Max Hattler Retrospective

Divisional Articulations in Time and Space

German new media artist Max Hattler works primarily with abstract animation, video installation and audiovisual performance. This programme features 13 short animations by the artist from 2005-2017. Max’s work explores relationships between abstraction and figuration, aesthetics and politics, sound and image, and precision and improvisation.

  • Total Run Time: 53 minutes

AANAATT (2008)

4:45 min
Germany/Japan/UK

The ever-shifting shape of Analogue Futurism: an endlessly mobile sequence of animated Bauhaus-style shapes and compositions. 100% digital-effects free.

All Rot (2015)

4:00 min
Germany/Hong Kong/UK

Responding to the compositional and aesthetic qualities of abstract expressionism and cameraless animation, All Rot uses photographic reanimation to render the mundane environment of a decaying crazy golf course into a rapturous split-screen experiment in synaesthetic cinema.

A Very Large Increase in the Size, Amount, or Importance of Something Over a Very Short Period of Time (2013)

2:15 min
Germany/Russia/UK

Taking inspiration from early 20th century visual music experiments, this short piece employs digital animation and sound micro-editing to embody an ever-changing audiovisual creature which expresses itself through abstract shapes, sounds, movements and melodies.

Collision (2005)

2:30 min
Germany/UK

Islamic patterns and American quilts and the colours and geometry of flags as an abstract field of reflection.

Divisional Articulations (2017)

4:33 min
Germany/Hong Kong/UK

Repetition and distortion drive this audiovisual collaboration between composer Lux Prima and visual artist Max Hattler, where fuzzy analogue music and geometric digital animation collide in an electronic feedback loop, and spawn arrays of divisional articulations in time and space.

Drift (2007)

3:33 min
Germany/UK

A blue planet and some ‘air.

Heaven and Hell (2010)

2:00 min
Germany/Denmark/UK

Animation loop diptych inspired by the work of French outsider artist Augustin Lesage.

Nachtmaschine (2005)

3:00 min
Germany/UK

Night vs. light, music vs. motion, figuration vs. abstraction. A hypnotic dance of simple forms interpreting the ordinary world that surrounds us.

Shift (2012)

3:00 min
Germany/UK

Using the New Age idea of a ‘dimensional shift’ as inspiration, Shift combines science fiction themes through abstract, stop motion animation of objects and colour. It is an attempt to visualise higher dimensions and unearthliness, taking into account these concepts’ heightened awareness when attempting to process or predict the end of the world.

Spin (2010)

3:55 min
Germany/France/UK

Toy soldiers marching and moving in harmony, spinning and rotating, erupting and exploding. When conflict becomes a spectacle, the lines between destruction and entertainment get blurred.

Spin (2010)

9:00 min
Germany/Denmark/Netherlands/UK

Animated film as a never-ending mandala pattern rotating around its central axis: A quest to discover the unchanging origin of all things.

Well (2018)

4:00 min
Germany/Hong Kong

Exclusive preview of soon-to-be-released audiovisual collaboration between composer Julien Mier, director Max Hattler, and a group of animators from the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.

X (2012)

6:00 min
Germany/UK

The unknown X becomes a whole symphony of shapes. In a kinetic energetic otherworld where everything is by itself yet can intersect with each other, cross-action seems the best way to solve an unknown equation. Documentation of a water screen projection presented on Regent’s Canal in London.

* Max Hattler will be performing in the Music & Audio-visual Programme on Friday, 24 Nov, 9:30pm with local live musicians.

Biography:

 

MAX HATTLER (Germany) studied at Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Art, and received a Doctorate in Fine Art from the University of East London. His work has been presented around the world, such as at Beijing Minsheng Museum, Sonar Hong Kong, Filmfest Dresden, MoCA Taipei, and Exploratorium San Francisco. Awards include Third Culture Film Festival, Bradford Animation Festival, and several Visual Music Awards. He has performed live around the world, including at Playgrounds Festival, Seoul Museum of Art, EXPO Milano and the European Media Art Festival. Max has been on the jury of over 30 festivals including Animafest Zagreb, CutOut Fest Mexico, Punto y Raya Festival, Filmwinter Stuttgart, and Tehran International Animation Festival. He is an Assistant Professor at the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong.