The Transart (notso) Short Fest
Conceived, compiled, and curated by Jean Marie Casbarian | Produced by Jean Marie Casbarian and Taylore C. Wilson
December 7, 2020 – February 21, 2021
The (notso) Short Fest is a 5-hour collection of video shorts created by Transart Institute’s MFA students, faculty and advisors from around the globe. Conceived, compiled, and curated by Jean Marie Casbarian (faculty + advisor), the festival celebrates the creative minds of these international artists over the span of 16 years since the inception of this unique, international low-residency MFA and PHD program.
Five hours of 77 video shorts by 72 artists make up the series of hourly chapters that will screen cumulatively over 11 weeks.
CHAPTERS AND ARTISTS
Chapter 1 | 0:14
Jair Tapia | Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua, Mexico
Espacios en Vigilia, 2019
Aurora Del Rio / SpiegelimSpiegel Kollektiv | Italy/Germany
Offerta / Opera Vana, 2019
The concept originates from two iconological images described by Cesare Ripa in his book Nova Iconologia: “Offerta” (offer) and "Opera Vana” (useless endeavor). The traditional string-game is envisioned as a generator of symbolic figures, pointing at the ambivalence of human relationship to nature. On the one hand the Offer, the symbolic approach, suggest the return to the idea of nature as a powerful and dangerous entity, to be respected and towards which an offer is required. On the other end the useless endeavor is what mankind accomplishes through an endless process of exploiting nature until the extremes consequences. Offerta/Opera Vana is ultimately a ritual which aims at contemplating the impossibility of the ambivalence we inhabit.
Sabri Idrus | Subang Jaya, Malaysia
Unknotting, 2016
Freya Olafson | Winnipeg, Canada
Disembodied Beings, 2019
Disembodied Beings considers how virtual reality technology destabilizes meaning(s) of the corporeal body. The work engages with content from the Internet: open source motion capture libraries, ready-made 3D models of humans, and at home tests of motion capture software and models. These visuals conflate with found Youtube monologues that recount out of body and astral projection experiences. Disembodied People is part of Olafson a new series called MÆ-Motion Aftereffect which is a series of works concerned with the impact of emerging consumer technologies associated with AR-Augmented Reality, VR-Virtual Reality, MR-Mixed Reality, XR-Extended Reality and 360° video.
Bill Ratner | Los Angeles, USA
Quarantine Ride, 2020
Louis Laberge-Côté | Toronto, Canada
Porous Body, 2017
Sarah Bennett | UK
Safe-keeping (custodia), 2014
Emerging from a residency at the Museo Laboratorio della Mente, Rome, this four-channel video (Breathing; Stifling; Scratching; Over and Over) investigates the affective potential of abandoned fagotti (parcels) containing the possessions belonging to former patients of a closed psychiatric hospital. Oscillating between non-representational and representational modes of ‘knowing’, and produced through embodied enactments, the work aims to provide a credible critique of the now discredited Italian psychiatric system. I am showing the four videos sequentially for the Ely Center screening, but they are usually looped and screened on monitors simultaneously in a large darkened space.
Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo, Anna Recasens, and Laia Solé | United States/Spain
On Art and Friendship, 2020 (ETI Archive version - Idensitat)
Malvina Sammarone | Sao Paolo, Brazil
The Hole, 2020
Mary Sherman | Boston, USA
Delay, 2014
Delay (a multi-sensory collaboration with acoustic artist Florian Grond) poses and answers the question, “What if you could hear a painting?”
Zoran Poposki | Skopje, Macedonia/Hong Kong
Crisis, 2020
Quintín Rivera Toro | Providence, USA/Puerto Rico
Demolición, 2018
Cheryl Hirshman | Massachusetts, USA
What Was Then, What Is Now, What Will Be, 2010
Jay Sullivan | Red Bank, New Jersey, USA
A Place to Rest My Head, 2020
Simon Donovan | Tucson, USA
Oedipus Realized / Under Pressure, 2008
Linda Duvall | Saskatoon, SK
Field Notes for the Spring Ponds, 2020
JoMichelle Piper | Sydney, Australia
Shadow Dancers, 2020
Hans Tammen | New York, USA
Proprioception (Body Awareness), 2017
An assemblage of historic imagery, 70’s experimental video practices, and modern-day chaotic audio procedures. John Heartfield was a pioneer using collage and photomontage as a means to fight militarism and fascism in Europe. The work juxtaposes two camera streams pointing to Heartfield’s imagery and to crosshairs from an analog videoscope, using video processing equipment built in the 1970’s—a technology that was made to facilitate alternative, experimental and open practices. The processing in turn is controlled by audio from a modern-day synthesizer using chaotic procedures. Special thanks to Signal Culture for access to their equipment.
Zeerak Ahmed | Pakistan/USA
ALOUD, 2020
In this work I map out sonic spaces that reside within the body. Channeling notes from the base, chest, throat, nose and head, I draw out my selves.
Chapter 2 | 1:02:43
Angelika Rinnhofer | New Mexico, USA/Germany
Times Square, 2012
Anne Sophie Lorange | Norway
To Remain Alone, 2020
Sean Carl Rees | USA/Canada
Rubbish Lingers, 2020
Chris Danowksi | USA/UK
Heathering, 2020
Ruth Novaczek | UK
The New World, 2014
Rodolfo Cossovich | Argentina/Shanghai
The Perfect Robot, 2020
CILLA VEE (Claire Elizabeth Barratt) | USA/UK
Vigil: Prayers for the Living and the Dead (Day 22 - Red), 2020
Day 22 of a 30-day residency at Chashama – Brooklyn Bridge Park, in response to global sickness, violence and death. Sponsored by an “Enliven NYC” grant award from the NYSCA and the NEA.
Video by Fred Hatt
Michael Bowdidge | UK
doglitch #1 (elegy), 2020
Christian Gerstheimer | Michigan, USA
Thursday’s Performance, March 29, 2018
El Paso Community College (EPCC), El Paso, TX. This three-hour performance about the difficulties of migration began at EPCC’s Valle Verde campus and ended three miles away at the reception for EPCC’s annual Faculty Biennial.
Mariana Rocha | Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Requiem 1:55, 2011-2013
Valerie Walkerdine | UK
The Maternal Line-01,01,15, 2015
Gabriela Gusmão and Carlos Pontual | Rio de Janeiro–São Paulo, Brazil
bagatelas 2, 2020
bagatelas 2 is a non-presencial collaborative work developed during the pandemic momentum between the visual artist Gabriela Gusmão and the musician Carlos Pontual. The short video pieces , fruit of intuitive symbiosis by the use of surrealistic free-association technicque, reach a peculiar organic flow.
Louis Laberge-Côté | Toronto, Canada
Searching for Yellow, 2016
David Chalmers Alesworth | UK/Pakistan/UK
Joank (leech/slug), Lahore, 2008
Geoff Cox | UK
It, 1993
Chapter 3 | 2:02:57
Konjit Seyoum | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
The Coffee Tree and I, 2020
Covid is here since March.
In April, a state of emergency was declared to curb it.
In June, I went out and bought this coffee tree seedling and planted it in my garden.
I am not watering it because right now we are in the middle of the rainy season.
In fact, we are also in the middle of everything.
We are planting, placing, displacing, holding, interring, charging, discharging...
We, them and us together. Disjointedly.
The Coffee Tree and I is a piece inspired by John Newling’s The Lemon Tree and Me. It is a work in progress. I will continue watching it grow and all that grows in it, with it, from it and around it.
Jeanne Criscola | Connecticut, USA
Reading Color: Study 1, 2019
Bruce Nauman typography
Ana MacArthur | Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
RE(a)SONANCE; it’s not what you think, 2016
In deliberate intensions immersing myself into the outback terrain of the Pipevine swallowtail butterfly, I slowly became its world. Boundaries of self disappeared….my eyes looked back at me through this animal’s grasses and trees. In these Sonoran Desert wanderings and long meditations on the fluttering creature…. this iridescent butterfly spoke its perpetual oscillation, via eyes and ears, and pointing like x-ray vision to wounds in my own physiology aching for the respect to release further circulation.
Daniel Marchwinski | Detroit, USA
I’ll Tell You Tomorrow, 2016
Jeanne Criscola | Connecticut, USA
rock n roller, 2007
Khaled Hafez | Egypt
Egypt Tomb Sonata in 3 Military Movements Goddess, 2010
From the installation for the Egyptian Pavillon, Venice Biennale
Margaret Hart | Massachusetts, USA
Poly-morphosis, 2020
Daniel Hyatt | Pakistan
escape from the cage (and dance), 2020
Stephanie Reid | Austin, Texas, USA
Catching Fireflies, May 2020
Catching Fireflies speaks to the human desire to collaborate with the natural world in a harmonious and creative way. During the editing process I realized how satisfying it was to play with the fireflies’ flashing rhythm by slowing down the speed and adding repetition. This allows the viewer to really see these elusive creatures instead of barely catching a glimpse from our peripheral vision. The keyboard generated “song” is what I imagined we would hear them sound like if we had ultrasonic auditory abilities. Introducing electronic sounds and movements seems fitting for insects designed with the almost futuristic phenomenon of bioluminescence. Scientists have discovered how to harness it into dim light sources. Once they get it bright enough for humans to use, it could be one of our steps away from reliance on fossil fuel generated electricity.
Rori Knudtson | USA/Denmark
Seeds, 2018
Developed with Daniel Marchwinski, ME provides an accessible, engaging, and useful tool within the infinite Seed ecosystem to educate users about transformational technology that serve the individual and global good.
Angeliki Avgitidou | Greece
Recipe for Utopia, 2018
Susie Quillinan | Peru/Australia
Process, 2012
Gabrielle Senza | Berkshires, Massachusetts/USA
Sin Paredes / Storia #1, 2017
Anna Binta Diallo | Canada
Negotians II, 2013
Raphael Raphael | Athens, Greece/Hawaii
Hidden Treasure of the Sweet Absolute (proof of concept), 2017
Dafna Naphtali | Brooklyn, New York
AWOL_socket Revision, 2016/2020
AWOL Socket was created during my residency at Signal Culture in 2016. I experimented with video synthesis that was controlled and mediated by a chain of multiple control sources, each one removing me one step further from my original materials. I used a modular audio synthesizer (Serge) which was in turn controlled by a Max patch, which was in turn controlled my facial expressions via MIDI. I also incorporated video feedback from several cameras in much the same way as my usual work with audio feedback and sound manipulation does, also using the mighty Wobbulator (a recreation of the original Nam June Paik device). While recording the original materials in the studio, in spite of all this mediation, I still felt it to be a totally embodied, physical even synaesthetic experience. Looking back now I see how this process of distance and mediation giving rise to stubborn embodiment is emblematic of more recent experiences I have as a performer and educator under our current circumstances and pandemic.
George Angelovski | Australia/Singapore/Australia
To make a collection of Butterflies and Beetles Is a cruel humid house, 2020
Jean Marie Casbarian | New York, USA
Memory as Practice (an on-going project in trying to remember)
Silent Listening (First Chapter), 2020
Deborah Caruthers | Canada
slippages, 2018
A synthesis of material from researchers at the University of British Columbia as well as my own research at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies in 2017–2018 regarding the physical, anthropological, and philosophical properties of glaciers. The October 5, 2018 world premiere was performed by the University of British Columbia Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Jonathan Girard at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The sound and performance in the video are excerpts from the performance. The performance audio is synced with my graphic score and interspersed with my still photographs from the Athabasca Glacier. Just over 5min; the original video is approximately 12min, depending on the version.
Chapter 4 | 3:04:40
Khaled Hafez | Cairo, Egypt
11.02 - 2011 the video diaries, 2011
José Drummond | Portugal/Shanghai : Macau
I’m still here hoping that someday you’ll need me, 2015/2020
Derek Owens | New York, New York
Aerograms From The By & By, 2017
Ira Hoffecker-Sattler | Victoria, Canada
What is Memory?, 2017
I am a participant in the constitution of the German past. My German past and childhood memory are bound within the German collective memory.
Stephan Takkides | Germany/Cyprus
Autobahn, 2017
Stewart Parker | New York, USA/Scotland
Time / 10 Seconds, 2008
Sean Stoops | Philadelphia, USA
Vector Equilibria (Part 3 of 3: Future), 2013
Sean Stoops: Director/Curator; Animation: Chris Landau; Composer: Gene Coleman
Vector Equilibria was originally a temporary, site-specific video projection onto a building at the University Science Center in Philadelphia, PA. As part of Animated Architecture, curated by Sean Stoops, and with generous support from the Knight Foundation, the piece was unique in many ways. The full video, animated by Chris Landau, includes three parts: Past, Present, and Future. Along with composer Gene Coleman and his musical ensemble, the participants explored the legacy of scientist and inventor, Buckminster Fuller and his idea of “Spaceship Earth.”
Lilliam Nieves Rivera | Bayamon, Puerto Rico
CONFINAMIENTO / CONFINEMENT, 2020
Josephine Turalba | Manila, Phillipines
Undercurrent, July 2020 edition
Undercurrent is a montage of news footage intercut with political analysts lectures, superimposed 3D animated humanoids, terracotta soldiers, gambling and military icons that attempts to connect the complex dots between China’s occupation of the Philippines-owned Spratly Islands and the global Belt and Road Initiative, China’s master plan for infrastructural investments in building railroads, bridges, ports, pipelines, IT and communications sectors, industrial parks, Special Economic Zones, tourism, and new cities, focusing on its social and economic impacts.
Nicki Stager | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
meditations, 2020
Damon Ayers | Portland, Oregon/Hong Kong
Intermodal Blues, 2017
Kayoko Nakajima | Japan/New York
New York wind and water, 2020
Sheila Lynch | Chicago, USA
Walking Sketches, seed grass water, 2020
Chapter 5 | 4:07:08
Leah Decter | Winnepeg, Canada
Listen, 2020
Mikkel Niemann | Denmark
G60, 2020
Jeanne Criscola | Connecticut, USA
tech-no-logica, 2008
The nomenclature of control in computing
Daniel Arnaldo Roman Rodriguez | Bayamon, Puerto Rico
Failure to Compromise our Embarrassment (The Impossibility of Moral Behavior), 2013
Daniel Hyatt | Pakistan
Raw Boaty Chronicles, 2020
Lindey Anderson | Denver, Colorado
Stealing Footsteps, Berlin 2016
Judy Mazzucco | Clarksburg, USA
Yesterday Used to be Tomorrow, 2014
Alejandro Michelangelo Fargosonini | Santa Cruz, California, USA
The Final Critique, 2015
Feature length coming 2021
Christine Shannon | Seattle, USA
Jerusalem, 2007
Laia Solé and Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful | Spain/USA
e-, 2016
Excerpt of video installation part of e-.
Video: Jorge Ochoa / Editing: Laia Solé
Jaye Alison Moscariello | Redwood Valley, California, USA
Jaye Losing Her Mind (Bill Taylor on Piano), 2020