Film performance replaces the traditional convention of black-box theater with a unique live art experience. Also known as expanded cinema, this artform frequently depends on the artist-creator’s body, expertise, and agility in relation to the mechanics of cinema no longer hidden by the projection booth. Filmic, mechanical, and human bodies are choreographed to produce a dynamic temporal relationship that can both rely on the image within the frame or shift to emphasize elements such as light, flicker, screen-space, environment, optical manipulation, chance, improvisation, and the audience as participant.
The intensive workshop will give participants access to film projectors to begin staging film performances of various duration and approach. Focus will be given to practical and inventive application of light, film loops, film cores, and the projectors themselves through hands-on activities. Materials will be available for students to use found footage, and camera-less manipulation techniques, as well as participants’ original film footage. Historical context given through lecture and readings will place film performance within such histories as early optical phantasmagoria, Experiments in Art and Technology, and kinesthetic theater. We will consider film’s valuable physicality within our contemporary use/consumption of digital media and hybrid film-digital processes. The workshop will support all student participants regardless of skill level.
Click here to register online or call 585-442-8676 to register by phone.
Kristin Reeves has shown her interdisciplinary work internationally in museums, galleries, theaters, and festivals such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Crossroads, Ann Arbor Film Festival, European Media Arts Festival, Steppenwolf Theater, and Microscope Gallery. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at Murray State University in western Kentucky.
