PROGRAM / 1
»The Two Sights«
25 min / 20th May / Screenings / ACUD Cinema
19:00h: Festival Opening
19:15-19:40h
Two approaches of exploring the human preoccupation with ocular phenomena and the transcendence of human vision by means of a wide range of optical prostheses, from magnifying lenses to drone technology. A visual contemplation on ambivalent constellations throughout the history of modern perception between the mobilization and subjugation of the gaze and the utopian notion of the unbound »variable eye« (Jacques Aumont) which until today reaffirms a highly perspectivised and objectivising representation of the world.
The Two Sights
Katherin McInnis.
4 min / 2015 / USA / Berlin premiere
Ibn al-Haytham’s Book of Optics (written c. 1015) debunks theories that the eyes emit rays, or that objects project replicas of themselves, and accurately describes the strengths and weaknesses of human vision. The Two Sights is a false translation of this work, using images from the Life Magazine photo archive.
End of Perspective
Anton Ginzburg
21 min / 2015 / USA / German premiere
The footage for End of Perspective was filmed by two drones flying above Dutchess County. Exploring the formal possibilities of airborne camera movements and two-channel editing, End of Perspective offers a transcendent experience of nature as it is observed by the mechanical Other. The mechanical gaze of the camera is returned onto the machine itself, as the two drones view each other. Meanwhile, the representation of the landscape of the Hudson River Valley, the site that was historically definitive for American romanticism in landscape painting in mid-19th century, is activated by aerial points of view of the drone technology.