Vladmasters and the Apt Ensemble

A Vladmaster performance is a simultaneous ViewMaster experience. Everyone in the audience is given a ViewMaster viewer and a set of Vladmaster disks. A soundtrack of narration, music, sound effects, and ding noises to cue the change from image to image then leads the audience through the story. The glorious ker-thunk of many of ViewMaster viewers turning simultaneously fills the air. Euphoria ensues.

Vladmasters are unique ViewMaster disks photographed, designed, and hand-assembled by Vladimir, an artist hailing from Portland, Oregon. Her beautifully packaged Vladmasters feature 3D macro photography of detailed dioramas built out of everything from HO scale model railroad men to dead cockroaches to Currier & Ives prints.

Three different Vladmaster stories will be performed. They are Lucifugia Thigmotaxis, about the misadventures of a cockroach named Stanley who dares to journey across an apartment; The Public Life of Jeremiah Barnes, about finding 86 idled and abandoned earth-moving vehicles in the forest and then trying to discover who put them there and why; and Actaeon at Home, a loose take on the Actaeon myth transferred to a turn-of-the-century man seemingly attacked by his own decor.

Lucifugia Thigmotaxis and The Public Life of Jeremiah Barnes both have pre-recorded soundtracks, while Actaeon at Home Vladmaster will feature a live soundtrack performed by The Apt Ensemble. The Apt Ensemble is a trio from Portland consisting of Peter Broderick, Nathan Crockett, and Branic Howard. They play strange and delightful music on an assortment of instruments including toy piano, tuba, musical saw, melodica, pump organ, and train whistle. The Apt Ensemble will also perform a wonderful set of music unaccompanied by tiny photographs and clicking noises.

Vladmaster performances have been featured at the Olympia Film Festival, the Northwest Film & Video Festival, and, for two years running, Vladimir has been crowned the World Champion of Experimental Film at the Portland Documentary and Experimental (PDX) Film Festival Invitationals. They have also been featured in Res Magazine.