Thursday, 1/14, 6:30pm at Studio-X: "Land and Noise, Space and Silence"

A selection of experimental non-narratives that explore cities of silence, suburbs of noise, indoor discomfort, and a prison wall. Special appearances by filmmakers Benj Gerdes and Katherin McInnis. Free literature.

Featuring:

Democratic Looking, Benj Gerdes, 1:30, 2008
Horizon Lines, Katherin McInnis, 1:00, 2009
Null X, Jans Groot, 6:00, 2004

The Shutdown, Adam Stafford, 10:00, 2009
In Order Not To Be Here,Deborah Stratman, 33:00, 2002
And recent work by Pawel Wojtasik

Free and open to the public. Drinks and talking afterward. RSVP:  gdb2106@columbia.edu

Where: Studio-X New York, 180 Varick Street, Suite 1610. 1 train to Houston Street
http://www.arch.columbia.edu/studiox

[Studio-X is a downtown studio for experimental design and research run by the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University.]

Democratic Looking

Benj Gerdes, Single-channel video, 1:30, 2008

A rally, some questions, bodies in each other’s space.
Horizon Line

Katherin McInnis,1:00, 2009

Horizon Line excavates the relationship between social and natural geographies at Eastern State Penitentiary, one of the first prisons in the United States. The walls were painted to reflect the horizon line outside the walls; the prison’s decay has turned this two dimensional land and sky into intricate textures and layers: a physical incarnation of the passage of time. This is the first work in a series.

Null X

Jans Groot, 6:00, 2004

0000 0000 1110 0111 (NULL X in binary code) is a film about the contemporary built environments. The form of many buildings and infrastructural elements are characterised more and more by an apparent introversion. The place (X) is no longer clearly defined, and the result is that large parts of the landscape of an industrial estate, of vast parking-lots and of shopping malls. The shooting took place around Benidorm, in the anonymous zone on the edge of this pre-eminent Non-Place. The camera tries to watch the world as a projection through a mesh, according to the mathematical perspective.

The Shutdown

Adam Stafford,10:00, 2009

At night, the boring, drab green landscape near the Scottish villages of Falkirk and Grangemouth transforms into a mysterious, almost divine black and orange purgatory. Torches illuminate the discharge of the chemical factories and the smokestacks seem like a silent city. Bissett grew up in this industrial environment and talks about the accident in the factory that left his father disfigured. Menacing music accompanies the raw tone of his voice. He introduces the smokestacks as fire-spouting monsters that gave his father hell and left him with terrible burns. Bissett discusses the orange glow that descends upon the houses, lovers' lanes, and soccer fields of the Scottish villages. At first it seems romantic, but it also serves as an everlasting reminder of the chemical company's more dismal effects: from cancerous substances that cause birth defects to deadly accidents on the job. The footage that cinematographer Leo Bruges shot of the landscape -- an illuminated ghost town -- are like still lifes that illustrate the story Bissett recounts in the voice-over.

In Order Not To Be Here

Dir Deborah Stratman, 33:00, 2002

An uncompromising look at the ways privacy, safety, convenience and surveillance determine our environment. Shot entirely at night, the film confronts the hermetic nature of white-collar communities, dissecting the fear behind contemporary suburban design. By examining evacuated suburban and corporate landscapes, the film reveals a peculiarly 21st century hollowness… an emptiness born of our collective faith in safety and technology. This is a new genre of horror movie, attempting suburban locations as states of mind.