Off the MAP:Bruce Conner Films
posted: May 19, 2005
The Media Arts Project (MAP) is screening “Breakaway” and a seven films package by Bruce Conner for its upcoming Off the MAP event. The event will be held on Thursday, May 19th at Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center (BMCG+AC) at 8pm. There will be discussion following the work by the curator, Lisa Shenouda. There will be a $5 cover that goes to the MAP and the BMCM+AC.
Bruce Conner was a beat filmmaker who often collected reels 16 mm film from diverse sources and re-edited them to create new meaning. Some were cut at rapid-fire intensity (e.g. Breakaway, 1966) and using compilation footage and the wedding of sound or music to picture, which had an enduring effect on motion picture media throughout the world. Bruce Conner's filmmaking influence can be seen through both low-budget appropriation collage films as well as through high budget music videos. In addition, those music video editing techniques have, in many cases, influenced editing in mainstream commercials and feature films. His influence can also be seen directly in students such as Craig Baldwin, a collage filmmaker, who has influenced such other West Coast 90’s appropriation artists such as Negativland.
Lisa Shenouda would like to explore his style and composition of various short films to see why he was successful at creating new meaning in the visual text while engaging the audience. These 16mm films are available only through special screenings and therefore this is a very unique event for Asheville. One film, “Breakaway” is a five-minute dance film where it is played and then reversed to the original beginning. The sound track with Basilotta singing the title song is run in reverse as an aural analogue to the visual abstraction of photography. It was shot at single frame exposures as well as 8, 16, 24 and 36 frames per second.
Anthony Reveaux states, "The camera captures her movements in gestural, expressive light smears. Intercut rhythmically with strophes of black leader, she gyrates in graceful, stroboscopic accelerations. Conner's editing is consummate as he alternates angles of her figure from different shots into a kinesthetic, flowing continuity.
For more information, visit www.themap.org
Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center
56 Broadway Avenue
The Media Arts Project (MAP) is screening “Breakaway” and a seven films package by Bruce Conner for its upcoming Off the MAP event. The event will be held on Thursday, May 19th at Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center (BMCG+AC) at 8pm. There will be discussion following the work by the curator, Lisa Shenouda. There will be a $5 cover that goes to the MAP and the BMCM+AC.
