Natural Time

Natural Time is dedicated to biological rhythms, human speed, the cycles of stars and planets, the sounds that nature creates around us, and the natural time that human hands impose on musical instruments. Keith Fullerton Whitman composed Natural Rhythms for Sonic Acts and the Kontraste Festival. It sounds like free jazz in an electronic gaming arcade. The performance Knowing When by Joel Ryan and Spanish pianist Agustí Fernàndez is an exercise in split-second timing. The innovative post-breakbeat duo Icarus closes the evening with a brand new work. Preceding these musical excursions: explorations of time in experimental films by Robert Breer, Norman McLaren and René Jodoin.

Robert Breer
Blazes
(1961, 3’00, 16 mm, stereo)

100 basic images switching positions over 4000 frames. One continuous explosion. Painter, film- maker, creator of kinetic sculptures and muto- scopes, Robert Breer (US) became known for his experimental animation.

Norman McLaren
Synchromy
(1971, 7’27, 16 mm, colour)

Vibrantly coloured stripes, bars, rectangles and squares. The synthetic soundtrack has been incorporated in the image track of the film so that what we see is what we hear.

René Jodoin
Rectangle and Rectangles
(1984, 8’29, 35 mm)

A didactic film in disguise. Jodoin programmed a computer to co-ordinate a highly complex operation involving an electronic beam of light, colour filters and a camera. This animation film, without words, is designed to expose the power of the cinematic medium, and to illustrate the abstract nature of time.

The films are screened 21:00–21:20.