Date: 6 November 2007 | Season: Chris Welsby | Tags: Chris Welsby, exhibition, Systems of Nature
SYSTEMS OF NATURE: RECENT INSTALLATIONS BY CHRIS WELSBY
6 November – 13 December 2007
London Central Saint Martins College Lethaby Gallery
The exhibition Systems of Nature presents two recent installations by Chris Welsby, a British artist who uses moving image technology to explore the representation of nature, the passing of time and the forces of the weather in relation to the filming process.
Welsby became known as one of the key figures of British artists’ film through celebrated works such as River Yar (1972, in collaboration with William Raban) and Seven Days (1974). In his early films he applied techniques such as using the power of the wind to control camera movement (Wind Vane, 1972) and to alter shutter speed (Anemometer, 1974). More recently, digital technology has enabled Welsby to create increasingly complex installation work.
In Lost Lake #2 (2005) an image of a lake is projected from above onto a raised surface. At times it appears as a motionless mirror image. As the surface of the lake becomes agitated, ripples move faster and the compression of the digital image pixellates the natural diffraction effect of the water.
“Nature, as represented by the lake, is not seen to be separate from the technology that produces it. The viewer is invited to contemplate a model in which nature and technology are seen to be one and the same thing, inextricably bound together in a playful dance of colour and light.” (Chris Welsby)
Disruption of water’s natural course is also at the core of the second work, At Sea (2003), in which four large screens present an apparently naturalistic representation of a seascape. Sustained viewing reveals the image to be four different shots arranged to create a projected panorama. The immersive character of this installation evokes a real sense of looking out at sea, but also points to the perceptual limits we encounter when we try and ‘see’ the enormity of the ocean.
“While half seen objects hover on the threshold of visibility, viewers are invited to consider their own role in the construction of a fiction, a seascape that only exists in the moment of the projection event.” (Chris Welsby)
On Thursday 8 November at 6pm, the history and practice of multi-screen projection in artists’ film and video will be explored in a discussion between Chris Welsby and William Raban. The event will include a rare presentation of Raban and Welsby’s twin-screen film River Yar (1972).
The exhibition is also complemented by Systems of Nature screenings at BFI Southbank from 7-10 November, featuring Chris Welsby’s films, an in-conversation event and two programmes of works by contemporary artists which explore similar concerns and techniques.
Chris Welsby was born in Exeter in 1948 and has lived in Canada since 1989, where he is currently a Professor of Fine Art at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Systems of Nature is Welsby’s first solo exhibition in Britain since 1995.
The exhibition and related events are curated by Steven Ball, Mark Webber and Maxa Zoller for the British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
PROGRAMME NOTES
SYSTEMS OF NATURE: RECENT INSTALLATIONS BY CHRIS WELSBY
6 November – 13 December 2007
London Central Saint Martins College Lethaby Gallery
LOST LAKE #2
Chris Welsby, UK-Canada, 2005, video installation, colour, sound, loop
The imagery comprises a series of eight, three-minute takes, all shot at the same oblique angle to the surface of a small alpine lake. The water surface fills the frame. A constantly changing pattern of ripples plays across the water surface, which reflects an inverted image of trees and rocks on the opposite shore. The eight three-minute takes, recorded over a period of several hours, depict the complex variations in the water surface as the breeze rises and falls. The image of the lake is projected, via a surface silvered mirror, onto a horizontal screen measuring approximately 10ft x 9ft and raised about 18 inches above the gallery floor. Seen from a distance, the surface of the water appears to be miraculously suspended in mid air. Close up, the raised screen gives the water the appearance of having depth. (Chris Welsby)
AT SEA
Chris Welsby, UK-Canada, 2003, 4 channel video installation, colour, sound, loop
A number of video shots of the coast of British Columbia are projected side by side to form a single, continuous moving image. This image contains elements such as ships, buoys, floating driftwood, tree covered islets, sea birds, open ocean, and drifting fog banks. The dominant colour is grey; grey infused with a multitude of ocean blues and greens. The overall feel is somber and mysterious; a study of winter light falling on the surface of water and cloud; an evocative portrait of the Pacific North West. (Chris Welsby)
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Date: 7 November 2007 | Season: Chris Welsby | Tags: Chris Welsby, exhibition, Systems of Nature
CHRIS WELSBY: SYSTEMS OF NATURE
7 – 10 November 2007
London BFI Southbank
This series of programmes begins with a retrospective of single screen 16mm films by Chris Welsby a British artist whose work explores the representation of nature, the passing of time and the forces of the weather in relation to the filming process.
In my work the mechanics of film and video interact with the landscape in such a way that elemental processes – such as changes in light, the rise and fall of tide or changes in wind direction – are given the space and time to participate in the process of representation.
(Chris Welsby)
The Chris Welsby presentations are complemented by two programmes of recent film, video and digital media, which extend and expand upon Welsby’s subjects and processes, concerned as they are with a variety of landscapes and the ‘natural world’ in relation to technology. These processes take a number of forms and techniques such as time-lapse in the work of Emily Richardson and Jeanne Liotta through to more recent experiments such as Semiconductor’s digital constructions of imaginary weather systems and Susan Collins’ real-time pixel fragmentation of the landscape. A conversation event with Chris Welsby, Catherine Elwes and William Fowler will concentrate on seascapes in the moving image.
Chris Welsby has been exhibiting work since 1969. He is renowned as a landscape artist and pioneer of moving image installations. These screenings accompany the exhibition “Systems of Nature” at the Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (6 November – 13 December 2007), which presents two of Welsby’s most recent installations for the first time in the UK.
Curated by Steven Ball, Mark Webber and Maxa Zoller for the British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
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Date: 7 November 2007 | Season: Chris Welsby | Tags: Chris Welsby, Systems of Nature
IN CONVERSATION, AT SEA
Wednesday 7 November 2007, at 6:30pm
London BFI Southbank NFT2
Seascapes have a long history in filmmaking and continue to fascinate moving image artists. Chris Welsby has made a number of works that contemplate the ocean and the inability of the camera, the frame and the viewer to appreciate its enormity; including At Sea, which is installed at the Lethaby Gallery, and Drift, which is screened later tonight. This conversation between Chris Welsby, Catherine Elwes (artist, writer and Reader in Moving Image Art, Camberwell College of Arts) and William Fowler (Curator of Artists’ Moving Image, BFI National Archive) will reflect on the phenomenon of the moving image seascape from early ‘rough seas’ films through to contemporary practice.
The exhibition “Systems of Nature” is at the Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Southampton Row, London from 6 November – 13 December 2007.
Date: 7 November 2007 | Season: Chris Welsby | Tags: Chris Welsby, Systems of Nature
SYSTEMS OF NATURE
Wednesday 7 November 2007, at 8:40pm
London BFI Southbank NFT2
Welsby’s films are dialogues between the filmmaker and the natural elements: the wind controls the movements of the camera in Tree and the film speed in Anemometer. Later films address environmental concerns, such as the threat of radiation as a Geiger counter provides Sky Light’s post-Chernobyl soundtrack. Shifting from environmental structuralism to a more observational mode, the final film Drift has the viewer literally drifting off into a world beyond gravity, into an abstract space between sky and sea.
Chris Welsby, Anemometer, 1974, 10 min
Chris Welsby, Tree, 1974, 5 min
Chris Welsby, Colour Separation, 1975, 3 min
Chris Welsby, Stream Line, 1976, 8 min
Chris Welsby, Sky Light, 1988, 26 min
Chris Welsby, Drift, 1994, 17 min
Chris Welsby will introduce the screening and be available for questions. Curated by Steven Ball, Mark Webber and Maxa Zoller.
PROGRAMME NOTES
SYSTEMS OF NATURE
Wednesday 7 November 2007, at 8:40pm
London BFI Southbank NFT2
ANEMOMETER
Chris Welsby, UK, 1974, 16mm, colour, silent, 10 min
The location for this film is a small London park called Euston Square which is situated close to the busy centre of the city. The camera faces south east across the park, in the foreground there is an expanse of grass surrounded by walkways and luxurious plain trees. In the middle distance is a junction of the busy Euston road, trucks busses and commuter traffic surge past halting only for the traffic lights. The camera angle remained unchanged throughout but the filming speed changed according to the wind speed. The camera motor was driven by an anemometer, a device used to measure wind speed, the harder the wind blew, the faster the camera motor ran, and vice versa. If the wind stopped blowing altogether, no images were recorded, causing a jump cut in the film’s continuity. (Chris Welsby)
TREE
Chris Welsby, UK, 1974, 16mm, colour, silent, 5 min
The camera was placed on the flexible branch of a tree in a strong wind. The composition included both stationary and moving trees (a wooded landscape). The relationship of this landscape to the vertical and horizontal plane was maintained as much as possible. The camera ran continuously until all the film was exposed. The world is seen from the point of view of a tree as its branches sway to the rhythm of the wind. (Chris Welsby)
COLOUR SEPARATION
Chris Welsby, UK, 1975, 16mm, colour, silent, 3 min
This film is based on the colour separation process. High contrast film stock was run three times through a stationary camera; once for each of the light primaries. In the composite image, anything moving is represented in primary or secondary colour whilst anything still, having been filmed through all three filters, is represented in ‘correct’ colour. When projected the film resembles a moving impressionist painting in which time is seen to participate in the construction of the colour image. (Chris Welsby)
STREAM LINE
Chris Welsby, UK, 1976, 16mm, colour, sound, 8 min
This film was made on Mount Kinderscout in Derbyshire, England. It is a continuous, ‘real time’ tracking shot of a stream bed. The length of the track was ten yards. The camera was suspended in a motorized carriage running on steel cables three feet above the water surface. The camera pointed vertically downwards recording the contours of the stream bed and the flow of water along its course. The sound of the water was recorded synchronously from the moving carriage. The ‘drama’ in this film comes from the topography of the stream and not from the camera motion or from the editing. Throughout the unedited length of the film the camera tracks along a straight line at an absolutely regular speed. In contrast the stream runs fast and slow, cascading over boulders and swirling turbulently from left to right. (Chris Welsby)
SKY LIGHT
Chris Welsby, UK, 1988, 16mm, colour, sound, 26 min
An idyllic river flows through a forest, flashes of light and colour threaten to erase the image, bursts of short wave radio and static invade the tranquillity of the natural sound. The camera searches amongst the craggy rocks and ruined buildings of a bleak and windswept snowscape, a Geiger counter chatters ominously in the background. The sky is overcast at first but gradually clears to reveal a sky of unnatural cobalt blue … This film is made in three sections, each leading towards the final abstraction, and each resembling a search for meaning and order amidst a plethora of electronic, chemical and mechanistic information. Space in Sky Light is both highly compressed and volatile; the film challenges the notion of its own form, ending in a beautiful but violent abstraction in which only nature and technology remain. (Chris Welsby)
DRIFT
Chris Welsby, UK-Canada, 1994, 16mm, colour, sound, 17 min
The overall feel of Drift is sombre and mysterious; a study of winter light falling on the surface of water, metal and cloud. The dominant colour is grey; grey infused with a multitude of ocean blues and greens. There is little land in this film and very few landmarks from which to navigate from one space to the next. The picture plane is in continuous motion like the ocean which, on the surface at least, is the subject of Drift. On one level, Drift is a film about the ocean, about winter light and about ships at anchor in a sheltered bay. However, it is also a metaphor, an essentially filmic metaphor about time and space, about being and perception, a metaphor for the act of looking, looking at film and looking at the World. (Chris Welsby)
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Date: 8 November 2007 | Season: Chris Welsby | Tags: Chris Welsby, Systems of Nature
RIVER YAR DISCUSSION
Thursday 8 November 2007, at 6pm
London Central Saint Martins College
The history and practice of multi-screen projection in artists’ film and video will be explored in a discussion between Chris Welsby and William Raban, moderated by Maxa Zoller. The event will include a rare presentation of Raban and Welsby’s twin-screen film River Yar (1972).
William Raban & Chris Welsby, River Yar, 1971-72, 2x16mm, colour, sound 35 min
Date: 9 November 2007 | Season: Chris Welsby | Tags: Chris Welsby, Systems of Nature
THE NATURE OF OUR LOOKING
Friday 9 November 2007, at 8:40pm
London BFI Southbank NFT2
Moving from ocean to sky and back to the land, these six films respond to nature in less programmatic ways. Peter Hutton’s camera explores the coastal landscape and swirling waters of the Irish West Coast, whilst David Gatten immerses raw film stock in seawater, allowing the ocean to inscribe its presence in constantly shifting abstract patterns. Three films use time-lapse and long exposure to reveal the celestial mysteries of night time, and the final work gently lifts us from our reverie with an ecological warning.
Peter Hutton, Looking At The Sea, 2001, 15 min
David Gatten, What The Water Said, Nos 4-6, 2006, 17 min
Lucy Reynolds, Lake, 2007, 12 min
Emily Richardson, Redshift, 2001, 4 min
Jeanne Liotta, Observando El Cielo, 2007, 17 min
Michael Robinson, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, 2005, 8 min
Curated by Steven Ball, Mark Webber and Maxa Zoller.
PROGRAMME NOTES
THE NATURE OF OUR LOOKING
Friday 9 November 2007, at 8:40pm
London BFI Southbank NFT2
LOOKING AT THE SEA
Peter Hutton, USA, 2001, 16mm, b/w, silent, 15 min
Most people go to films to get some kind of hit, come kind of overwhelming experience, whether it’s like an amusement park ride or an ideological, informational hit that gives you a critical insight into an issue or an idea. But for those few people who feel they need a reprieve occasionally, who want to cleanse the palate a bit, whether for spiritual or physiological regions, these films seem to be somewhat effective. (Peter Hutton, interviewed by Scott MacDonald in “A Critical Cinema 3”)
WHAT THE WATER SAID NOS 4-6
David Gatten, USA, 2006, 16mm, colour, sound, 17 min
What the water said is literally inscribed on the strips of unexposed celluloid that Gatten cast into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina. Encased in crab traps, the fragmented filmstrips harbour mystical messages from the underwater world, a source of seemingly never-ending fascination. The sea, its salt, sand and rocks, and its gnawing creatures have created the film’s inimitable textured patterns and sounds, while passages from Western literature’s greatest sea odysseys – from “The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” to “Moby Dick” – remind us of the sea’s singular place in our imagination. (Toronto International Film Festival)
www.davidgattenfilm.com
LAKE (NOCTURNE)
Lucy Reynolds, UK, 2007, 16mm, b/w, silent, 12 min
Lake (nocturne) is a study of the interplay of artificial light with the changing patterns and movements in nature, exploring the illuminations and obfuscations that occur in landscape after dark. The shadowy forms of landscaped lake and parkland also resonate with past narratives of the pleasure garden, recalling the original meaning of nocturne as a term for music composed to be performed at night-time, as accompaniment to the illuminated tableaux, spectacles and fétes of grand gardens, evoking a lost domain. (Lucy Reynolds)
REDSHIFT
Emily Richardson, UK, 2001, 16mm, colour, sound, 4 min
In astronomical terminology ‘redshift’ is a term used in calculating the distance of stars from the earth, hence determining their age. Redshift attempts to show the huge geometry of the night sky and give an altered perspective of the landscape, using long exposures, fixed camera positions, long shots and time-lapse animation techniques to reveal aspects of the night that are invisible to the naked eye. It takes these formal concerns into an emotional realm and uses the figurative to express philosophical ideas about our relationship to the world. 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. The sound has been composed for the film by Benedict Drew, taking field recordings of the aurora borealis as a starting point, and using purely computer generated sound to create a soundtrack that reflects the unheard elements present in the Earth’s atmosphere. (LUX)
www.emilyrichardson.org.uk
OBSERVANDO EL CIELO
Jeanne Liotta, USA, 2007, 16mm, b/w & colour, sound, 17 min
I refer to my films of the night sky as “16mm celestial field recordings” to reinforce their non-fiction status … This work is not metaphor but document. Even that light which travelled so far and so long to reach us makes its mark directly upon the emulsion … The subject of my work is perception itself, though it is variously manifested through attention to landscape, pure abstraction, the body in space, cinema itself, or, in Observando El Cielo, with systems such as Science. This extends into the found film and historical/educational footage, as testimonials to the limits of our understanding at any given time. The world itself is something we find, over and over again, and interpret it each time in a different way. (Jeanne Liotta)
www.jeanneliotta.net
YOU DON’T BRING ME FLOWERS
Michael Robinson, USA, 2005, 16mm, colour, sound, 8 min
Viewed at its seams, a collection of National Geographic landscapes from the 1960s and 1970s conjures an obsolete romanticism currently peddled to propagate entitlement and individualism from sea to shining sea; the slideshow deforms into a bright white distress signal. (Michael Robinson)
www.poisonberries.net
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Date: 10 November 2007 | Season: Chris Welsby | Tags: Chris Welsby, Systems of Nature
THE NATURE OF SYSTEMS
Saturday 10 November 2007, at 8:40pm
London BFI Southbank NFT2
Technological systems create, fragment and transform landscapes: a long video monitor stream, digitally mutated coastlines and strange urban microclimates introduce fascinating artificial worlds, blurring the boundaries between natural and constructed landscapes. Starting with documentation of Chris Meigh-Andrews’ video installation Stream Line and passing through a variety of spellbinding single-screen film and video environments, the programme also incorporates a presentation of Susan Collins’ most recent internet transmitted, real-time reconstruction of Loch Faskally in Perthshire.
Chris Meigh-Andrews, Stream Line (Documentation), 1991, 6 min
Davide Quagliola & Chiara Horn, Bit-Scapes 135.1_08, 2006, 3 min
Semiconductor, The Sound of Microclimates, 2004, 8 min
Thomas Köner, Suburbs of the Void, 2004, 14 min
Daniel Crooks, Train No.8, 2005, 6 min
Davide Quagliola & Chiara Horn, Bit-Scapes 135.2_03, 2006, 3 min
Rachel Reupke, Untitled, 2006, 2 x 90 sec
Rose Lowder, Voiliers et Coquelicots, 2002, 3 min
Davide Quagliola & Chiara Horn, Bit-Scapes 135.7_13, 2006, 3 min
Alix Poscharsky, As We All Know, 2006, 8 min
Susan Collins, Glenlandia, 2006, continuous
Chris Welsby, Tree Studies, 2006, continuous
Curated by Steven Ball, Mark Webber and Maxa Zoller.
PROGRAMME NOTES
THE NATURE OF SYSTEMS
Saturday 10 November 2007, at 8:40pm
London BFI Southbank NFT2
STREAM LINE (DOCUMENTATION)
Chris Meigh-Andrews, UK, 1991, video, colour, sound, 6 min
I was particularly interested in issues relating to the relationship between technology and nature, and with notions of the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’ and to the idea of bringing aspects of landscape into a gallery space. I had conceived of the piece as one that would cross an entire gallery floor, encouraging visitors to cross the space, following the motion across the monitors. The bridge seemed an apt device, as it had both metaphorical and practical dimensions; it would serve as a viewing platform, provide a way of crossing the room and reinforce the landscape concept. (Chris Meigh-Andrews)
www.meigh-andrews.com
BIT-SCAPES 135.1_08
Davide Quagliola & Chiara Horn, UK, 2006, video, colour, sound, 3 min
Shot on location in Western Australia, Bit-Scapes explores digital reproduction and manipulation. Through the combination of natural landscape footage and computer-generated graphics, BitScapes investigates the ambiguity of photo-realism in the digital realm as location material processed with custom software creates a series of images that reinterpret the organic landscape structures. The result is a series of audiovisual compositions where natural elements seem to coexist harmoniously with the artificial in the creation of a new ‘digital biosphere’. (Davide Quagliola & Chiara Horn)
www.quayola.com
THE SOUND OF MICROCLIMATES
Semiconductor, UK, 2004, video, colour, sound, 8 min
The Sound of Microclimates reveals the sights and sounds of a series of unusual weather patterns in the Paris of today. Here, architecture has become interwoven with the natural processes of the geographical landscape. Set within the un-noticed moments in time, extreme microclimates are presented as the future in city accessories, revealing the unseen urban terrains of tomorrow. They exist as a series of weather observations that animate the evolution of the inanimate urban condition. (Semiconductor)
www.semiconductorfilms.com
SUBURBS OF THE VOID
Thomas Köner, Germany-Finland, 2004, video, colour, sound, 14 min
Köner used 2000 photographs for Suburbs of the Void. The visual material belongs to a traffic security camera. It transfers the pictures via the Internet, where Köner collected them and arranged them into a video. The town is situated in Northern Finland near the polar circle. Permafrost and darkness dominate the sight most time of the day. For Köner, the permanent cold is connected with a general slowing down leading to a sharpened attention. The soundtrack supports this aspect. Sometimes one can hear slight noises of playing children in the background. In front of the complete emptiness, these sounds must occur like memories, telescoping from the distance into the picture. (Holger Birkholz)
www.koener.de
TRAIN NO.8
Daniel Crooks, Australia, 2005, video, colour, sound, 6 min
In Train No. 8, Daniel Crooks uses his signature ‘timeslice’ technique to offer an unexpected ride through a London urban landscape. In his experiments, Crooks divides digital footage into segments of time; when reconstructed the segments offer a distorted version of reality where time, space and motion appear on the same plane. (FACT)
www.dlab.com.au
BIT-SCAPES 135.2_03
Davide Quagliola & Chiara Horn, UK, 2006, video, colour, sound, 3 min
See above
UNTITLED
Rachel Reupke, UK, 2006, video, colour, silent, 2 x 90 sec
Rachel Reupke bounces the background and foreground in her videos, propelling the viewer into different dimensions within the same space. The shots appear to have been recorded using a remote automated camera and are presented as brief clips, extracted from perhaps days of footage. Viewing these simple panoramas becomes an increasing complex experience as changes in atmospheric conditions affect the camera, the auto focus shifts and the weather closes in. (Danielle Arnaud Gallery)
VOILIERS ET COQUELICOTS
Rose Lowder, France, 2002, 16mm, colour, silent, 3 min
Little is necessary for everything to appear differently. The date, the hour, the weather, the space’s layout, one’s glance or presence of mind … can make everything change. The boats sail out of the Vieux port in Marseilles to be amongst the poppy fields. (Rose Lowder)
BIT-SCAPES 135.7_13
Davide Quagliola & Chiara Horn, UK, 2006, video, colour, sound, 3 min
See above
AS WE ALL KNOW
Alix Poscharsky, UK-Germany, 2006, 16mm, colour, sound, 8 min
This film is a six-hour time-lapse sun track, shot around sunset. With the sun locked in the middle, the earth appears to be moving from left to right across the frame (or around the sun). Referencing science fiction, this film is about the discrepancy between a scientific world-view and everyday life. As we all know, the earth is moving round the sun, but the sun appears to be moving round the earth. (Alix Poscharsky)
www.elusivetuesday.com
The following works are showing in the BFI Foyer
GLENLANDIA (excerpt)
Susan Collins, UK, 2005-07, online, colour, silent, 2 years
Glenlandia is intended to be viewed full screen and updated live to your computer in real time. Now offline, this version is compiled from the archive of images providing continuous documentation to give an impression of how the work appeared live. From September 2005 to September 2007 a webcam transmitted images of Loch Faskally, Perthshire, Scotland from the FRS Research laboratory, Faskally. The webcam harvested images pixel by pixel, second by second, day by day over the course of the two years. Each image was collected from top to bottom and left to right in horizontal bands continuously, marking visible fluctuations in light and movement throughout the day and being archived at two-hour intervals. Although this appears to be a quintessentially natural Scottish landscape, Loch Faskally is in fact man made. It was created behind the hydro dam at Pitlochry which was built in 1947-50 as part of the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board’s Tummel/Garry Power Scheme. (Susan Collins)
www.susan-collins.net
TREE STUDIES
Chris Welsby, Canada, 2006, 3 channel video installation, colour, sound, continuous
Documentation of a three-screen, weather-driven installation made for the Gwangju Biennale, South Korea, 2006. Combining the speed and versatility of modern technology with the strength and spiritual significance of the tree, this installation suggests an environmental model where technology can work collaboratively with natural forces. The installation uses modern high speed communication systems combined with customized software and computer technologies to harness the energy produced by the rotation and tilt of the planet and transformed that energy into an open, self regulating and interconnected system. The system monitors weather data from three different continents and uses this real-time information to edit three files of pre-recorded movie footage of a tree seen against the background of a stormy winter sky. The combinations of imagery and sound generated in real time is unique at any given moment and is part of a continuously evolving process fuelled by the operating system’s interaction with the planetary weather system. In the sciences, this generation of image and sound is often described as an “emergent” property, a term used to describe self-organization in all living systems and on a planetary scale this is recognized as the dynamic origin of biological life, cognition and evolution. Drawing on the ancient concept of the earth as a living system, combining the traditional Eastern concept of Yin and Yang and systems theory from contemporary science the work suggests a new post Romantic form of landscape art with relevance to the issues of our own times. (Chris Welsby)
www.sfu.ca/~welsby
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