Manipulated Image #8: THE MOVING STILL

Friday, October 30, 2009
7:30 – 9:30pm
@ the Santa Fe Complex

The Moving Still presents videos by three artists, whose approaches are vastly different, yet intrinsically "photographic." The complex visual studies of James Coker contrast with Latvian artist, Krišs Salmanis's light-hearted and playful animations that utilize photographic stills. A graduate in film studies, Brazilian artist, Kika Nicolela has been called a “visual-filmmaker.” The frames of her moving images are composed as if part of long sequences of photographic stills. Tonight we will also have the opportunity to hear James Coker speak about his work, and his algorithmic experiments with moving images.

Curated by Alysse Stepanian

James Coker
(Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA)

http://www.jamescoker.net

James Coker is a visual artist and software developer living in New Mexico. In addition to B.A. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science, Coker's background includes a wide variety of workshops and private training in photography, video art and music. Coker's video works are based on the extension of photographic techniques into the realm of computer-based video processing using custom algorithms. Coker is also the author of the music software called Numerology: A modular sequencer designed for real-time improvisation by performing musicians.

Coker writes, "For me working with video is an extension of landscape photography and its ability to engage the memory and imagination through the evocation of time and place. Adding motion, image processing, and sound to the traditional photographic collaboration of subject, natural light and camera expands and reinvigorates its capability for abstraction, expression and metaphor.

Algorithms based on temporal manipulation and feedback add a unique richness and complexity, revealing both in detail and in great variation the inner qualities of any moving subject. I find this to be especially true for water in all its forms, from the endless harmony of waves on a beach, to the intricate patterns and music of freshwater rivers. These complex and ever varying movements hold a enduring attraction for me as a source of endless visual and metaphorical opportunities.

Most of the pieces I create also include sound, usually both the processed original sounds of the subject, to give it a voice, and the layering of new sounds, to provide an emotional and aesthetic context to the images. The addition of filmic editing techniques complete the transition into a cinematic realm, providing new opportunities for abstracted narrative.

Always the guide for managing this potentially overwhelming array of options is the subject itself, its form and behavior, and its particular responses to the artificial world of computerized editing and manipulation that I introduce it to. Throughout the process, great attention is also paid to traditional photographic concerns: composition, contrast, color and resolution -- the goal being to maintain the richest, most revealing image possible."

Kika Nicolela
(b. 1976, Brazil)

http://www.dilemastudio.com

Kika Nicolela is a Brazilian artist and experimental filmmaker. Her works include single-channel videos, installations, performances, experimental documentaries and photography. Graduated in Film and Video from the University of Sao Paulo, Kika Nicolela also completed film courses at UCLA. Her works have been screened and won awards in festivals, in more than 30 countries, such as: Videoformes New Media & Video Art Festival, Kunst Film Biennale, ACA Media Arts Festival, VAD Festival Internacional de Vídeo i Arts Digitals, International Electronic Art Festival Videobrasil and Exis Experimental Film & Video Festival. She has participated in about 60 solo and collective exhibitions in Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Poland, Portugal and US. She was the recipient of several grants, and was shortlisted for the EMPAC Dance Movies Commission and Sergio Motta Award of Art and Technology, among others. Currently Kika Nicolela also curates and coordinates the Exquisite Corpse Video Project, a collaborative series of videos that involves more than 60 artists from 25 countries.

Naked:  3:28
passenger:  4:55
nós: 11:27
ecstasy poem: 2:48
flux: 11:09, 2005
crossing:  9:03


Krišs Salmanis
(b. 1977, Riga, Latvia)

http://www.salmanis.com

Salmanis was born in Riga, Latvia, and currently lives and works there. He has studied at the Art Academy of Latvia, and has taken part in over 60 group exhibitions both in Latvia and abroad, in countries such as Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, The Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Croatia, Lithuania, Estonia, England, Australia, Norway, France, and Italy. Salmanis has been in a number of solo shows, including two this year - "Lost" in Riga Art Space and "Found" in gallery Betanovuss. He has gained awards in the "13th Tallinn Print Triennial" in 2004, 2nd Int'l Competition for the work of art of the External Gallery of the City of Gdańsk in 2007, Waterpieces 2008 in Riga, and in other events. His works are in the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia, Latvian National Museum of Art, Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art and the Central and Eastern Europe video art archive Transitland.

-The Moment Will Come, 2003, 00:38sec loop
- Rondo, 2006: 0:40
- [Never Miss] 11:11 2001-2006 02:02
- The Shower, 2007 1:08
- CV 1977 etc 00:29
- turn back. undo 2008 2:16