moon blink

Exclusively generated by code, moon blink is a video that highlights the unique aesthetic decisionism of its narrative model. Initially, it is the motion that is irritating. Although the undulating, disordered sequences of lines stabilize into strictly regulated, ascending patterns of movement in the form of thick white lines (and their shadows, comparable to Opus IV by Walter Ruttmann), the increasing acceleration divests the gaze of its certainty and ability to differentiate. It wobbles, like the black and white lines that resume their wave-like, and above all, out of focus appearance. This blurriness is apparently a prerequisite for an entirely new quality introduced by the grey mix rendered through rapidly moving lines. A kind of Situationspotential (Francois Jullien) is created in this phase, made possible by the operations of a self-renewing image situation, which creates new and unexpected potential – for example of colors and color values. The situation subsequently changes continuously, the geometry bends and becomes physical. The code seems to undermine its own parameters, permitting the emergence of an energy field that is no longer subject to mathematics but to physics. In a certain sense it disappears behind its statements. The work “quotes” the external world of early experimental film – the samples illustrated on the table ¬similar to the inner world of physical appearances – apparitions of color, fields of energy, light and sound noise. Then again and in other words, what we see is first and foremost the unfolding of mathematical driving forces conforming to patterns similar to natural logic. Kohlberger’s algorithmically generated and dynamic world loves demonstrating its infinite potential for mutation by way of graphically visual and acoustic excess, sensuous overspending and mental noise, just as much as it enjoys illustrating its aesthetic calculus and veiled order.
(Marc Ries)

Translation: Eve Heller

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Jury statement - Best European Short / New Horizon Festival Wroclaw 2015 / PL (Award)

This film is essential cinema in its most distilled form. A cinema that operates on tensions: between the screen and the space; between the minimal and the baroque; between control and freedom. A narrative that is created out of pure abstraction. The jury gives first prize to Rainer Kohlberger for his film moon blink.

Jury Members:
Pamela Cohn, Julian Ross and Jakub Woynarowski

Jury-Begründung - Köln Kurzfilmfestival (Award)

Deutscher Wettbewerb: Zweiter Jurypreis

Moon Blink ist ein Experimentalfilm, der uns auf Anhieb überzeugt hat.
Rainer Kohlberger macht ein Video ohne Kamera: Anhand von digitalen Algorithmen und mathematischen Formeln schafft er eine Abfolge von Bild und Ton, die keine offensichtliche Geschichte, aber eine klare Dramaturgie verfolgt.

Wir folgen einer Metamorphose: Zunächst sehen wir schwarz-weiße Balken, die sperrig und monoton über die Bildoberfläche huschen. Aus Balken werden feinere Linien. Die Übergänge verlaufen fließend: aus Linien werden Wellen, aus Wellen entstehen neue Formen, die wiederum neue Farben und sich zuspitzende Eindrücke gebären, um schließlich in einer Katharsis zu münden. Katharsis deswegen, weil es dem Film zuvor gelingt, einen abstrakten Spannungsbogen aufzubauen. Unterstützt durch eine eindringliche tonale Ebene, schafft es der Film, einen sofortigen Sog zu entwickeln.

Wir haben uns für Moon Blink entschieden, weil wir ihn auch als einen Appell ans Loslassen verstehen. Sich auf diesen Film einzulassen bedeutet auch, sich auf eine 10- minütige Reise ins Ungewisse zu begeben: Sinnlich. Intuitiv. Existentiell.

Hut ab: Moon Blink ist großes, digitales Kino.

Jury: Anna Brohm, Ilker Catak, Jonas Weydemann
Orig. Title
moon blink
Year
2015
Countries
Austria, Germany
Duration
10 min
Category
Avantgarde/Arts
Orig. Language
No Dialogue
Downloads
moon blink (Image)
moon blink (Image)
moon blink (Image)
Credits
Director
Rainer Kohlberger
Concept & Realization
Rainer Kohlberger
Available Formats
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
DCP 2K flat (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
16:9
Sound Format
Dolby 5.1.
Frame Rate
30 fps
Color Format
colour
Festivals (Selection)
2015
Rotterdam - Int. Filmfestival
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
Linz - Crossing Europe Film Festival
Osnabrück - EMAF - European Media Art Festival
Annecy - Festival Int. du Cinema d'Animation
Hamburg - Int. Kurzfilm-Festival & No Budget
Wroclaw - New Horizons Festival (Main Award Europ Short Film Comp + London Film Academy Award)
Vila do Conde - Festival Internacional de Curtas-Metragens
Santiago de Compostela - Curtocircuito
München - UnderDox, Festival für Dokument und Experiment
Timisoara - Timishort Film Festival
Kassel - Dokumentarfilm- & Videofest
Köln - Unlimited Kurzfilmfestival (Second Jury-Award)
Tallinn - Animated Dreams / Black Night Film Festival
Ljubiljana Animateka - Int. Animation Film Festival
Wien - VIS Vienna Independent Shorts (ASIFA AWARD)
2016
Poznan - Shorts Waves Festival
Bratislava - Febiofest
Glasgow Short Film Festival
Utrecht - Holland Animation Film Festival
Linz - Ars Electronica
Regensburg - Kurzfilmwoche
2017
Zilina Fest Anca - Festival of Animated Films