Anna Zhao

    anna.whizh@yahoo.com

    THE digital age has broken the long-held mystery of moviemaking as video-editing technology has become easily accessible to ordinary users of digital devices, but how is new technology influencing cinematic art and people’s lives? The answer is now unfolding at the OCT Art and Design Gallery in Nanshan District with 18 video installations on display through Jan. 3, 2017.

    Themed “Home Cinema,” the exhibition features new media art with interpretations from 17 artists from China and abroad. Different from traditional art forms, which include painting and graphic images as well as sculptures and installations, new media art is characterized by dynamic and real-time participation with customized programs producing variable results. It can be manifested in various forms, such as computer art, audio art, interactive art, virtual art and Internet art.

    The rise of new media technology has brought about huge possibilities with moviemaking. A major change is that individuals are not confined to one role but can be the play writer, director, actor and producer. In addition, cinemas are no longer the only place to enjoy a fantasy-like production — you can now create your own unique movies by controlling the playing speed, editing sequences and altering the ending of movies.

    “Fractal Film” by French artists Delphine Doukhan and Antoine Schmitt is a generative video show that reveals new elements in the same scenes of a short drama. The scenario is a story without words involving six characters during a dance party. By using a computer program to alter the movement of eight cameras, the same scene is shot via different angles, thus generating different meanings to the drama.

    “Hold On” by French duo Emilie Brout and Maxime Marion is a video game-like interactive installation that allows spectators to manipulate sequences of a movie. For example, you can use the joystick to control the leg and arm movements of Bruce Lee in the action movie “The Way of the Dragon,” or make different dancing postures in “Saturday Night Fever.” The installation develops a playful and dynamic experience based on cinema.

    Another piece by the duo, “Drifts,” is an infinite film composed of thousands of short cinematographic extracts, each one featuring water in a different way, from a wide range of movies, including “The Waterer Watered” by the Frères Lumière (1895), “Knife in the Water” by Roman Polanski (1962), and “Titanic” by James Cameron (1997). An entirely new movie is created each time when these extracts are re-edited into a different sequence according to an automatic editing system that is aimed at creating different dramatic effects.

    Not only does the new media technology inflict surprising dramatic effects on cinema, it can also affect people’s understanding of the real world.

    French artist Thierry Fournier explored the impact in his network installation “Precursion.”

    Fournier created an infinite video program by randomly associating real-time RSS news feeds and the video footage he shot in Paris with a smartphone, with clips of soundtracks from blockbuster movies for their dramatic intensity. New content is generated through different combinations of the three elements, which might incur different emotions, sometimes comical and sometimes tragic.

    “El Paraiso (paradise)” is a group of installations of model cinemas by Argentinian artists Mariano Pensotti and Mariana Tirantte crafted to reveal the screen plays written by famous directors, such as Ingmar Bergman and Michael Haneke, which were never made into films.

    South Korean artist Jung Yeon-doo offers visitors a special experience to become “actors” in the installation “Drive-in Theater.” In a make-believe movie car scene, people can watch themselves on screen in real-time in the style of a drive-in theater from the 1930s. The installation aims to help people realize that the imaginary world of cinema is an extension of real life experiences.

    The audio-visual installation “Space Odyssey,” by French artists Etienne Rey and Wilfried Wendling, brings visitors an immersive experience of virtual reality coupled with light beams and audio effects.

    “Face to Face” is a recording of Chinese artist Qiu Qianwen’s role-play of her family members who were involved in a family conflict. The artist re-enacts the scene of a family dialogue in front of a table in four videos, each representing a family member’s speech in the form of a monologue.

    “The Remnant of Image” by Chinese artist Hu Jieming is a group of seemingly true family stories composed of old photos. Fragmented photos, collected from the Internet, public catalogues and private albums of different people were used to create a fictional family story.

    French curator Charles Carcopino said he is happy to share with the museum projects discussing the revolutions in new media art and thinks that new media art will have more potential in China, given the rapid changes new technology has brought about in the country.

    “As for this exhibition, my first idea was to make connections between different cultures and I am very happy that we can create this link because cinema is representative of a country’s culture,” he said.

    Time: Till Jan. 3, 2017.

    Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. (Closed on Mondays, open on holidays)

    Venue: OCT Art & Design Gallery, 9009-1 Shennan Boulevard, Overseas Chinese Town (南山区华侨城深南大道9009-1号)

    Metro: Luobao Line, OCT Station, Exit C (罗宝线华侨城站C出口)