We are delighted to announce Jeff Weber’s participation in the upcoming Anthology Film Archives’ Imageless Films screening program on Saturday, June 25th at 7:30pm. The program includes Jeff Weber’s Untitled (Neural Network, nn_oxb_1) and Sequences I-IV, along with films by Peter Kubelka, Paul Sharits, John Cavanaugh and Victor Grauer.
UNTITLED (NEURAL NETWORK, NN_OXB_1), 2021, 1 min, 35mm, silent
A 1,440-frame-long film that has been made with a score generated and coded in Python. The structure of the film relies on the automated organization of six different grey tones that correspond to the dynamic range of the film print stock used. The film explores the idea of an externalization of the cognitive instance that occurs through the application of artificial intelligence, and the recursive principles it relies on: the work resonates and interferes with the very system that initially has constituted the model for the structure applied on it.
SEQUENCES (I), 2021, 11 sec, 35mm, silent
SEQUENCES (II), 2021, 11 sec, 35mm, silent
SEQUENCES (III), 2021, 11 sec, 35mm, silent
SEQUENCES (IV), 2021, 11 sec, 35mm, silent
These short films are built upon the number of grey tones determined by the dynamic range of the film print stock used, and converted into numeric values between 1 and 6. These then constitute an initial sequence that is altered and iterated through the program by means of a specific algorithm and a pre-determined method – a kind of weaving together of numeric values.
IMAGELESS FILMS, PART 3
If there’s one central element that would seem to be intrinsic and indispensable to any reasonable definition of the cinema it would be the presence of imagery, whether photographed, animated, or generated through more experimental methods such as hand-painting, scratching, collaging, and so on. Nevertheless, throughout the history of the medium, artists have challenged even this seemingly core tenet of the art form by producing works that subvert or entirely dispense with the image, by expanding the definition of the kinds of experience that can be shared within the space of the cinema, or by provocatively defining as “cinema” performances that might seem a thing apart.
These subversions of the idea of a medium of “moving images” have taken many forms: works that emphasize spoken dialogue or sound collages; films whose visual tracks consist primarily of written text; projector performances that showcase or manipulate light and darkness; flicker films; pure color studies; films that punctuate long stretches of darkness with near-subliminal bursts of imagery; and so on and so forth.
This ongoing series represents an extended, in-depth, and multi-chapter exploration of the various ways that filmmakers and artists have experimented with the possibilities of an “imageless” cinema (or have played with the idea of “emptiness” or visual subtraction in a more general sense). The series began in April, and continues throughout the summer with films by Lawrence Andrews, Bradley Eros, Takahiko Iimura, Andrew Lampert, Louise Lawler, Malcolm Le Grice, Maurice Lemaître, Luther Price, Paul Sharits, and many others.
In addition, Microscope Gallery will participate by presenting a number of expanded cinema works or pieces that are specially designed for a gallery space; for more info visit: microscopegallery.com
Programmed by Jed Rapfogel, in collaboration with Bradley Eros and John Klacsmann. Special thanks to Elle Burchill & Andrea Monti (Microscope Gallery); Lawrence Andrews; Rebecca Cleman, Tyler Maxin, and Karl McCool (Electronic Arts Intermix); Jeanne Cousseau; Tim Haines; Andrew Lampert; Emmanuel Lefrant & Eleni Gioti (Light Cone); Ninon Liotet & Martina Aschbacher (Lost But Found); and Jeff Weber.
