Analogue glitch art is a movement wherein video artists push aside high definition and modern tools and instead utilize the seemingly obsolete: VCRs, CCTV, video mixers, video synthesizers, and so on. Québec has been a hot bed for lo-fi enthusiasts, every artist approaching their analog instruments with a different methodology. On July 29th the Artists’ Television Access will screen ten films by nine analog glitch artists from Québec and beyond. These selected works illustrate the strength, uniqueness, and forward-thinking practice of Canada’s video art community.
Curated by Rob Feulner.
“Escales”
Dir. Sabrina Ratté, 2016 (Montréal, Québec)
In “Escales,” electricity as raw material is being sculpted, transformed and altered to be reborn as architecture. The video depicts an immersive environment where hallucinated spaces unfurl like automated mirages, and invite the viewers to project themselves inside this ever evolving space, continuously transforming and morphing into new environments.
“Parking Lot Attendant”
Dir. Charlotte Clermont, 2016 (Montréal, Québec)
Running time: 3min 57sec
By using outdated analog cameras and live capture overlay projections, Parking Lot Attendant is a formal exploration of glitches and image processing, shared between contemplation, insistence and irregularity. In collaboration with Alain Lefebvre (text and audio), this video is based on the free interpretation of a poem about boredom and its environmental components, proposing a fixed and fragmented portrait of daily life.
“Puerto Rico Tautology (14 dubs high)”
Dir. Rob Feulner, 2016 (Montréal, Québec)
Running time: 6min 58sec
Inspired by the mass exodus and economic debt of Puerto Rico, footage of Puerto Ricans attending a Fania All-Stars performance is dubbed to VHS. That VHS is dubbed to another VHS, and is done so until the image and sound deteriorates and hedge funds bleed the island dry.
“Obsolete”
Dir. Ganesh Aloir, 2015 (Montréal, Québec)
Running time: 2min 46 sec
Exploring the concept of consciousness and environment, Obsolete presents a man trapped in his own nightmare. The will to escape only further distorts his memories and sense of reality, illustrated through the use of a “dirty” video mixer.
“Chroma Crypt”
Dir. Philippe Blanchard & Peter Rahul, 2016 (Toronto, Ontario)
Running time: 5min 04sec
Developed with a particular interest in bridging old and new moving image technologies (analog video mixers and 3D video games), Chroma Crypt is an experiment in animation as a live and performative art form. Feedback is a vital formal element of the piece: it is generated and manipulated in real-time through 80s analog video mixers, and incorporated via live keying and mixing. The video game—a psychedelic cave-like environment designed collaboratively by Rahul and Blanchard in Unity—adds another performative layer to the piece, allowing the viewer to navigate the environment from a first-person perspective.
“I Just Seem to Cry a Lot, These Days…”
Dir. Roberto Malano, 2016 (Montréal, Québec)
Running time: 2min 02sec
“I Just Seem to Cry…” aims to emphasize a relation between the Glitch phenomenon – which is a technical failure – with the dysfunction of our emotional states. The imperfection becomes an aesthetic representation of our emotional failures and it startlingly creates an atmosphere of strangeness.
“Pets Watch Good Workout For Dance”
Dir. Sonya Stefan, 2013 (Montréal, Québec)
Running time: 4min 11sec
Part of “Annuaire”, a year-long audio-visual collaboration between Alain Lefebvre (audio) and Sonya Stefan (dancer and filmmaker), Pets Watch Good Workout For Dance explores training techniques that dancers obsessively partake in when perfecting their bodies.
“Into the Waves”
Dir. Colby Richardson, 2016 (Regina, Saskatchewan)
Running time: 5min
Escape into a realm of infinite harmony. Allow yourself to breath amidst the rhythms of the earth. Journey to a place where serenity and disruption coalesce as one. Achieve total inner balance as you embrace the ultimate power of chaos and tranquility.
“Anti-Prism”
Dir. Guillaume Vallée, 2014 (Montréal, Québec)
Running time: 3min 46sec
Using a Super-8 roll found in a bazar in Ajijic, Mexico, a shot of a woman walking on a dock repeats itself in effort to mimic decaying memories. The film is destroyed by decay and chemical intervention, then dubbed to VHS tape and manipulated live with a modified VCR.
“Faces of Emmanuelle”
Dir. Rob Feulner, 2014 (Montréal, Québec)
Running time: 27min 58sec
Using the sixth iteration of the Emmanuelle franchise as source material, “Faces of Emmanuelle” is a study of the VHS medium and the subterranean softcore genre that thrived in it. Utilizing video synthersizers and manipulated VCRs, the film explores the dichotomy of sexual liberation and genre-driven female suppression found in softcore films.
