Microorganisms take center stage in Vishniac “experiment”
Roman Vishniac was a pioneering micro-cinematographer who discovered new ways to film microscopic organisms. His work might be most familiar to the public from PBS documentaries about the life of such creatures.
Fifty minutes of "outtakes" from the University of South Carolina's Moving Image Research Collection's Vishniac Collection, edited down from hundreds of hours of footage, puts the focus on movement.
Tiny creatures blown up on a big screen. Pulsing, gyrating, mutating. Behind them, Chris Bickel performed improvised sound mixing and effects based on his conceptions and interpretations of the footage.
Some effects came prepared; others culled from his existing library; others still made up on the spot; all of it fused together as a live performance. It was the first time Bickel had seen the footage all together.
Dressed in a simple black suit with black tie (a la David Lynch's Dale Cooper from television series "Twin Peaks"), Bickel stood on stage beneath a projector.
The audience could watch him watching the screen, performing his every move.
The eerie music, the unrecognizable images — it all felt like it was taking place somewhere other than "here." Sure, it's not quite a Lynch dreamscape — where objects take on new meanings, music decentralizes a sense of space and performance reigns over all — but it's the closest metaphor to describe the event.
Dr. Mark Cooper, director of USC's Moving Image Research Collections, spoke before and after the film. He was also sure to echo Smith's description of the event as an "experiment." Cooper called it a merging of interests and communities that explored the relationship between image and sound.
It was hard not to be constantly at awe with the detail, the texture and the movement of the critters as they loomed across the screen. The Vishniac screenings provided an equal amount of exploration and experimentation.
Rachel Allen, a fourth year media arts and film and media studies student, edited the footage and joined Cooper and Bickel after the screening to discuss the process. She alluded several times to ideas about motion and evolution, where sifting through the footage became a process more about highlighting Vishniac's fascination with these creatures' movements.
Indie Grits lets the MIRC showcase its collection in a daring new way and gives academics like Cooper and performers like Bickel a place to converge in dynamic ways. Such a unique program idea — live performance mixed with archival outtake footage — is daring at least and brilliant at best.