An optical storm

Light Terrors at the IBID Curatorial Gallery 

By Matthew Ripplinger

A light storm from our neighbouring province of Manitoba touched down at the IBID Curatorial Gallery in Regina this past spring. Light Terrors brings together an assortment of works made with obsolete technologies with the intention of subverting their original applications. 

This mobile expanded cinema series features Meganelizabeth Diamond, Scott Fitzpatrick, Alyssa Bornn and Colby Richardson – four Winnipeg based artists showcasing their uncompromising visions utilizing film, overhead and slide projectors, and analogue video mixers. The artists manipulate these obsolete machines to not only create images, but to discover new sounds whether derived from recordings, optical track readers, or the distorted sounds of the machines themselves, performed in real time. The artists construct an analogue synthesis between audio and visual mediums in presenting a unique variety of audio-visual works.  

The show opens with Alterations performed by Meganelizabeth Diamond, implementing celluloid collage work with three slide projectors, blending the more commonly experienced slide show viewing with the handmade reconstruction of images sourced from her relative’s homes. She combines remnants of found film and family photos to create entirely new scenes in conjunction with familiar soundscapes that were present in these fragmented memories. Focal shifts of the projections symbolize the distance between past and present. The act of adding and removing the slides manually express a physical link and special bond to the celluloid and to family, and further reconstruction of the unforgotten and reimagined landscape.  

Scott Fitzpatrick’s Second Star employs a quartet of motion picture film projectors and film loops with a lo-fi laser print text aesthetic. The machine is reimagined as an audible instrument. Instead of an optical track, the laser print text is read by the exciter lamp in the projector to create rhythms and tones relayed through the audio mixer. A triptych of black on white text is projected onto one wall, and a background dancer moves with the sound on an adjacent surface. Scott’s lo-fi aesthetic of laser printer ink onto clear leader yields grainy black and white symbols and mirrors the distorted yet organic sound. The sound of each loop varies in length and pitch. Midway through Second Star, Scott unveils a special black leader loop, spliced with a metal adhesive that lends an extra staccato to the sound design. 

Alyssa Bornn helms a duo of overhead projectors with her audio-visual piece Eclipsing, utilizing glass prisms and filters to create refracted light trails and topographic zones reminiscent of a night sky full of stars, as well as monolithic shapes. Through the performance, Alyssa continuously rearranges the materials to transform the two-dimensional plane, and takes it a step further by removing the overhead glass, channeling the light at different angles to further obscure the projection. The contact microphones connected to each projector create a communicative source for the artist to draw these abstract sounds from her devices. The combination of image and sound creates a feeling of openness in the space and a physical connection to the user through vibrations.  

Colby Richardson caps the night off with DE / GEN, which is comprised of two analogue video mixers transmitting through a single projection. He takes control of the matrixes and algorithms bound by these mixers by repeatedly duplicating the number of screens, ultimately morphing into a myriad of high contrast black and white screens as the performance unfolds. A continuous cycle of image regeneration and degeneration results in a stroboscopic frenzy. Tones shift and evolve from a playful and balanced conversation between the machines, to a more visceral attack on the senses with an uncanny flicker and sound. 

Light Terrors is an innovative ensemble of obsolescence that challenges expanded cinema and light-based performance. It was an inspiring night of profound audio-visual spectacle presented by the Winnipeg Film Collective, and I look forward to seeing what they do next. 

This article appeared in the Fall 2019 issue of Splice.