transistor

A video clip as a structural model: Michaela Schwentner¹s video to "transistor" by the Viennese music trio Radian was in a sense composed in reverse, progressing from illustrated music to an abstract blueprint which could have been used for both media. On the visual level, transistor reveals a rhythmic plan which has a close affinity to the music in its temporally distorted geometry. While most conventional visualizations in sound are superimposed to create additional sensory and intellectual levels - placing images OVER the audio - electronic production methods and their image/sound interfaces permit the use of an entirely new approach. transistor shows an excellent model for a direct coupling of sound and image. Accompanied by short, choppy segments of noise fragments, geometric gridworks appear with equal abruptness, as in a visual staccato: empty picture frames, lines and planes in varying intensities, light, semi-light, bold, extra-bold, etc. In other words, the individual validity and quality of basic elements of digital (graphic) processes are exposed in transistor. This not only places a visual matrix underneath the rasping, eruptive sound as a foundation, it also reveals the underlying matrix-like quality, the locking function in the digital culture as the interface at which graphic and acoustic elements have always overlapped. If structural film traditionally proceeded from the assumption that the visible world could be reduced to a geometric and conceptual image, Schwentner re-contextualizes such reduction processes: A kind of a dynamic structural model of an electronic culture which is crossing the genre is made visible. (Christian Höller)

Orig. Title
transistor
Year
2000
Country
Austria
Duration
6 min
Category
Avantgarde/Arts
Orig. Language
No Dialogue
Downloads
Credits
Director
Michaela Schwentner
Concept & Realization
Michaela Schwentner
Music
Radian
Available Formats
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
4:3
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
b/w
Festivals (Selection)
2000
Oberhausen - Int. Kurzfilmtage
Barcelona - Sonar Int. Festival of Advanced Music
Austin - Cinetexas - Int. short film&video&new media festival
Helsinki - Avanto Media Art Festival
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
2001
Weimar - back-up festival. new media in film
Osnabrück - EMAF - European Media Art Festival
Chicago Underground Film Festival
Bonn Videonale
Zürich - VIDEOEXperimental; Video & Film Festival
2002
Stuttgart - Int. Trickfilm-Festival
Regensburg - Kurzfilmwoche
Hamburg - Int. Kurzfilm-Festival & No Budget
Stuttgart - Filmwinter, Expanded Media Festival
Hongkong – Microwave Int. Media Art Festival
2003
Edinburgh - International Film Festival
2004
Pesaro - Film Festival
Hamburg - Int. Kurzfilm-Festival & No Budget
2005
Triest - Alpe Adria Cinema - Film Festival