KLEX Open Programme 2 : Nature’s Binary

7:53 min / sound
Laurids Andersen Sonne, Denmark/United States

Passerine in Time is a study of the gestural encounter between the hand of man and the entrapment of birds in it. The film investigates the haptic encounters between man and bird, where the hand becomes an embodiment of man’s desire for knowledge about something other, through the methodical labor of the hand as it repeatedly captures, inspect, measure, band and logs migratory birds before their release. Something other in nature which by a mere flick is capable of something man has reached for in eternity; the freedom of flight. Passerine in Time exists in a space where two creatures and two distinct worlds collide, where the bird is trapped by virtual objects in space on a journey of desire towards its nesting grounds. A journey guided by compasses and perceptions beyond our comprehension.

3:30 min / sound
Milan Zulic, Serbia

An animation made up by my old grandmother’s lace, in which I’ve unlaced, part by part, and scan each part digitally in a moving line. In this case, I’ve a new lace with new technology. This is a story of my contact with my culture and ancestors, and the circle of life of each of us.

5:45 min / sound
Merethe Offerdal Tveit, Norway

They say it is autumn, you can tell that by her.
A mystical girl is seen wandering in the autumn coloured landscape. You want to ask her questions, but as you get closer the questions are turned to you.

6:00 min / sound
Vicky Smith, United Kingdom

The film is a response to the decline of bees. It is made by photogram and animation and developed by hand.

5:37 min / sound
Hiroya Sakurai, Japan

In the man-made waterways of rice paddies, the water in nature must follow artificial rules. In that way, nature is made abstract, giving rise to a new form of beauty distinct from the natural state. The theme of this work is the liveliness of the water as it follows the man-made course. This work is a ballet using the sound and the movement of the algae and water. With the waterway as the theater, I filmed the choreography of the algae that flows in the water. I retained only the frequency that sounds like a person’s voice. The resulting sound that the audience hears is like a chorus.

2:26 min / sound
Olivia Lagacé, Canada

Hanoïed is an endless train ride in the heat of Vietnam. “They say that the East is where to go for the trip of your life. They say that travelling shapes character. They say that to test their feelings, lovers should live it abroad. All of this was true. Vietnam changed us. Vietnam was our Vietnam. I left you there in Vietnam, M.I.A.. and for me, home was never the same again. This poem is a defoliated part of our personal jungle. It’s a raw and still smoking patch of our sentimental landscape. Here’s to a thruce. Here’s to memories. Here’s to peace.”

2:02 min / sound
Elise Shick, Malaysia

Inspired by T.S. Eliot’s poem ‘The Waste Land’, Foliage is an attempt to look at what we can easily overlook in everyday life, such as dried leaves. Each leaf is an individual entity, and carries the weight of time – the cycle of seasons, and the cycle of life. The leaves featured in the video were picked up from the street in front of one of the most crowded mamak (Indian Muslim restaurant) in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. 13 types of leaves (or perhaps more) were identified. They were scanned and grouped in terms of their forms, such as the wrinkles and motifs.

14:20 min / sound
Lee Jangwook, South Korea

Changgyeong Palace was converted into a zoo in the Japanese colonial period and had been functioning for a long time after liberation. The animals in the zoo were massacred before liberation. The zoo, which is now dismantled, is an invisible landscape. Demolition of structures in a space that possesses a specific memory expresses the willingness to overcome it, but eventually leads to loss of memory, that is oblivion.

8:12 min / sound
David Webber, United States

Ritorno # 6 is a collaboration between Peyman Farzinpour (music) and David Webber (video).

8:00 min / sound
Sandrine Deumier, France

Designed in multiple scenes, Realness – Cloud and Dust is an artificial space of vegetal luxuriance with semi-humanoid growths. A virtual fantasy of a symbiosos between the human being and his natural environment.

10:18 min / sound
Andrew Stiff & Thierry Bernard-Gotteland, Vietnam

The hems [alleyways] make up a vast majority of the urban fabric of HCMC. District 4, forms the focus of this video and accompanying soundscape. This is an endangered space, as the city develops and tries to ‘modernise’. Ironically the lifeblood of the hems is regeneration and change, but it is on a scale determined by social networks and their relations, not through maximising land values. The project is part of an ongoing investigation of these hems, and aims to develop the most detailed and comprehensive document of the architectural experience, before it is lost to commercial redevelopment. Sound artist Thierry Bernard-Gotteland, uses MAX/MSP to create a generative soundscape, using audio recordings captured from the same hems.