zblog

another z that’s cutting things in a new way: Kurt Ralske’s “Zero Frames per Second” an exhibition of digital prints, slides, and video:

Kurt’s large-format prints take a new look at the way we view film by transforming an entire movie using self-programmed custom software. He reinterprets the work of Godard, Kubrick, Murnau and others by presenting each film as a single image. Within these images the cinematic experience is freed from duration, narrative, and signification, producing a visually abstract record of the information from the 150,000 or so frames per film. One set of prints represent only the motion that occurs within a film, while another represents only what was motionless within the film.

Kurt generously sent the exhibition notes from the exhibition for zblog and for all for enjoy z detailz:

The Erotic Reverie of the Screen

It began, like many questionable endeavors, with a strange dream. In a
darkened cinema, a film flickers across the screen. But the screen is
not a normal screen made of fabric. Instead, it is some weird kind of
living creature. A sentient being, perhaps an extraterrestrial,
conscious, breathing. The screen-creature is sensitive to the light
that is projected onto it. And it enjoys the sensation. The beams of
light moving across its body are as pleasurable as a lover’s caress.

Later, in the dark. The audience has gone home, the projector has been
turned off. The screen, now alone, recalls the various accumulated
sensations produced by the now-departed film: the warm throb of bright
images washing across its entire surface. The ticklish thrill of a
fast-cut coming-soon trailer. The steady upwards caress of the closing
credits. In the dark, the screen drifts in a state like an erotic
reverie.

Strange dreams are rarely a good basis for deciding one’s future
course of action. However, in this case, it seemed a leap of faith was
being offered in an interesting way. So, whatever, why not try to
represent the memories of a sentient screen? Indirectly, this led to
the works in “Zero Frames per Second”.

but before saying “tot ziens” (another z learned from kurt, “as they say in the Netherlandz!”), there are more z discoveries from Kurt’s impressive work:

Zebra Time:

Live video input and custom software is used to convert an aquarium full of zebra fish into an art-making device. view video (10 mb)

thankz Kurt!
discovered on rhizome