THIS WEEK’S FEATURED FILM PREMIERE: "Through the Rift” (Dec 15-21)
WATCH THE TRAILER (CLICK IMAGE ABOVE FOR THE FULL MOVIE)
Description
The relationship between the information we retain and its imagery we mentally re-envision and reassemble, helps us conceptualize imperceptible events such as the slow moving catastrophe of climate change. Recalling Robert Jay Lifton’s concept of fragmentary awareness, we form surreal sequences from these visual thoughts in order to create our own narratives of the real events that are difficult to comprehend.
In this video, natural imagery unfolds into a surreal cycle of destruction, death, and rebirth. The fragmented footage, taken from three coastlines in the United States, is edited into new forms - accentuating nature’s close interplay with itself and us. The soundtrack, taken from the ambient sound of the source footage, is manipulated and layered with synth drones - reinforcing the intense and uncanny relationship between memory and reality. By dramatizing these natural moments a light is cast on our environmental impact and the overall power, horror, and beauty of nature itself.
(Please use headphones or external speakers for best audio experience.)
Runtime: 7 minutes 10 seconds
Best Viewed: Cinema Presentation
Credits:
Director - Mikey Peterson
Director Biography - Mikey Peterson
Mikey Peterson is a Chicago-based video-sound artist. His imagery, influenced by pre-CGI science fiction films, arthouse horror, experimental cinema, and sound collage, aims to disturb the viewer’s self-perception and sense of place. Footage is taken out of its original natural context and manipulated to relay other truths about the world that it is from - unveiling connections between memory, environmental preservation, environmental degradation, and the human condition. His work has shown in festivals, galleries and museums including the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City; Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Photography; the Chicago Cultural Center; the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum; Chicago’s Zhou B Art Center; Rome’s MAXXI Museum; South Korea’s CICA Museum; the Armory Center For The Arts in Pasadena, California; Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum; the SIGGRAPH Conference in Los Angeles, California, the Lucca Film Festival in Lucca, Italy, London’s Visions in the Nunnery, CURRENTS New Media in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the STREETVIDEOART exhibition in Paris, France, Brooklyn’s Ende Tymes Festival, New York’s Under The Subway Video Art Night, and the Video Art and Experimental Film Festival at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City. His work has been featured in publications including CICA Museum’s Post Human: New Media Art 2020 and Digital Body: New Media Art 2018; Lake Ivan Film Journal; Mexico City’s Blancopop; Paris’ Stigmart 10 – Videofocus; LandEscape Art Review and the online audio publication, Text Sound. Peterson develops and teaches courses at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
