XXII INTERNATIONAL IMAGE FESTIVAL

 

A joint project of the CYFEST International Media Art Festival and XXII International Image Festival, XENOlandscapes

festivaldelaimagen.com

Installation & Performance 

Vasilii Bakanov and Andrew Strokov
Slow burning. Still Life

Installation, 2020 (edition of 2021)

 OpenCV, Python, Arduino; 3x black box (thermally insulated), heaters, temperature and humidity sensor, HD webcam, flood light, DIN rail, microcontroller modules, Raspberry PI, Korg Monotron Delay, fruits

Engineers Andrew Strokov, Alexey Grachev, Alexander Bochkov; 3D modeling Alexander Bochkov; Python programming Andrew Strokov

Supported by CYLAND Media Art Lab

 Three fruits on pedestals are contained inside a black box. In artificially created and regularly maintained conditions, the fruits pass through three chemical reactions — caramelization, the Maillard reaction and enzymatic browning. Usually, these processes take place within minutes in cooking. Here they are intentionally prolonged in time. Inside the box constant humidity and a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius are maintained, thus killing bacteria which cause decay. In ideal and constantly controlled conditions, the fruits preserve their form, and burn up inside from day to day at the lowest possible speed.

 Visitors can observe the slowly burning still life by watching it in real-time on the video panel placed on the boxes. But the main activity remains hidden and takes place at the molecular level. Its tangible manifestation is a monotonous soundtrack performed by the fruits themselves. Information about the external appearance of each fruit is converted into sound waves. The processes inside the box are analyzed and sonified by an analog synthesizer. The sound pitch and timbre depend on temperature, humidity, fruit size and color. As the fruit burns up, the sound “burns up” as well and becomes increasingly dull and quiet.

 The process is an artificially prolonged borderline state of “in between”. The metamorphosis is too slow to perceive by the naked eye. Because of the unnatural maximum delay, all differences vanish in the abyss of time to the accompaniment of a droning trio. However, it is still an open question as to whether the process will proceed in the way that was intended. Every effort has been made, all we can do is to wait and see what will happen next.

​Anna Frants
Artist Union. Still life.

From the series “Matter of Chance”

Media installation, 2019

In collaboration with CYLAND Media Art Lab

Courtesy of the Kolodzei Art Foundation

 “Artist Union. Still life” is a reflection on the law of large numbers. Is it applicable in visual arts — to colors in painting, lines in graphics, forms in sculpture, and the image integrity in installations? The law of large numbers is a principle that describes the completion of the same experiment many times. According to this law, the joint action of a large number of random factors leads to a result almost independent of the chance. For example, in the XVI century the length of the English foot was defined, by a royal order, as the arithmetic average length of the foot of the first 16 people leaving the church on Sunday matins. Although the law of large numbers was not yet defined, it serves as the basis for the principle of arithmetic mean used in determining the length of a foot.

​Sergey Komarov 
Murmuration

Generative a/v installation, 2023

Key process: real-time generated video and sound;

Programming languages / Software: Max/MSP/Jitter

Technical components: Mac mini, USB-MIDI, Yamaha TX7 FM synthesizer, short throw projector, speakers

Installation components: Installation environment: chicken wire mesh (40x40x90cm), English edition of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Pale Fire”

Concept, Engineer: Sergey Komarov 

Place of creation: Yerevan, Armenia

One of the hypotheses of what murmuration is — the preparation of birds for migration, the training of young animals, and the debugging of interaction within the flock. Another meaning of the word “murmuration” is the noise made up of the chatter of the crowd. An interesting fact is that while murmuring, birds make humming sounds, as if they are in a trance or chatting.

In this work, the cloud of murmuring dots-birds represents the wave of migration that occurred in 2022. This is a flock of temporarily settled people who have found a place under the roof, but dreaming of returning everything as it was. They are circling, preparing either to settle down, or to move somewhere further.

Within this set, each point pulls its own connections. The process of migration involves the arrangement of relatives and friends, the new organization of work and household processes, the movement of pets and things to which there is affection.

The algorithm for simulating a flock of birds is associated with such a thing — a synthesizer taken with you on a migration. The movement of the flock creates a meditative soundtrack. At the same time, the old synthesizer periodically chocking with the data flow, leaving in indistinct noise.

The book by Vladimir Nabokov, “Pale Fire” is placed under one of the speakers. The excerpt from it was used in the movie “Blade Runner 2049” as a test on the mental stability of a replicant. It is turned out to be in tune with this artwork  

— Were you ever arrested? Cells.

— Did you spend much time in the cell? Cells.

— Have you ever been in an instituion? Cells.

— Do they keep you in a cell? Cells.

— When you’re not performing your duties do they keep you in a little box? Cells. Interlinked.

— What’s it like to hold the hand of someone you love? Interlinked.

— Do they teach you how to feel finger to finger? Interlinked.

— Do you long for having your heart interlinked? Interlinked.

— Do you dream about being interlinked?

— Have they left a place for you where you can dream? Interlinked.

— What’s it like to hold your child in your arms? Interlinked.

— What’s it like to play with your dog? Interlinked.

— Do you feel that there’s a part of you that’s missing? Interlinked.

— Do you like to connect to things? Interlinked.

— What happens when that linkage is broken? Interlinked.

— Have they let you feel heartbreak? Interlinked.

— Did you buy a present for the person you love? Within cells interlinked.

— Why don’t you say that three times? Within cells interlinked. Within cells interlinked. Within cells interlinked.

​Alexey Grachev, Alexander Bochkov, Sergey Komarov
Symphony for 2 bicycles

The artists on the bikes regulate the sound and rhythm by their pedaling, and together create the final work. How the “symphony” is performed depends on the motion of both cyclists. The intentions and aspirations of the participant acquire sonic expression. They may become synchronized, and try to turn the pedals in the same rhythm, to be in harmony. Or they may intentionally disturb this and cause harmonic fluctuations, creating complex combinations of sounds that arise when movements are not synchronized.

​Video

Lydia Rikker
Dolls

2019, 00:06:54

“Who do children’s dolls smile at innocently? What do their older versions, the mannequins in shop windows, keep silent about? Using found footage of a study of Freud’s “The Uncanny” (Unheimlichkeit), the director peers into the depths of childhood fears. For almost 7 minutes, along with the director we try to understand what it means to be a toy, what it means to be an owner, and how people differ from their plastic doubles”.

The experimental film ‘Dolls’ became the ‘Best International Student Experimental Short Film’ in the Festival Universitario de Cine y Audiovisuales Equinoxio Bogotá (Colombia), also it was screened in the following festivals: Biofiction (Vienna, Austria), FIVA Festival Internacional de Videoarte (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Bethlehem Student Film Festival (Palestine). The film was made while studying in the experimental film laboratory (curated by Mikhail Zheleznikov, Saint Petersburg School of New Cinema). 

​Lilia Li-Mi-Yan, Katherina Sadovsky
Where is my plastic bag

2018–2020, 00:05:00

What ideas come to your mind when you hear the word “future”? Do you imagine your very own and private future or fantasize about something global, where all humanity will participate?

​The film features slow industrial images from different departments of a plastic processing plant, shown on three screens. Suddenly, among the powerful machines, a fragile human body appears with strange plastic objects that look like cells, like new organs formed outside, not inside. Some cyborgs with implants that move and breathe with them.

Macro shooting of factory processes resembles natural phenomena, such as volcanic eruptions, geyser explosions, the rapid flow of a mountain river, and at the top of all this is a human, possibly already a post-human. All this is very anthropocentric. Today, humans are the most important at the geophysical level, and global warming is our business. The burning of various types of energy in large quantities (oil, gas, the production of petroleum products, plastics). Can we stop them?

​This is interesting. Seen from a social point of view, not scientific, many people relate to environmental issues separately from humanity. As if the consequences, in our case — from plastic, will negatively affect nature, the planet, but not us. We seem to separate ourselves from nature. It is unlikely that now producers and processors of petroleum products will quit their activities. But they will have to adapt to the present, the future, and modify their actions.

​