r4

Michaela Schwentner¹s video to "r4" by the Viennese music trio Radian translates the abstract quality of the music into a single image, reduced but concrete: The shot which shows sets of tracks running in divergent lines from a train station and a train as it departs is transformed into a grainy black-and-white image reminiscent of Super 8 by means of various filters. This scene is compiled to form a new jerky sequence controlled by an invisible digital hand. The reptilian train creeps out of the frame slowly. This evacuation repeats what was captured in the formal reduction at the beginning.
A great deal of what characterizes the musical principle employed by Radian can also be found in Schwentner¹s work method, namely the analog synthesizers she juxtaposes with an altered still image depicting the train, an analog of reality; the accentuation of the crackling high-frequency range, which corresponds to a pale, ghostly black and white in which white predominates; the gently throbbing rhythm which is expressed visually in the image of the train trundling slowly forward and seemingly not making any progress; and in the imminent disintegration of the acoustic contours into distorted white noise, which the video counters with its own visual discharge. At the conclusion, it has finally departed, this Mystery Train of the electronic age. No blues, no rock mythology, no new frontier which could somehow drag it back. What remains is a flickering, unstable afterimage showing that the central figure has left the scene.(Christian Höller)

Orig. Title
r4
Year
2000
Country
Austria
Duration
5 min
Category
Avantgarde/Arts
Orig. Language
No Dialogue
Downloads
r4 (Image)
Credits
Director
Michaela Schwentner
Concept & Realization
Michaela Schwentner
Music
Radian
Available Formats
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
1:1,33
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
b/w
Festivals (Selection)
2000
Helsinki - Avanto Media Art Festival
Leipzig - Dok Leipzig - Int. Festival für Dok.- u. Animationsfilm
Austin - Cinetexas - Int. short film&video&new media festival
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
2001
Stuttgart - Filmwinter, Expanded Media Festival
2002
Tokyo - Image Forum Festival
2004
Buenos Aires Festival Int. de Cine Independiente BAFICI