16mm av-performance

double 16mm projection, historical film, glacier geotextiles, three-channel live sound (synthesizers, contact microphone on 16mm projector, software, original sounds), approx. 40’ *dimensions variable

Geopolitically, industrially, and scientifically driven expeditions to Antarctica gained momentum in the 20th century. In the AV performance «stories-of-90°-S-empir[e]icism», historical 16mm footage of European Antarctic expeditions from the 1940s–1960s is re-scored and re-rendered to propose an alternative access to the geopolitical lusts of that time

The projected images enact European male power and violence, exposing the anthropocentric logics. Images of industrial whaling, scientific field work, machines, maps or portraits of ‹brave› male explorers become obscured in the performance (with ice, broken glass, glacier geotextiles)

The live sound by collaborating artists Vivian Wang and Serafin Aebli is created using contact microphones attached to 16mm projectors, synthesizers, modified electronic instruments, software, and original recordings from Janis Polar’s 2020 Antarctica expedition. These evolving soundscapes unfold slowly, subtly countering the modernist drive for “bigger, faster, stronger, further.” Digitally altered sounds from the contact mics create an immediate dialogue between the machines in the room and those depicted in the images, reflecting on the technological conditions that have shaped today’s disturbed socio-ecologies.