Category Archives: work in progress

New references after “Environmental Agency: A Landscape Film Programme” at the BFI

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Emily Richardson

emrichardson redshiftRedshift by Emily Richardon

The film has a gentle intensity to it, and is composed of changes of light across the sea, sky and mountains. It shows movement where there is apparent stillness, whether in the formation of weather patterns, movement of stars, the illumination of a building by passing car headlights or boats darting back and forth across the sea’s horizon.

(Some previews at arte.tv)

and Inger Lise Hansen

hus.ingerlisehansenHus by Inger Lise Hansen

- Hus is a film which attempts to reveal the private and hidden layers of our habitation (…) It is a film about time and processes, about disintegration and construction. -In Hus I was interested in physically deconstructing and reconstructing one object. I imagined the house as a shell that separates “private and public spheres”. Through the use of animation I could open up this “shell” and examine it.

(I’ve recently wrote a proposal where I explained something very similar about the “house layers”)

One her incredible upside down landscapes (excerpt from Travelling Fields):

Tejido Digital de Fernando Cremades

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fernando cremades01

Descripción:
Construir un tejido aislante del paisaje residual. Una membrana protectora.
Esta envolvente, protege al humano de las interacciones del paisaje del espacio público-libre. Este traje aislante modifica la respiración, la relación-entorno,
relación-temperatura y visibilidad.
 ¿Qué hay dentro de la membrana?
    -Bombona de Oxígeno
    -Sondas alimenticias
    -Agua
 ¿De qué es la membrana
    Plástico translúcido
Quiero dejar de formar parte de este paisaje pero estar dentro
Propongo un tejido digital, libre se interacciones, una atmósfera separada. Este tejido genera olor, sonido…
Quiero generar atmósferas en este cúmulo de interacciones de la  ciudad. Microclima
Vivimos en paisajes fragmentados. No sabemos que es naturaleza, no  existe la naturaleza…Todo es tan falso, tan caótico.
Goodman asoció representación (naturaleza) a  construcción/interpretación

 …El territorio comenzará entonces a construirse en un sistema complejo de interacciones con un comportamiento absolutamente indeterminado e incierto

[via arqueología del futuro]

The great dimension of nomadism in this senile modernity

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Los gitanos nunca tuvieron a donde ir a restañar las heridas del genocidio llevado a cabo con ellos por lo nazis (se calcula que pueden haber sido víctimas de este exterminio hasta un millón y medio de romaníes) porque, pese a todas sus maravillosas creaciones, nunca se inventaron un origen que remitiera a un terruño dado en propiedad por un dios iracundo y arbitrario o un papa abusivo y prepotente, o a símbolos de pertenencia tan disímbolos como la rosa (o las dos rosas, ensangrentadas y luego convertidas en una), el águila bicéfala (o monocéfala y calva), el bulldog y el ciervo rojo, el oso devorador de morojos y la serpiente emplumada… frecuentemente desplumada por el águila calva.

(…)

Cuando vivo demasiado en mi inevitable arraigo mexicano sin democracia, sin civilidad y sin ley ocurre que ya no me desespero como antaño; me aburro. La democracia, la ciudadanía, la ley, la libertad en México son promesas incumplidas que exigen una constante crítica creativa que, cuando no se es asesinado o injustamente encarcelado, a veces por cansancio se deja de ejercer. El arraigo puede ser creativo, y de hecho lo ha sido para mí, pero el desarraigo siempre es más creativo.

by María Virginia Jaua

(the whole article)

Disaster Series

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In 1755 a massive earthquake struck Lisbon, Portugal. Shortly thereafter the entire port was drowned by a tsunami. What ruins remained of Lisbon after the earthquake and tsunami were then engulfed in an enormous fire leaving little left of the capital.

News of the Lisbon disaster quickly spread throughout Europe and had a profound effect on eighteenth century European culture. The philosophers of the day began a prolonged debate about man’s understanding of nature and established natural disasters as a metaphor of the sublime. Meanwhile artists began an aesthetic exploration of the sublime that reached its zenith in romantic landscape painting.

Though the Lisbon disaster occurred over two centuries ago, it is relevant to draw comparisons between it and the influence of recent catastrophes upon contemporary consciousness. The televised images of Hurricane Katrina, the Pakistan earthquake, African droughts, and the southeast asian tsunami can be interpreted as the aesthetic decedents of romantic landscape painting. Similar to the eighteenth century philosophers, current intellectuals are debating man’s relationship to nature in light of global warming and disaster response and prevention.

However, for all the re-runs of disaster documentaries on the Discovery Channel and all of the late night news debates, there is a scarcity of contemporary art that critiques our understanding of nature, catastrophes, and the sublime. Considering the mounting importance of addressing our future relationship with the natural world, I see a renewed need for visual art to examine these issues with contemporary media.

-Virginia Colwell