Releases
San Francisco Film Society Presents New KinoTek Program 'Karolina Sobecka: Human Moves, Animal Visions,' April 20–May 3 at Super Frog Gallery
Artist Utilizes Impressive Range of Software and Emergent Technologies to Create Interactive Art Installations and Explore Non-Verbal Communication
3/28/2012
The San Francisco Film Society will present a new KinoTek program Karolina Sobecka: Human Moves, Animal Visions, a curated selection of installations by interactive artist Karolina Sobecka, April 20–May 3, 2:00–8:00 pm daily at Super Frog Gallery in the New People building (1746 Post Street).
A leading figure in the production of interactive installations, Karolina Sobecka ingeniously uses animation, interface design and humor to comment on the ways that we use our bodies and gestures to navigate and understand the world in our overtly mediated environments. Several of her installations (described here) will be on view. “Pornographic Pursuit 2” engages the boundary between narrativity and spectacle. Viewers are shown a film loop of Marilyn Monroe disrobing. But, the film will only run to its completion if viewers jog in place at increasing pace. “Stability” presents the tumultuous life of a man whose living space can be disrupted at any moment by gallery visitors. A cube on a pedestal represents the man’s room, and if it is jostled the space reacts the same way, upending the man and all of his belongings. He records the event in a disaster logbook, and sets about organizing his space, always in a different way until someone comes along and upsets it again! “Surveyor” is an iPhone app that one might think extends the cube man’s life. The app’s user interacts with a mobile video projector, where a man logs everything he sees in a logbook. The man’s gaze interacts with others in whatever space in which he is projected. “Capacity to Act in a World” investigates the limits and meaning of human agency by presenting behavior within an interdependent matrix of elements including the gallery visitor herself. “All the Universe is Full of the Lives of Perfect Creatures” is an interactive mirror that returns the viewer’s reflection but with a superimposed animal faces to visitors that gaze into it.
For complete program information visit sffs.org/Exhibition/KinoTek.
The Film Society has commissioned an original essay, inspired by and about Sobecka, by Akira Mizuta Lippit, media theorist, critic and chair of the department of Cinema-Television, Critical Studies, University of Southern California, to be published on April 16 at sffs.org.
“Karolina Sobecka uses her considerable artistic and technical skills to cannily fuse cultural concerns regarding life, the environment, mediation and spectacle,” said SFFS programmer Sean Uyehara. “That she is able to do so in engaging and humorous ways make her all the more exciting.”
KinoTek is a programming stream presenting nontraditional, cross-platform and emergent media. Throughout 2011 and 2012 the Film Society will present eight KinoTek programs, each featuring the work of an artist or practice that challenges the boundaries of screen-based art. Previous programs in the series have featured Brooklyn-based writer/performer Erin Markey, pioneering software artist Marius Watz and American multimedia artist Laurel Nakadate. KinoTek is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation.
For interviews contact hhart@sffs.org.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.
Upcoming KinoTek programs
Adriane Colburn, experimental cartography and installation
Brent Green, sculpture and animation
San Francisco Film Society
Building on a legacy of more than 50 years of bringing the best in world cinema to the Bay Area, the San Francisco Film Society is a national leader in exhibition, education and filmmaker services.
The Film Society presents 365 days of exhibition each year, reaching a total audience of 130,000 people. Its acclaimed education program introduces international, independent and documentary cinema and media literacy to more than 15,000 teachers and students and presents more than 100 classes and workshops annually. Through Filmmaker360, the filmmaker services program, essential creative and business services and funding totaling millions of dollars are provided to deserving filmmakers of all levels.
The Film Society seeks to elevate all aspects of film culture, offering a wide range of activities that engage emotions, inspire action, change perceptions and advance knowledge. A 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, it is largely donor and member supported. Patronage and membership provides discounted prices, access to grants and residencies, private events and a wealth of other benefits.
For more information visit sffs.org.
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A leading figure in the production of interactive installations, Karolina Sobecka ingeniously uses animation, interface design and humor to comment on the ways that we use our bodies and gestures to navigate and understand the world in our overtly mediated environments. Several of her installations (described here) will be on view. “Pornographic Pursuit 2” engages the boundary between narrativity and spectacle. Viewers are shown a film loop of Marilyn Monroe disrobing. But, the film will only run to its completion if viewers jog in place at increasing pace. “Stability” presents the tumultuous life of a man whose living space can be disrupted at any moment by gallery visitors. A cube on a pedestal represents the man’s room, and if it is jostled the space reacts the same way, upending the man and all of his belongings. He records the event in a disaster logbook, and sets about organizing his space, always in a different way until someone comes along and upsets it again! “Surveyor” is an iPhone app that one might think extends the cube man’s life. The app’s user interacts with a mobile video projector, where a man logs everything he sees in a logbook. The man’s gaze interacts with others in whatever space in which he is projected. “Capacity to Act in a World” investigates the limits and meaning of human agency by presenting behavior within an interdependent matrix of elements including the gallery visitor herself. “All the Universe is Full of the Lives of Perfect Creatures” is an interactive mirror that returns the viewer’s reflection but with a superimposed animal faces to visitors that gaze into it.
For complete program information visit sffs.org/Exhibition/KinoTek.
The Film Society has commissioned an original essay, inspired by and about Sobecka, by Akira Mizuta Lippit, media theorist, critic and chair of the department of Cinema-Television, Critical Studies, University of Southern California, to be published on April 16 at sffs.org.
“Karolina Sobecka uses her considerable artistic and technical skills to cannily fuse cultural concerns regarding life, the environment, mediation and spectacle,” said SFFS programmer Sean Uyehara. “That she is able to do so in engaging and humorous ways make her all the more exciting.”
KinoTek is a programming stream presenting nontraditional, cross-platform and emergent media. Throughout 2011 and 2012 the Film Society will present eight KinoTek programs, each featuring the work of an artist or practice that challenges the boundaries of screen-based art. Previous programs in the series have featured Brooklyn-based writer/performer Erin Markey, pioneering software artist Marius Watz and American multimedia artist Laurel Nakadate. KinoTek is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation.
For interviews contact hhart@sffs.org.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.
Upcoming KinoTek programs
Adriane Colburn, experimental cartography and installation
Brent Green, sculpture and animation
San Francisco Film Society
Building on a legacy of more than 50 years of bringing the best in world cinema to the Bay Area, the San Francisco Film Society is a national leader in exhibition, education and filmmaker services.
The Film Society presents 365 days of exhibition each year, reaching a total audience of 130,000 people. Its acclaimed education program introduces international, independent and documentary cinema and media literacy to more than 15,000 teachers and students and presents more than 100 classes and workshops annually. Through Filmmaker360, the filmmaker services program, essential creative and business services and funding totaling millions of dollars are provided to deserving filmmakers of all levels.
The Film Society seeks to elevate all aspects of film culture, offering a wide range of activities that engage emotions, inspire action, change perceptions and advance knowledge. A 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, it is largely donor and member supported. Patronage and membership provides discounted prices, access to grants and residencies, private events and a wealth of other benefits.
For more information visit sffs.org.
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