for Living is a project elaborated in the context of a 9 month residency at Château Ephémère (Carrière-sous-Poissy, France). The video series investigates the architecture of the new towns (Villes nouvelles) and brutalist habitation buildings in the surroundings of Paris. Cities such as Noisy-le-Grand, Montigny-le-Bretonneux, Créteil, Grigny, Cergy-Pontoise, Nanterre and Ivry-sur-Seine were at the center of this research. Created using photographs, 3D animation and video synthesizer, Machine for living combines documentation and abstraction and straddles the line between utopia and dystopia.
SABRINA RATTÉ, INSCAPE, 2019, 5 MINS
Inscape is a single channel video mixing 3D animation and video synthesis. By an interplay between points of views, depth of fields and textures, new details are revealed, transforming the space into abstract compositions. Inspired by the paintings of Kay Sage, Inscape depicts a psychological landscape, where perspectives are constantly shifting.
SABRINA RATTÉ, ACTIVATED MEMORY II, 2011, 4 MINS
Activated Memory is a journey through a serene landscape where the trees and fields are at once surreal and familiar.Through the use of video feedback, 3d animation and color manipulations, the pictures render a new kind of space, a virtual world where only fragments of “reality” subsist.
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