nettime: Festival antwerpen: kino-Eye

[asinema@glo.be (De andere Film)]

Geert,
`Hier is het programma voor het november festival:

Kino-Eye2: Antwerp/Belgium 22-24 November 1996

In November the second edition of the Filmmaker's Festival will take place
in Antwerp. As part of this annual festival De andere Film/AS-Andere
Sinema/Centrum voor Beeldcultuur have put together a conference weekend
(22, 23, 24 November) focussing on the latest developments in electronic
media, that will both question and illustrate the most important results of
a first phase in the so-called digital "revolution." Unlike other
festivals, conferences and workshop Kino-Eye2 does not want to sustain the
false impression that the future has already been realized today. Nor do we
want to add to the blind speculation about the electronic tidal wave of the
next millennium. The purpose of this conference is to provide a critical
overview of new trends, evolutions and achievements that present a clean
break with the ways in which the "image" has heretofore been perceived,
experienced and presented. Our festival space accomodates only the most
mature ideas about film, video, animation, CD-ROM and various
cybertechnologies.
The programme for Kino-Eye2 will consist of film and video screenings,
lectures, demonstrations and installations. By the end of this three
day-conference we hope to have given our audience an interesting cross
section of the most exciting images that can already seen on the screens
and monitors of the next millennium.
Guests like Mark Dery (author of "Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End
of the Century", Scott Bukatman (author of "Terminal Identity: The Virtual
Subject in Post-modern Science Fiction"), Michel Bauwens (former editor of
the Belgian cyber-magazine Wave) and Erkki Huhtamo (author of "The Handbook
of the Virtual Voyager" en all-round critic of "ride films") will discuss
the social, economic, spiritual and psychological dimensions of cyberspace,
and analyse our uncertain perspective on a rapidly evolving information
society. While Mark Dery is primarily concerned with the annotation of
myths that come into being with the new information technologies, Scott
Bukatman shows us the mechanics behind the magic of a high-technological
fury and searches for new ways to reconcile spectacle, utopia, reality and
spirituality. Erkki Huhtamo analyses the spectacle of "ride films",
simulators that give movies a more "visceral" edge. Michel Bauwens provides
us with a historian's perspective on the "etherealization" of society, and
explores the links between alternative forms of religion and/or
spirituality and the digital altar of cyberspace. Richard Wright (author of
"Heliocentrum" and lecturer on computer animation) and Jim Gasperini
(author of the CD-ROM project "ScruTiny in the Great Round") will review
the praxis of new information technologies, video art and computer
animation.


"I am the camera's eye. I am the machine which shows you the world as I
alone see it. Starting from today, I am forever free of human immobility. I
am in perpetual movement (...) I run before running soldiers - I throw
myself down on my back - I rise up with the aeroplanes - I fall and I fly
at one with the bodies falling or rising through the air." (Dziga Vertov)


Dziga Vertov, the man with the camera, was one of the first artists of the
twentieth century who was perfectly aware of the revolutionary impact of
the visual media on modern man's reflection about his own being. Vertov's
enthusiasm for the new medium of film clearly showed in his conviction that
reality could be discovered through the camera eye. While photography had
already shown that there was more to the world than can be perceived by the
naked human eye, it was only with the eighteen frames per second of the
moving film image that this unknown realm could really be experienced and
explored. Film pioneer Dziga Vertov approached the Kino-apparatus with
fysical abandon and thought it capable of adequately representing his
sociopolitical environment. He strongly opposed artists who used the new
medium to escape their environment and drift off into a virtual fantasy
world that tried to disguise what the Kino-Glass had uncovered.

At the end of the century that began with Vertov's Man with the Camera the
social resonance of new electronic media has once again become part of the
public debate. The hi-tech media of the latter part of the twentieth
century allude to a drastic transformation of human experience. We are made
to believe that the reality Vertov tried to represent has now become
obsolete, can be left behind for a virtual world of wonder that is achieved
by an ideal human-machine interface. Kino-Eye2, a festival about new media
and the expectations they create, will confront Vertov (and his ambition to
discover reality through a new medium) with countless cybermyths that try
to do away with all social and political reality.


Programme

VR 22/11

19.00 Festival Opening

20.00 Lecture Mark Dery: Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century
Dery describes the contemporary obsession with technological escapism.
Cyberpunks, body artists and sixties gurus make an appearance in Dery's
travelogue for the computer culture.

21.30 'The Digital Body': the body seduced by cybermyths and subcultures
The Third Wave (Norman Cowie, USA, 1995, 3', video)
Video-rap that pokes fun at the sixties rhetoric of cyberprophets Alvin and
Heidi Toffler.
Video Cannibalism (Vincent Carelli, Brazil, 1995, 16'50, video)
'The Gods Must be Crazy' for the video generation. Fast forward into the
future for a small tribe in the Brazilian rain forest.
Inside Fiction, Outside War (Martin Koch/Violet Suk, A, 1995, 5', video)
Industrial trash from the heart of the steel industry. Fuckhead: hardcore
cyberpunk for man-machines.
Stomach Sculpture (Stelarc, AUS, 1993, 11', video)
Macho-performer Stelarc swallows a crab-like robotic device and observes
his body's reaction through an endoscopic camera.
A Bitter Message of hopeless Grief (Survival Research Laboratories, USA,
1989, 13', video)
Mark Pauline transforms derelict machinery into demonic war machines. The
tinkerer as techno-rebel.
A Portrait of Arshile (Atom Egoyan, GB, 1996, 5', video)
The director of The Adjuster and Exotica reflects on history and the image,
bodies and names.

22.30 Rubber's Lover (Fukui Shojin, Japan 1995, 92', film): Delirious
rethinking of the Frankenstein myth; mad scientists experiment with the
amount of chemicals the human brain can tolerate. For Tetsuo's many fans...

ZA 23/11

14.00 Lecture Jim Gasperini: Moving pictures when you move them: Time and
the esthetic experience (cd-rom). Gasperini discusses the influence of
'interactive' media on traditional art forms and concentrates on the
idiosyncratic temporal experience of new moving images.

15.30 Lecture Michel Bauwens: Cyberspirituality (internet). Bauwens goes
where 2001 feared to tread and discusses various manifestations of
'cybermysticism.' The idea of 'the ghost in the machine' is traced in
Kabbalistic rituals, Sufism, Hare Krishna and the Whole Earth Catalog.

17.00 Ride Film Compilation (1): "The Ride of Your Life': The Secrets of
the Luxor Pyramid (IMAX Ridefilm), Megalopolice (Sega Enterprises),
Robocop: The Ride (IWerks Entertainment), Virtual Adventures (Iwerks
Entertainment), Space Race (Showscan Corporation).

20.00 Lecture Scott Bukatman: Exploding the Frame (caleidoscopic film
experiences). Bukatman explores the interzone between image and retina. He
discusses film genres and techniques that employ the 'spectacular' to
subvert traditional audience response.

21.30 'Digital Bodies': state of affairs; computer animation that moves
beyond the formalistic.
The City is No Longer Safe (Butler Brothers, GB, 1993, 2', video)
'A brave new hareworld.' Animated rabits under the reign of the Carrot.
Haretown is about to explode!
Tall Story (George Snow, GB, 1995, 4', video)
The city as man's most important invention. Morfing buildings behave like
fysical bodies.
Heliocentrum (Jason White/Richard Wright, GB, 1995, 7', video)
Memoirs of Louis XIV in a brilliantly pompous animation. The Sun King as
cyberprophet.
Butcher's Hook (Simon Pummell, GB, 1995, 7', video)
A vivisectionist's inferno. The embalmed body is brought back to life.
Citˇs Antˇrieures - Bruges (Christian Boustani, F, 1995, 11', video)
Fifteenth Century Bruges as a product of cyberalchemy. Memling with paintbox.
No Sell Out! (Tony Cokes, USA, 1995, 6', video)
Guerilla MTV. Slogans and historic TV footage in a sharp critique of white
economics.
Guns: Boundaries of Mankind (Paul Swadel, NZ, 1995, 10', video)
What happens when the information flow breaks down and a computer virus is
rampant?

22.30 Sonic Outlaws (Craig Baldwin, USA 1995, 87', film): energetic mix of
interview fragments and found footage. Sample culture (the copyright war
between Negativland and U2) and controversial media hackers.

ZO 24/11

14.00 Lecture Richard Wright: My Wonderful Life in the Exciting and
Glamorous World of Computer Graphics: allegories and hybrid documentaries
(computer animation). Wright explores the wonderful world of computer
animation and compares 'old' and 'new' art forms.

15.30 'The Rumour of True Things': the delirium of infinite progress
Faust Mˇdusˇ (Alain Pelletier, CAN/F, 1995, 24', video)
The becoming of man and the evolution from gas, liquid and secretion to
pixel and electrode.
The Rumour of True Things (Paul Bush, GB, 1996, 26', 16mm)
Computer games and military programmes conserve our society for the future.

17.00 Ride Film Compilation (2): 'The Ride of Your Life' continues: Seafari
(Rhythm & Hues), The Guardian (Kia Motors/Rhythm & Hues), Astro Canyon
(Talent Factory/Movida), Cosmic Pinball (Talent Factory, Showscan/Club
d'Investissement Media).

20.00 Lecture Erkki Huhtamo: Encapsulated Bodies in Motion (ride films).
Huhtamo debates our fascination with simulated worlds and the attraction of
ride films as visceral experience. 'Hold on to your seats!' will never
sound corny again.

21.30 Closing Debate

22.30 Confusing the People (Enredando As Pessoas) (Eder Santos, Brazil,
1995, 71', video): a prophet discovers he can project his thoughts onto
other people's minds through visual mediation. This cyber-version of astral
projection results in Babylonian confusion.

Extra Screenings

Synthetic Pleasures (Iara Lee, USA 1995, 83', 35mm): profile of the digital
era. Spectacular imagery, cyber-gurus Jaron Lanier and John Perry Barlow,
and ambient/techno on the soundtrack.

Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, Japan/GB 1995, 87', 35mm): superdeluxe
Manga anime about an artificial intelligence that threatens to destroy 21st
Century Tokyo and an elite corps of cybercops that must prevent the
cataclysm.

Lectures

Mark Dery: Mark Dery is the author of Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the
End of the Century, an evocation of computer subcultures that have
drastically re-imagined our information society. Dery has published widely
in Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, Wired and Mondo 2000. The Dutch
translation of Escape Velocity, 'Het Digitale Lichaam' (Hadewijch/De Prom,
1996), will be presented during a special press conference.

Jim Gasperini: Jim Gasperini is co-author (with Tennessee Rice Dixon) of
the cd-rom ScruTiny in the Great Round, a hypnotic, erotic, interactive
experience that explores the subconscious through poetry, music, film and
literature. Gasperini has published on the impact of digital technologies
on modern and postmodern art, and the nuts-and-bolts praxis of interactive
media.

Michel Bauwens: Michel Bauwens is Internet consultant, critic and former
editor of the Belgian cyberzine Wave. Bauwens is considered Belgium's
foremost Internet-connoisseur but prefers to present himself as a
cybercritic who focusses on both the pragmatic/political and the spiritual
side of the Internet debate. Bauwens is currently working with video artist
Frank Theys.

Scott Bukatman: Scott Bukatman is the author of Terminal Identity: The
Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction. He is associate professor of
Media Studies at the university of New Mexico. Bukatman's recent
publications focus on the liberatory potential of special effects. Bukatman
couples Douglas Trumbull with Gene Kelly and explores the true nature of
industrial light and magic.

Richard Wright: Richard wright is a media artist who specializes in
computer animation and digital effects. He has published widely on
technology and culture, and teaches computer graphics at the prestigious
London Guildhall University. His most recent project is Heliocentrum, a
computer animation about Louis XIV and the technology of leisure that can
be experienced as a Seventeenth Century rave video.

Erkki Huhtamo: Erkki Huhtamo teaches Media Studies at the University of
Lapland. He is a writer, researcher and curator. His most important
publications deal with the phenomenon of the ride film, a virtual roller
coaster that envolves the audience in an extremely visceral cinema
experience. Huhtamo's lecture will be preceded by a video compilation of
representative ride films.

Agora Space

Continous presentations from Friday/Sunday (11.00 am to midnight)

CD-Rom Gallery: a selection of cd-roms:
ScruTiny in the Great Round (Jim Gasperini & Tennessee Rice Dixon, USA, 1995)
The circle of life as audiovisual trajectory from William Blake to the Book
of the Dead.
Cyberflesh/Girlmonster (Linda Dement, AUS, 1995)
Flora Petrinsularis (Jean-Louis Boissier, F, 1994)
Bio-Morphing Encyclopedia (Nobuhiro Shibayama, J, 1994)
P.A.W.S. (Alan Snow, USA, 1994)
Bad Day on the Midway (The Residents & Jim Ludtke, USA, 1995)

Video Library: documentaries, histories, compilations: digital culture,
computer animation, cyberart, etc.

Internet Terminals: sites seen and unseen, festival information, digital AS

Bookstore: recent and relevant publications on cyberculture, info-hype,
techno-subcultures, digital bodies and virtual vortices.

AS Site

AS is a bi-monthly publication on media, technology and the body politic.
The November-December issue of AS serves as a festival reader and will
include articles by Bauwens, Bukatman, Dery, Gasperini, Huhtamo and Wright.
The AS Site (http://www.gva.be/filmfestival starting November 1) links
related cybercriticism, electronic magazines, chat groups and internet
paraphernalia: from Marshall McLuhan to Cyberotica and back.

Kino-Eye2 is a production of De andere Film/AS-Andere Sinema/Centrum voor
Beeldcultuur in association with Internationaal Filmfestival van
Vlaanderen.
Tickets=150 Bef. (fl. 8,-) Day tickets=500 Bef. (fl. 27,-) (six
presentations-screenings). Admittance to the Agora Space is free with
ticket or day ticket.
Location: Museum voor Fotografie (Museum of Photography); Waalse Kaai 47
Antwerpen. By car: Antwerp freeway - Exit: Antwerpen Centrum/Schelde.
Public transportation: bus 23, 1, 6, 34
Info.: De andere Film, Rotterdamstraat 82, 2060 Antwerpen (Tel. 0032-3-234
16 40)
e-mail asinema@glo.be
Reservations + festival info.: 0032-3-544 36 11 (Filmfestival van Antwerpen)
Homepage: http://www.gva.be/filmfestival



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