Expanded Memories: Artistic Experiments into Hybrid Analogue-Digital Film Production

Head researcher: Steven Malliet

In this art-based research project we will experiment with hybrid forms of analogue-digital (animation) film in order to create objects of tertiary memory.

The project targets the following artistic and theoretical goals: (1) to expand the boundaries of the medium by making crossovers to the performative and fine arts; (2) to generate new understandings of audience embodiment, cognition and participation; (3) to develop a co-creative and interdisciplinary production process; and (4) to explore new formats of exhibition and curation beyond the traditional two-dimensional screen. Guided by insights from media archaeology, philosophy of technology and psychology of embodied cognition we will revisit a range of (analogue) production techniques and devices, and remediate these using digital post-production, editing and sequencing methods. This will result in a collection of experimental audiovisual works that are showcased in a hybrid digital-physical way. A digital component can be archived in a shared virtual environment but a performative and location-specific embedment is required in order to experience the material, spatial and temporal characteristics of the intended hybridization process. Multidisciplinary (and cross-university) co-creation is at the heart of the proposed project. Each partner will initiate a case based on their ongoing research in expanded film. In later stages, intermediary prototypes of each case will be (digitally) reinterpreted and/or (mechanically) reproduced by students and researchers from the other universities. As such, each case will not result in one final output, but in an ongoing series of remediations that reflect the collaborative process, and the research identity and cultural context of each partner. We will create an augmented exhibition space that showcases not only the artistic objects themselves, but especially, their continuous history and evolution. As the research combines technical, methodological, theoretical and artistic concerns, this exhibition space will essentially be multimodal: artefacts will be displayed alongside written reflections (e.g., research papers), audiovisual documentation of the research process, and technical descriptions of the tools and production methods.