RETINAn is a 15 minute performance that includes piano in a setting that immerse it with live video and electronics and putting the classical idiom into modern context.
It is an artistic study in the kinetic relationships between sound, image, motion and space. It takes its inspiration from the early cinematic practices of Étienne-Jules Marey, whose work in studying and photographing movement revolutionized the way we visualize time and motion, and puts them in the contemporary perspective.
The main question of this project is the ontology of the cinematic praxis: what is contained on the audiovisual material that allows the cinematic experience to be constructed? How is the narrative material developing? Is modern human differs in attention? How to present the material to the modern audience?
The soundscape of sober electronics promotes the image and brings the sound and time dimension to the visual aspect. The nostalgic and familiar sounds of piano bridge the modern and old sounds from the early cinematic world into the modern world.
Our goal is to explore the audiovisual phenomena form the perspective of emergence much like the image emerges onto the eye’s retina. The spectator is provided with an audio-visual objects that are observed by the virtual camera’s eye. This observation gives a dynamic perspective in time and space and allows the creation of narrative of sound, image, motion and space as an individual experience.
The inspirations of the project are the early cinematic practices of Étienne-Jules Marey and the Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov. The deep technical limitations they faced and the creative solutions they came up with are a start point for the creative techniques that are used in this project.
We wanted to work in a supportive and stimulating environment, and STEIM was a perfect place for that. The best aspect was the support from Nico and his attentiveness to our needs.
The project was presented at STEIM, as well as during ‘SPOR’ festival in Aarhus (Denmark).
The subsequent performances are going to happen during Gaudeamus festival this year on September 10th and during Musica Electronica Nova Festival in Poland in May 2011.