Karel Doing

Wilderness Series

HD Video and DCP
13:38 minutes
colour
2016

sounddesign: Andrea Szigetvári

Screenings:

Alchemy (Hawick)
Screen Research Forum (London)
Close Up Filmcentre (London)
Visual Studies Workshop (Rochester)
EYE Filmmuseum (Amsterdam)
Festival Transterritorial de Cine Underground (Buenos Aires)
Les Inattendus (Lyon)
Speechless Film Festival (Mankato)
Whitstable Biennale (Whitstable)
Leiden International Short Film Experience (Leiden)
Film Farm (Mount Forest)
ID:I Gallery (Stockholm)
Club Solo (Breda)
AVANT (Karlstad)
La Lumière Collective (Montréal)

HIFF (Halifax)
Videodrome (Marseille)

review (English)
review (French)

 

Karel Doing - Wilderness Series

By using plants, mud and salt in conjunction with alternative photochemistry, images are 'grown' on motion picture film. What at first glance is perceived as abstract turns out to be a concrete precipitation from phenomena that surround us in everyday life. The 'aliveness' of the images is underlined by Andrea Szigetvári's evocative sound-design.

The project is driven by a desire to find new narratives regarding the natural environment. Instead of representing pristine landscapes or photographing wildlife, the images in this film are the result of a natural process and can be described as images made by nature and not of nature.

Recuperated (out of date) 35mm black&white film-stock has served as 'blank canvas' to generate images in full daylight. Slow (bio)chemical changes in the emulsion that have occurred over days or weeks are used instead of normal exposure. These processes were partially steered and adapted by trial and error but have been largely independent, rendering surprise results and unexpected colours.

This technique is coined the 'organigram' after its predecessor the photogram; an organigram shows the organisation of a natural process. High resolution scans (6K) were used to animate a selection of organigrams; while layering, inverting, rhythmically ordering and zooming in on particular sections. This wilderness is a tiny one, all that had to be done to make this intricate world visible, is to look closely at a smaller scale of activity.