Energie! Series 12,75 cm x 17,5 cm
- I make experimental short films. they are literally experimental. some prefer the term avantgarde (which I think is pretty deceiving) but I'm quite happy with the term experimental cinema as I really consider my films little visual and aural investigations. I have a theme that I'm interested in, it might be a material like for examples crystals (in my film kosmos) or something less solid and concrete like high voltage (in my film energie!), and then experiment on that theme regarding what I can get out of it with film and video technology. it is a very procedural approach meaning that I normally don't know where it will lead me in the end. I just try to find what I think looks interesting and beautiful and then when I have experimented enough I try to put the different results together in a way that makes sense to me.
- it started with a long fascination I have for high voltage. I built my first tesla coil (a device that produces very long sparks which are released in the air) many years ago and always wanted to do something that rivals the sheer power of the electric discharges the tesla coil sends off. I started with exposing 16mm filmstrips with high voltage but the result was not powerful enough. when I developed my own method of creating electrophotographies (very similar but more extreme than kirlian photography) I found interesting and strong results when trying to animate those photos. so when I had made enough electrophotographies that I liked and thought would work in an animation I tried out several visual effects and illusions of movement and heavy flickering to create a very hypnotic meditation for electricity junkies like me.
- I've never actually seen conrad's flicker but I read about it. I have seen kubelka's flicker film 'arnulf rainer' though which is one of the most minimal and strongest pieces of cinema. it is aesthetically and conceptually very condensed and tight. I have seen several of tscherkassky's films which I also enjoyed. of course there are brakhage's films and a lot of other filmmakers that have been highly influencial for me: dario argento, shinya tsukamoto, david cronenberg, alfred hitchcock, jean-luc godard, lucio fulci, richard kern, sergio corbucci, michael snow, luis bunuel, tobe hooper, joe d'amato, michaelangelo antonioni, ernie gehr, ed emshwiller, goh harada and so on. don't want to bore you with more namedropping. I like a lot of scifi and horror films. I think these genres are the most interesting and experimental visually. but I also like good comedies, like tati for example or south park.
- yes, I particular remember watching irreversible. it took me two attempts actually. I first wanted to watch it together with my brother but than it was very aggressive in the beginning and we stopped as we were not in the mood for it. a few weeks later I watched it through and really liked it. definitly an experience you don't forget when you've seen it.
- well, apart from making films I play in a band called 'malende'. my friend david plays acoustic bass and I play guitar and sing. we play a few own songs about violent video games and a lot of cover songs from slayer to the misfits. we perform the songs in our own style which we call acoustic death. I was involved in a few theatre plays were I made some of the visuals and also in techno parties in berlin were I did the visuals together with a friend. right now together with my brother we try to establish the 'center of technology and art berlin' were we want to create projects with fancy 'virtual reality' technology. my brother is a computer scientist who for many years worked with this technology and developed his own VR lab. we'd like to now find interesting applications for it.