SITE EFFECTS: CHEMNITZ
3 Sound channels, loudspeakers + subwoofer, video projection: 12 mins loop, cables and old factory oven, viewing platform.
During a residency in Chemnitz I installed a site specific installation in the basement of the abandoned Braustolz brewery in Saxony with support from the Begehungen team as part of the Rausch Festival.The installation contained an audiovisual film sequence projected into the space combining photography and video shot in the factory, then manipulated with music and sound design and layered with animated media and other generative elements. Fragments of sounds recorded on site featured in use in the sequences by way of granular synthesis and sampling. This included recordings of impacts made by swinging a caged light into a large empty tank
The title "Site Effects" suggests a play on words for the drug related term: "Side effects", "a secondary, typically undesirable effect" and the industrial site in which the installation was featured. An old factory oven was installed as the vessel from which the film was projected as if spitting out old machine language and memories.
As a former brewery, unwelcome side effects were a typical part of the final product developed on site and the work is an audiovisual exploration of a similar concept. Fittingly, the site has given way to more urban redevlopment as a contemporary effect. The terminology of "Site Effects" also refers to seismic activity and earth tremors, meanings playfully co-existing in references to disturbances internally and externally, psychologically and structurally. Fragments of machinery providing memories of their previous operations and functions. Distant sounds and repeating lights, patterns and imagery suggesting echoes of both happiness and play or disorder and chaos.
Musical interludes and audio reactive animations punctuated the sequence which was recorded from several small performances in the space.
The work is a continuation of an exploratory workflow combining media with algorithms in audiovisual film-making.
It was a great opportunity to explore and photograph an abandoned site and install a film, no analogue film cameras were used this time, but it would have been particularly interesting to shoot on film.
Special thanks to the Begehungen team for extensive help and support throughout the festival. I will expand upon and take the Site Effects process to other sites and spaces in the future, please contact me if interested. Because the film was made specifically for the wall and space, a direct video capture wasn't easy so a new film version for web viewing will be made available in the future.
Please scroll down to view more images, directly below there is a small edited audio extract from the ambient music of the installation. Extended and additional music from the source material will be released as an album, please sign up for notification.
