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Choreographing Media: "Silent Room" by skoltz_kolgen

Posted by Marlon Barrios Solano on February 26, 2008 at 10:00pm
A CROSS-SECTED VIEW OF 16 PEOPLE, 16 ROOMS, 16 PRIVATE LIVES, SILENT ROOM IS AN X-RAY VISION OF 16 INTERIORS. IN THIS FILM-POEM, THE ROOM IS FELT FROM THE INSIDE. AN INTERIOR STEEPED IN DISCONTINUITY, WHERE UNUSUAL AND POETIC COMMUNICATIONS UNFOLD WORDLESSLY, THROUGH A CONTAMINATION OF THE SENSES. RATHER THAN A STORY LINE, THERE IS A SET OF TABLEAUX VIVANTS, EACH CRAFTED AROUND A FIXED IDEA, AN IMPULSE, A VOID, A HUNGER FOR AN IDEAL. SILENT ROOM IS A CINEMA OF LIGHT AND SHADOW, A CHAMBER CINEMA, WHEREIN THE MOST SILENT AND LEAST VISIBLE ELEMENTS VIOLENTLY DESCEND TO MURMUR ITS PRESENCE. IN THEIR WORK, THE SKOLTZ_KOLGEN ARTISTS USE A FOTOCINETIQUE APPROACH FOUNDED ON THE TEMPORAL FRAGMENTATION OF ACTION. TO ACHIEVE THIS EFFECT, SEVERAL SIMULTANEOUS CAPTATION TECHNIQUES WERE USED, IN CONFRONTATIONS OF VARIOUS VANTAGE POINTS. FOR A MORE PRECISE CONTROL OF TIME, A BATTERY OF CAMERAS WERE SEQUENTIALLY SYNCHRONIZED TO TAKE OVER 10,000 PHOTOGRAPHS, WHICH WERE SUBSEQUENTLY DIGITIZED AND ANIMATED. THE SKOLTZ_KOLGEN CELL THEN DEVELOPED DIGITAL FREQUENCY-SENSITIVE IMAGE- GENERATING SOFTWARE THAT INSTANTANEOUSLY SHADOWS THE AUDIO TRACK — SOMEWHAT LIKE A HEARTBEAT MONITOR THAT SHADOWS THE FREQUENCIES OF A HEARTBEAT, BUT IN THIS CASE EACH FREQUENCY OF SOUND CAN GENERATE ITS IMAGE EQUIVALENT. PLAYING WITH INTERLUDES OF THIS SPLIT-SECOND SYNERGY BETWEEN SOUND AND FILM, THE MUSIC AND SCORING EXPRESS A STATE OF AFFECT WITHIN THE ROOMS AND THE INTERNAL REALITY OF THE CHARACTERS. THIS IS THE FILM'S NARRATIVE TRACK. THERE IS NO DIALOGUE TO FOSTER UNDERSTANDING OR ANY REASSURANCES FOR THE VIEWER. INSTEAD, WE REMAIN IN A STATE OF CONTROLLED HYPNOSIS. SILENT ROOM IS AN ART OBJECT THAT DEFIES CLASSIFICATION — A HIGHLY POTENT FILM OF ITS TIME. Via dance-tech list by Hélène Lesterlin I saw the video work of skoltz_kolgen in Montreal and thought their work also had a very strong element of choreography, movement, humanness, tenderness, staging, theatricality... I saw the five channel video work entitled "Silent Room". Beautiful! If you get a chance to see their work, do it. http://www.skoltzkolgen.com/
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