From the apparatus and its generative properties, to the emancipation of synaesthetic, psychedelic, and symbolic narratives, this cycle comprises a wide range of films extending from the 1920s up until the 1970s, surveying the golden era of exploratory artist filmmaking. In doing so, it underlines the liberating potential of abstract narratives and technological experimentalism as crucial to the construction of new sensibilities and subjectivities.

With works by: Mary Ellen Bute, Harry Smith, Jordan Belson, António Palolo, Tony Conrad, Stan van der Beek, Steina and Woody Vasulka, Henry Michaux and Eric Duvivier, Whitney Brothers, Walter Ruttmann, Viking Eggeling, Hans Richter.

Curated by Margarida Mendes

23 September

Friday  – 6:00 p.m.

Essential Visual Music: Early Pioneers *

Viking Eggeling:

Symphonie Diagonale, 1924, 16mm, 7‘29”

Walter Ruttmann:

Opus I, 1921, 16mm, 11’10”

Opus II, 1921, 16mm, 3’20”

Opus III, 1924, 16mm, 3’20”

Opus IV, 1925, 16mm, 4’

Hans Richter:

Rhythm 21, 1921, 16mm, 3’22”

Rhythm 23, 1923,  16mm, 3’23’’

Inflation, 1927, 16mm, 2’45” 

Ghosts Before Breakfast, 1928, 16mm, 9′

Everything Turns, 1929, 16mm, 3’25”

Race Symphony, 1929, 16mm, 5’05”

Two-Penny Magic, 1929, 16mm, 2’17”

* Prints from the Cecile Starr Collection do Center for Visual Music. Presented in association with Center for Visual Music

24 September

Saturday – 5:00 p.m.

Mary Ellen Bute: Retrospective

Rhythm in Light (in collaboration with Melville Webber and Ted Nemeth), 1934, 16mm, 5’

Dada, 1936, 16mm, 3’

Parabola, 1937, 16mm, 9’

Spook Sport (in collaboration with Norman McLaren), 1939, 16mm, 8’                                

Tarantella, 1940, 16mm, 5’

Polka Graph, 1947, 16mm, 5’

Color Rhapsody, 1948, 16mm, 4’5’’

Imagination, 1948, 16mm, 3’

New Sensations in Sound RCA Commercial, 1949, 16mm, 3’

Pastorale, 1950, 16mm, 9’

Abstronic, 1952, 16mm, 7’

Mood Contrasts, 1953, 16mm, 7’

30 September

Friday – 6:00 p.m.

The Caleidoscopic Visions of Henry Michaux and Eric Duvivier

Images du Monde Visionnaire, 1963, 16mm transferred to digital copy 34’16”

1 October

Saturday – 5:00 p.m.

Harry Smith’s Psychedelism

Early Abstractions, 1939–1956, 16mm, 23’

Heaven and Earth Magic, 1957-1962, 16mm, 66′

2 October

Sunday – 5:00 p.m.

The Vasulkas 

Solo for 3, 1974, digital copy, 4’15”

Reminiscence, 1974, digital copy, 4’48”

Soundgated Images,1974, digital copy,  9’22”

Noisefields,1974, digital copy , 12’05”

Heraldic View, 1974, digital copy , 4’21”

1-2-3-4, 1974, digital copy , 7’46”

Soundsize, 1974, digital copy,  4’40”

Telc, 1974, digital copy, 5’10”

8 October

Saturday – 5:00 p.m.

Jordan Belson: Films Sacred and Profane *

Bop Scotch, 1952, digital, 3’

Mandala, 1953, 16mm, 3’

Séance, 1959, 16mm, 3’5’’; sound: Pierre Schaeffer

Vortex V presentation reel, 1959, 16mm, 5’

Allures, 1961, 16mm, 7’45’’; sound: Jordan Belson and Henry Jacobs

LSD, c. 1962, 16mm, 4’; sound: Jordan Belson (unreleased)

Samadhi, 1967, digital, 5’

Momentum, 1968, 16mm, 6’

Chakra, 1972, 16mm, 6’; sound: Jordan Belson

Cycles (with Stephen Beck), 1974, 16mm, 10’; sound: Stephen Beck

Quartet, c. 1982, digital, 10’ (unreleased)

*Prints from the collection of Center for Visual Music; many were preserved with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation. Presented in association with Center for Visual Music

9 October

Sunday – 5:00 p.m.

António Palolo

OM, 1977-1978, super 8 transferred to digital copy, 95’04” 

Calouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern Collection

14 October

Friday – 6.00 p.m.

Digital Abstraction Pioneers: The Whitney’s

Five Film Exercises, Films 1 / 2-3 / 4, 1943-44, 16mm, 16′ (to be confirmed)

Yantra, 1950-1957, 16mm, 8’

Lapis, 1963-1966, 16mm, 10′

Permutations, 1968, 16mm, 8′ (to be confirmed)

15 October

Saturday – 5:00 p.m. 

Stan VanDerBeek’s Cyberutopianism

Newsreel of Dreams: Part I, 1976, digital copy, 28′

Strobe Ode, 1977, to digital copy, 11′

Vanishing Point Left, 1977, digital copy, 9’30”

16 October

Sunday – 5:00 p.m.

Flicker and Visual Drone: Tony Conrad

The Flicker, 1965, 16mm, 30’

Archives

Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V.; C.V.M Centre for Visual Music; Electronic Arts Intermix; Film-Makers’ Cooperative; Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme; Light Cone; LUX

Some films may be inappropriate for children and contain images such as flashing lights that could trigger a seizure for people with photosensitive epilepsy.