Artists' Television Access

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  • OpenScreening

    ATA’s free community film/video show welcomes short format work or (15 min or less) from all genres. An open forum for independent filmmakers to show their work, we hold screenings the first Thursday of the month at 8:00 pm. Entries must be received by 7:00 pm on show night.

    Submissions: To submit a digital file, email openscreening@atasite.org. For physical media, label all tapes with name, contact info, title, and length, and mail to: Open Screening, 992 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110. 1–2 weeks advance submissions recommended. If not, just walk in before the show.
    Maximum length: 15 min.
    Formats: Digital file (PC or Mac), DVD, miniDV/DV-cam, VHS, beta, 8 mm, and 16 mm. For 8 mm and 16 mm films give us advance notice.

    Doors at 7:30 pm, show at 8:00 pm, FREE

  • Quinn Keck: Irrational Symbolic Thinking 

    Irrational Symbolic Thinking 

    On Display in June

    An irrational number is a never ending, never repeating decimal.  An imaginary number exists1 and creates a complex system that explains observed phenomena.1, 2   Equations are symbolic representations of concepts, abiding metaphors,2 ideas, dreams,3 and thoughts.   

     

    It can be tempting to imagine our skulls to be like the walls of the gallery – blank canvases to house our autonomous creations.  Like the gallery wall and Plato’s cave, our minds and bodies4 have contexts that determine possible interpretations of shadows on the wall, obscuring which questions are “unreasonable” to ask.5

     

    But let’s peel back a few layers?  After all, knowledge is a collective pursuit.*

     

    A detailed full proof here:

    “Answers and Explanations — Do “Imaginary Numbers” Really Exist?” by Philip Spencer www.math.toronto.edu/mathnet/answers/imaginary.html. 

    And for some other helpful explanations: 

    https://www.reddit.com/r/askmath/comments/z4qxsk/can_anyone_explain_what_imaginary_number_are_what/

    2 See Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s discussion of abiding metaphors and science in her book The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry and the Cosmic Dream Boogie.

    3 Srinivasa Ramanujan is regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time and the“the man who knew infinity,” as the film with the same title tells. He figured out the equations in his notebooks through mysticism, his faith and dreams.

    4 The mind/body split that may seem natural or common sense to people in the Western philosophical traditions is not so universal and has been pushed back upon by many.   One place to start is Julian Frazier, PhD’s article “Indigenous Wisdom Reveals the Truth about the Mind-Body Connection”: https://medium.com/@julian.frazier.phd/indigenous-wisdom-reveals-the-truth-about-the-mind-body-connection-c8c5ec1b0451

    5 For more on what questions are reasonable and unreasonable to ask, see the paper: Cognitive Sociology: between the personal and the universal mind by Eviatar Zerubavel, published by The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Sociology.

    6 Nataille Wynn, ContaPoints, in her video essay “Conspiracy” makes this excellent point.

    Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teqkK0RLNkI 

    More on her work: https://www.contrapoints.com/

     

    Artist Bio

     

    Quinn Keck (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist who investigates concepts in sociology, physics, technology and philosophy.   Working across printmaking,  artists books, creative coding, and installation, their work discusses memory, perception and grief through questioning the manifestation of systems.   They have been an instructor and  printmaker in residence at Women’s Studio Workshop, Kala Art Institute, and Zea Mays Printmaking and their work has been shown at Gray Area, Root Division, the Richmond Art Center, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, and Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair.  Their process is one of constantly iterating on new and old images, just as we all are a series of imperfect versions of ourselves improving each iteration but never fully finished. 

     

  • Rewards Program: “an army of lovers cannot fail”; revolution, rivalry, and queer existence

    A three-projector celluloid meditation live-scored by improvisational trio Rewards Program: “an army of lovers cannot fail”: revolution, rivalry, and queer existence. Visuals in special collaboration with musician and artist Kati Mashikian.

    Bios:

    MILES LASSI is an interdisciplinary artist based out of Oakland, CA. As a musician, he has performed in over 150 cities throughout North America, Europe and Asia with many different ensembles ranging from the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall to national broadway tours like Ain’t Too Proud, Dirty Dancing, and Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. Miles is dedicated to creating new media and has done so at the New York Film Festival, Lincoln Center, Apollo Theater, deYoung Museum, Joyce Theater, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, A.C.T., SXSW and Snap Studios/KQED.

    SKYWAY MAN is the alias of keyboardist, songwriter, and producer James Wallace. Based in Oakland via Richmond, VA, and Nashville, TN, he has released seven albums and composed music for Film/TV, including Joe Pera Talks With You (HBO). Over the past 15 years, he has toured extensively across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, performing at festivals like Bonnaroo, Pickathon, SXSW, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and Wilco’s Solid Sound. He has collaborated with Abigail Washburn, Langhorne Slim, Erin Rae, and Maya Hawke, among others. Brittany Howard once named his band a favorite local act in Rolling Stone, and his work has been featured in NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and Stereogum. He’s produced 20 full-length albums for other artists, including Bay Area musicians Mikayla McVey, Milk for the Angry, and Pancho Morris. Over the past few years he’s developed a practice of live instrumental film scoring using keyboards and sequencers.

    ELLIE VANDERLIP is a San Francisco-based experimental filmmaker, performer, and educator. She received her MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University in 2022. She is a co-director at Oakland’s Shapeshifters Cinema, on the board of directors at San Francisco’s Cinematheque, and maintains a studio at Artists’ Television Access. She has hosted filmmaking workshops with the Exploratorium, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the University of San Francisco, and lectures at St. Mary’s College and San Francisco State University. Her primary focuses are found footage experimental documentary, material cinema, and expanded cinema performance. Her work has screened nationally and internationally, including at San Francisco DocFest and Belgrade’s Kinoscope Festival, and has upcoming writings about alternative archives in Found Footage Magazine.