Laboratorium
Natural science is a mysterious subject: figures and diagrams claim to represent facts but still remain cryptic for most of us. What exactly are we able to perceive and understand? Where can we draw the line between empirical reasoning and mystical believes? This program presents three different audiovisual approaches that investigate, examine, extract and explain. Records and Data from several centuries enlighten our spirit, illuminate our eyes, stimulate our brains and invite us to speculate. In the end we gain insight into peculiar methods and fascinating scientific-artistic practices.
Wisdom Teeth
WISDOM TEETH is based on the research done by the Danish scientific Nicolas Steno (1638-1686) on geology. His investigation centers in the Glossopetrae, a fossilized shark teeth commonly found in Italy that guided the scientist to propose his laws about the formation of the terrestrial layers. The film interleaves the current geopolitics of the region and Steno´s ideas on geology. A spoken word performance in Latin language and personal issues such as vocation and belief are interwoven into analytical findings and the close analysis of the object in question.
- Deutschland
- 00:11:00
- Director: Esteban Rivera Ariza
- Production: Mariana Orlotti, Manuela Menéndez Besada-Lombanda
- Photography: Esteban Rivera Ariza
- Editing: Esteban Rivera Ariza
- Music: Music Composer: Miguel Leguizamón
- Sound: Gian Carlo Corba, Voice Over: Lorenzo Giammattei
- Languages: it,la
- Subtitles: en
- Year: 2017
- Golden Key
- World Premiere
Where Shapes Come from
A moving image work which considers how science translates nature on an atomic scale. In the mineral sciences laboratory at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, a mineralogist explains the accumulation of atoms to form matter. He describes formations of organized structures and patterns as if they are happening in real-time in front of our eyes, transcending time and space. Semiconductor converts raw seismic data into sound and computer generated animations, bringing a sense of playfulness and personal touch to the ordinarily rigorous framework of science. They depict interpretations of visual scientific forms associated with atomic structures, as well as the technologies which capture them. By combining these scientific processes, languages and products, they encourage us to question our experiences of the physical world.
- Großbritannien
- 00:09:00
- Languages: en
- Year: 2016
- German Premiere
Conversation with a Cactus
A young woman relates the dream she had right after the suspicious death of a journalist known for working on the Fukushima disaster. As she pauses, an oneiric journey unfolds that interweaves her animate surroundings with fragmented facts and rumours about the legendary Hashimoto Experiment from the 1970s in which a scientist couple tried to teach the Japanese alphabet to a cactus. To manifest the consciousness of plants, they used a lie detector translating their electric output into sound, thus giving them a voice. Part media history, part ghost story, the film interweaves reality, science and mythology to lead us into a collective inquiry evolving through a spiral of metamorphoses and mutations, mixing both Japanese popular culture and traditions.
- Frankreich, Deutschland, Japan
- 00:45:00
- Director: Elise Florenty, Marcel Türkowsky
- Production: Yves Roy
- Languages: ja
- Subtitles: en
- Year: 2017
