Darrin Martin presents an evening of solo video works and collaborations with Torsten Zenas Burns, that ends a spring tour of his work that traveled throughout the country. The program includes highlights from his trilogy examining subjects of hearing loss and tinnitus, a constant ringing in one’s head. Videos from his ongoing collaboration with Torsten Zenas Burns exploring re-imagined educational programs that tap into subjects as diverse as psychology, polygamy and the occult will also be in the mix.
Martin’s work has screened internationally at festivals and museums including The Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Arts, Pacific Film Archives, The Paris/Berlin International, and The European Media Art Festival in Germany. His installations have exhibited at venues such as The Kitchen in New York and WRO Media Arts Biennale in Poland. Burns and Martin have screened and exhibited at venues including The Oberhausen Short Film Festival, The New York Video Festival, Cinematexas in Austin, The Madrid Museum of Contemporary Art, Champ Libre in Montreal, and Eyebeam in New York. He teaches video and media arts at UC Davis.
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Volcanica, 2004, 9:30 minutes, collaboration with Torsten Zenas Burns
Monograph in Stereo, 2004/5, 17:20 minutes
Free to Be You and Me, 2006, 4:20 minutes
I am Today’s Lesson Plan, 2004, 10:30 minute collaboration with Torsten Zenas Burns
Other Turbans, 2007, 12:40 minutes
What If?, 2009, 15:30 minute collaboration with Torsten Zenas Burns
About 70 minutes - TRT
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Volcanica, 2005, 9:30 minute collaboration with Torsten Zenas Burns
“Ever want to be your own volcano?† Or worship at a cave of discovery, only to find yourself in deeper than you expected, with no way out other than love, lava, and a lot of mutual understanding?† This juicy piece will squeeze the best out of you and leave you changed for life.” Wego Krieder, Studio 27, SF
Monograph in Stereo, 2004/5, 17:20 minutes
Monograph in Stereo†employs documentary and experimental strategies to convey a struggle with congenital and operational hearing loss and tinnitus, a continual ringing in the ear; a phantom auditory perception.††The work also stems from research upon the interdependency of the senses with an emphasis on the balance ascertained from binaural hearing and stereoscopic vision and the imbalance caused by their uneven degradation.††Images move amongst poetic reverberations of landscapes, interiors and audiological exam rooms.††The second video in a trilogy of single-channel works on hearing loss.
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Free to Be You and Me, 2006, 4:20 minutes
Four of the original children on the merry-go-round in the opening sequence of Marlo Thomas’s star-studded television special of the same name rephrase the catchy opening theme song.† An internet mogul, an independent filmmaker, a temp computer specialist, and an orthodontist reiterate the songs nostalgic promise of freedom couched within a technologically mediated environment.† Originally mastered in HD video.
I am Today’s Lesson Plan, 2004, from the series Learning Stalls: Lesson Plans, 10:30 minute collaboration with Torsten Zenas Burns
"An episodic adventure about extra-evolutionary transformation. Organized as 'lesson plans', this unique work is an ambitious tutorial for the neo-nauts of inner space." Steve Seid, Pacific Film Archives
Other Turbans, 2007, 12:40 minutes
“Martin has expertly assembled images and sounds, and used editing and effects not only to evoke an altered sensory experience, but to create new visual and aural worlds with their own compelling qualities.” David Finkelstein, Film Threat. The third piece in a trilogy of single-channel works on hearing loss.
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What If?, 2009, 15:30 minute collaboration with Torsten Zenas Burns
What If? is one edition of a larger role-playing workshop where participants were asked to reenact a fictional polyamorous romance.† The performers enact date rituals through various pairings of the relationship which ultimately leads to a group wedding.† The characters are based upon two obscure Marvel superheroes and two internationally renowned art personalities. The happy foursome are Stelarc, an artist whose cybernetic mission in life is to render the body obsolete; Orlan, an artist whose actual redefinition of her own body via plastic surgery confronts representations of woman throughout art history; the Scarlet Witch, a mutant superhero who has unlimited powers over probability, and the Vision, a “synthezoid” whose mechanically fabricated body contains a human soul.† What If? unfolds the entangled story that brought this romantic foursome together spanning the gulf between genders and representations; the body and technology.† Originally mastered in HD video.
