The Multiple eXposure Project is a multimedia, multi/trans/inter-disciplinary artistic practice and research-based initiative that explores the many layers of image-making, participatory photography, visual ethnography, and performative encounter(s) between the image and the spectator; the subject and the viewer. As what the name of the project implies, this endeavor is profoundly interested in the notions of the “multiple” and the “exposure” both in their literal and symbolic sense.
Firstly, The Multiple eXposure Project seeks to examine the multiple potentials of image-making or photography (digital and analogue; still and moving) as a medium, a performance, and an instrument of social engagement and (ex)change, and the overlapping of it with other disciplines. As part of its exploration, this project involves a series of visual, photographic or lens-based workshops in collaboration with non-profit, grassroots volunteer groups. The concept of the multiple is also applied under the framework of collaborative work – of bring together multiple individuals with multiple philosophies into a plurality of shared experiences.
Secondly, The Multiple eXposure Project is equally drawn to the idea of “exposure” (subjection, experience, vulnerability, coverage, documentation, and so on) in the process of socially-engaged image-making that exposes what needs to be exposed; clarifies the obscure; and concerns itself with a gamut of critical questions and discursive issues of representation.
Through image-making, we aim to expose and get exposed.
Public Interrogation: Outside the White Cube (December 1-31, 2015)
Public Interrogation:
Outside the White Cube
Organized by The Multiple eXposure Project
www.themultipleexposureproject.co.nr
Location: Public Spaces, Metro Manila, Philippines
Date: December 1-31, 2015
December 1-2 (8pm-10pm): EDSA Avenue cor. Kamuning Rd. Quezon City
December 5 (7pm-9pm): Ayala-Paseo Pedestrian Underpass, Makati City
December 13 (6pm-7pm): Alabang-Montillano Footbridge, Muntinlupa
Public Interrogation:
Outside the White Cube is an alternative, traveling, curatorial project that features image-based works across different disciplines and media by emerging artists whose works discuss the notion of the “public” and its complexities.
What is public? What counts as public? The “public” is a multi-layered concept defined differently depending on how the term is used and framed. It is a notion devoid of singularity and is, grammatically speaking, a terrain of contradictions. As a noun and an adjective, the public constitutes the people, masses or community, and suggests anything that is staged, accessed, or seen out in the “open.” The public can also be used as a verb to describe something one does, as in make public or publicize, suggesting the movement or shift from the inside (private) to the outside (public). Paradoxically, however, the same term also points to the limits of such openness and movement. Given that it simultaneously refers to something “involving and provided by the government”, the public is always at risk of becoming merely an apparatus of the sovereign state and its institutions, thus making the flow of its production, distribution, and consumption partial and counterproductive.
Public Interrogation:
Outside the White Cube seeks to re-frame the practice of curating and spectating images outside the exclusionary, institutional borders of the “white cube” or gallery space. Public spaces are used as an exhibition site to stimulate a mode of spectator experience that revolves around displacement of the passersby (public) from their “habitus” by interrupting the flow of pedestrian traffic. We alter a familiar public space and transform it into an unusual, dialogic site for image projection and exhibition, taking advantage of its accessibility and site-specificity in order to redefine the ways the spectators look at and engage with images. Adopting “guerilla urbanism” as a curatorial strategy, we make sense of the immediacy of the “public” and reflect upon its context, meanings, and intersections with representation, place, and discourse. In so doing, we intervene and reformat aspects of the urban landscapes and emphasize the “counter-spectacle” in art viewing and appreciation. This project also underlines the inherent ephemerality of an open-to-the-public display in relation to time and space. As a “traveling” exhibition which heavily depends on projection technology and public space as its “frame” or “canvas", this project celebrates the momentary nature of image-viewing, consumption, and mobility in the metropolis at a time of constant flux and transition.
Video Arts
Borders - Anne Murray (USA)
The Separation Loop - Leyla Rodriguez (Germany)
Gnomonicity - Amitesh Grover (India)
36&71 - Anthony Stephenson (USA)
Sully - Marbella Carlos (Canada)
You See Davis - Rembrandt Quiballo (Philippines, USA)
Untitled (Sleeping People in a Train) - Hannah Reber (Germany)
Into the labyrinth - Geordy Zodidat Alexis (France)
The Safest of Hands - Clint Sleeper (USA)
Hunt/Find - Dani Salvadori (UK)
Leaving My Skin - Ellen Wetmore (UK)
Presence of Absence - Matt Lee (India)
Untitled – Mohammad Namazi (UK, Iran)
Still Images / Photographs
Right Time Right Place - Robert Rutoed (Austria)
Peripheral Strangers - Julie Dawn Dennis (UK)
De Staat (The State) - Maarten Tromp (Netherlands)
Ruinophilia - Anna Garrett (UK)
Circling the Square - Arturo Soto (Mexico)
The Spectator, the Viewer, the Observer and the Perceiver –
Francine LeClercq (USA)
Magic Rooms - Carlos Collado (Spain)
Date of Consumption - Lita Poliakova
Street Photography - John Robert Luna (Philippines)
Walls - Elena Efeoglou (Greece)
Fitting Room – Megan Mace (South Africa)
Street art you can take home (for free) - Lorenzo Bordonaro (Portugal)
Victim – Solomon Eko (Nigeria)
Performance Videos / Public Interventions
Balloon Performance - Louise Winter (UK)
Somarts Mural Dance - Johanna Poethig (USA)
Unpatentable Multitouch Aerobics - Liat Berdugo (USA)
Disclaimer at Manchester Art Gallery - Laura Gower (UK)
Sustaintability – Dani Lamorte and Veronica Bleaus (USA)
Animations / Digital
Job Interview - Dénes Ruzsa and Fruzsina Spitzer (Hungary)
In Between - Sofia Makridou, Theodora Prassa (Greece)
Decadence of Nature - Olga Guse (Russia)
AsianGirl N40°42'54.488" W73°59'30.313" - Victoria Elle, Rocky Li, and Jennifer Mehigan (USA)
Get Featured in our Blog!
We are currently expanding the content of our blog and we would like to feature multidisciplinary/multimedia artists, photographers, image-makers, visual artists, performers, and so on, their portfolio, artistic practice, and research interests. The feature section serves as a virtual, archival gallery and a platform for free promotion. This call is open to all artists – individuals or groups; amateur or professional – anywhere in the world.
If you think your works are relevant to The Multiple eXposure Project, send your artist statement, sample of your portfolio, photos, videos, press releases, and other related materials to themultipleexposureproject@gmail.com.
Moving Still: The Multiple eXposure Project Zine 2.0
The sophomore issue of The Multiple eXposure Project zine has been uploaded! You can read the e-zine at ISSUU or download the PDF version HERE.
New media and video artists included in the publication are as follows:
Jessica Buie /
Liat Berdugo /
Laura Hyunjhee Kim /
Nicola Hands /
Tony Radin Jacobs /
(c) merry /
Talia Link /
Justin Zachary /
Adrian Errico /
Matteo Pasin /
Jean-Michel Rolland /
Manasak Khlongchainan /
Boris Contarin /
Hüseyin Çife /
Suman Kabiraj /
Patrick Moser /
Francesca Fini /
Aaron Oldenburg /
Benjamin Grosser/
You Qi /
Dénes Ruzsa /
Fruzsina Spitzer /
Fran et Jim /
Amelia Johannes /
Heidi C. Neubauer-Winterburn /
Jess, Lau Ching Ma /
Scott F. Hall /
Eleni Manolaraki /
Elise Frost
Harrison Banfield
Jack Rees /
Daehwan Cho /
Wu Siou Ming /
Masako Ono /
Bárbara Oettinger
I
n this sophomore issue of the Multiple eXposure Project zine,“Moving Still”, we feature a heterogeneous breed of new media and video artists whose experimental and provocative works emphasize the potency of “videos” or “moving images” in the exploration and expansion of self-representation in the discursive flow of transmission and mediation – from the screen to the spectator; and the perceptive to the conceptual.
Selected artists here make use of the “screen” as medium and performance space. By displaying, curating, and performing in front of the screen, self-image-formation is enacted while relying on playful encounter with unknown spectators in order to weave different webs of interpretation. In this regard, the screen operates as an intermediary in the artist’s performance that brings connections to identities, personal narratives, history, everyday politics, and imaginaries.
The symbiotic relationship between the screen and the subject cultivates the construction of an image or spectacle that is consumed – temporally and spatially - in a doubling of intermediation. They deflect and reflect a plethora of shifting, hybrid pretexts about ourselves within the digital ecology where the delineating lines between the public and the private; the human and the mechanical; and the material and the virtual boundaries become blurred.
Given their hyperreal structure, these video performances, visual interventions, and recorded choreographies trigger a mode of mediated encounter that heavily manipulates moments of reality – of space and time. Intimacy and presence are concomitantly altered as these pieces can be incessantly scrutinized by the gaze of many anonymous viewers floating in the digital currents, allowing us to re-locate the individual and re-think about the concept of selfhood more fluidly.
Self-as-Subject: The Multiple eXposure Project Zine 1.0
We are pleased to announce that the very first issue of the Multiple eXposure Project zine is now accessible online! You can read the e-zine at ISSUU or download the PDF version HERE. Feel free to share!
Below is the list of contributors (artists and writers) included in the publication:
J.D. Doria /
Dr. Sayfan Giulia Borghini /
Aldobranti /
Olga Sidilkovskaya /
Ana Rita Matias /
Anne Paternotte /
Rudi Rapf /
Leigh Anthony Dehaney /
Laura Knapp /
Jennifer van Exel /
Derya Edem /
Arushee Agrawal /
Utami Dewi Godjali /
Çağlar Uzun /
Mahmoud Khattab /
Noel Villa /
Dawn Woolley /
Teresa Ascencao /
Kalliope Amorphous /
Katrina Stamatopoulos /
Gaspard Noël /
Florian Tenk /
Petra Brnardic /
Sana Ghobbeh /
Alonso Tapia-Benitez /
Libby Kay Hicks /
Agent X /
Rina Dweck /
Yoko Haraoka /
Claire Manning /
Pietro Catarinella /
Anne Beck /
Gabriel Orlowski /
Ralph Klewitz /
Anthony Hall /
Alessandro Martorelli /
Robin Gerris /
Carol Radsprecher /
Veronica Hassell /
Daniela Olejnikov /
Jayson Carter /
Nathaniel St. Amour /
Jonathan Armistead /
Piotr Boćkowski
"Who are you?” “Who am I?” “Who do I think I am?” “What am I made of?” There is nothing simple about such inquiries as they pose a number of phenomenological and ontological issues.
To ask yourself or someone about self-definition is to deal with its vicissitudes and fluidities, oscillating between the ego and the alter ego; the naturalistic (Hume) and the metaphysical (Kant); and the reflexive perception of one’s body and the relational introspection with the “Other.” The self is, arguably and fundamentally, a complicated subject matter. It is an ever-evolving object, a corporeal being, an affective body, a precarious entity, a discursive phenomenon, and so forth.
Divided into three interrelated chapters, this zine features oeuvres by artists and writers from different localities around the world and, as what its theme implies, is an exploration of the “self” and its manifold permutations – its presence, identity, representation, liminality, and (dis)embodiment - in this day and age of digitality, hypermobility, and hyperreality.
In Chapter 1, The Self as I/Other, authors reflect on the dialectics between the ego and the alter ego and the multitude of ways the “self-as-subject” is defined by both internal and external contingencies, or philosophically speaking, by the binaries – “I” vs. “not-I.” Many of these selected pieces are visibly entangled with the act of self-mirroring, which is inherently reflective and performative: it involves the constitution of subjectivities based on visual imaginary reflected on the mirror that does not necessarily resemble the complex structures of the material body. What I highlight here is the notion of self-perception (internal) in relation to one’s experiences and the (external) world. As Anthony Giddens puts it, “A person's identity is not to be found in behaviour, nor - important though this is - in the reactions of others, but in the capacity to keep a particular narrative going. The individual's biography…cannot be wholly fictive. It must continually integrate events which occur in the external world, and sort them into the ongoing 'story' about the self.” (54).
In Chapter 2, The Fetishized Self, we see interconnected self-representations that examine the convergence of idiosyncratic fantasies with the phantasmagoria as an offshoot of the fetishized commodity. When I refer to the term, phantasmagoria, I emphasize the volatile strings of imaginations through which the public and the private dimension of identity becomes obscured, blurring the demarcating lines between reality and fantasy. This section functions as a provocation of the fetishization of self and the centrality of the individual as authority. Through role-playing, the self, as a fetish object imbued with power and discourse, becomes an agency displaying and interrogating the politics of gender, sexuality, identity, and bodily desire.
Finally, in Chapter 3, The Fragmented Self, the fragmentation of identity framed within the digital, virtual, or hyperreal context is explored. Featured works here represent the various modes the anonymity, simulation, multiplicity, and control in data superhighway allow the transformation of the self into fragmented, hybrid subjects. The concept of “self-fragmentation” also revolves around the nature of post-modernism: the absence of absolute truth and the presence of disembodied self.
Bibliography:
Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity, 1991.
Rhythm in Motion is a ten-part video series depicting slice-of-life portraits of the extraordinary subway musicians of New York City. Created by Jenny Schweitzer, a NYC-based filmmaker, the series was filmed from late 2013 though mid-2014. Episodes have previously played with the Seattle International, HotDocs and Aspen Shortsfest film festivals and briefly on the Starbucks Network and AMEXnow VOD channel. The episode Flor de Toloache was included in this year’s eight-film lineup for Lunafest (www.lunafest.org), a 150+ venue, nationwide film festival sponsored by Clifbar to raise funds for The Breast Cancer Fund.
Films were created in collaboration with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s arts division, MTA Arts & Design and Music Under New York and in association with Killer Content(Still Alice, Alec Baldwin’s Here’s the Thing podcast) and Cinelan (FOCUS FORWARD Short Films, Big Ideas and WE THE ECONOMY 20 Short Films You Can’t Afford To Miss).
“I’m so fortunate that these brilliant artists, who continually brighten the underground for all of us New Yorkers, entrusted me to tell their deeply personal stories.” –Jenny Schweitzer, Filmmaker
“Rhythm In Motion is a remarkable series. From mariachi bands to beatboxers, Jenny Schweitzer recognizes the undeniable passions within street music, transforming each film into a big-hearted meditation about art, performance, and identity.” –Chris Heller, Senior Associate Editor at The Atlantic Video
“We can become desensitized to the sights and sounds of urban arts and culture. But Jenny Schweitzer, through exquisite filmmaking, gets us to stop, look and listen. At Killer, we look forward to continuing our support of this very talented filmmaker.” –Adrienne Becker, Killer Content
Filmmaker Bio
Jenny Schweitzer is a NY based film/video producer and director. She was nominated for a 2007 Independent Spirit Award for Twelve and Holding, which she produced.
Since 2000, she’s line produced numerous independent feature films including Sally Potter's Rage, Lodge Kerrigan's Keane, and Rebecca Miller's The Ballad of Jack and Rose andPersonal Velocity. She was invited to participate in the Sundance Creative Producing Summit in 2010 and IFP’s TransAtlantic Producers Lab in 2012 with Magnificent Girl.
Schweitzer is currently at work on Extracurricular, a ten part film series that highlights compelling educational programs New York City schools are implementing to enhance and transcend traditional, educational curricula.
She runs Notable Features, a production company in NYC to produce narrative feature films and short form video with partner, Brian Bell. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1998.
Artistic Statement
New York City subway buskers are a well-documented bunch. It is not unusual to witness a sea of iphones capturing those random performances as we scurry to our trains. Since arriving in NYC in the late-90’s, I, too, have marveled at them, mesmerized by this inimitable cast of characters. All the time, I have wondered what drove these performers underground. For me, these musicians serve as an essential thread woven into the great culture that forms our vibrant city.
It was difficult to develop the first pieces. Having been approached by filmmakers on so many occasions, the musicians initially were skeptical of me. My objective in making these films was to give these gifted people the opportunity to reveal a hidden aspect of who they are and to voice their artistic message. While the musicians' talent and performances serve as the framework for each film, for me, the allure lies beneath the music. The films peek into their arresting and deeply personal stories.
In 1987 the Metropolitan Transit Authority created Music Under New York to offer musicians access to coveted, high traffic spots in the subway system and to assure the commuters a high level of artistic accomplishment. An annual, highly selective public audition in Grand Central Station invites newcomers to the roster.
More than 350 individual performers participate in more than 7,500 performances throughout the transit system annually. Rhythm in Motion profiles ten members from the Music Under New York roster.
For me, collaborating with Music Under New York was a critical step in moving forward with the project. It was deeply important that this vital organization value what my films could reveal about their network of musicians and this slice of NYC culture.
Logline: A group of women challenge gender social norms in this depiction of an all-female mariachi band.
Mireya Ramos took bold steps when she founded her own, all-female mariachi band in 2008. Ramos, half Dominican and half Mexican, grew up in Puerto Rico and was exposed to mariachi music from an early age (her father was a mariachi singer). In 1999, then 17, she came to NYC and landed stints in various male mariachi bands. Ramos had a difficult time as a woman in this male-dominated musical genre that has been performed by men going back centuries. Her personal discomfort in this macho setting was the impetus for her forming her own all-female mariachi band, Flor de Toloache (named after a magical Mexican Toloache flower). Ramos’ love for mariachi turns tradition on its head.
Logline: One man's quest to heal society by teaching philosophies of traditional Korean drumming.
Taught by the masters in Korea, Vong Pak has been playing the traditional Korean drum for nearly 30 years. Shortly after coming to America in 1998, he embraced the opportunity to showcase this rarely heard musical genre to the public in the subway. By maintaining daily rigid training and meditation, he’s able to sustain the tremendous physical endurance required to perform the three-hour time slots scheduled with Music Under New York. Aside from Vong’s desire to make the public aware of this obscure musical form, he has a deep-rooted commitment to preserving tradition. He fulfills his mission by teaching NYC school kids about cultural differences by way of teaching Korean drumming.
Logline: An electric violinist who defines himself as "hardcore New York as you can get" reminds us of what dreams are made of.
When Lorenzo, who is one of the founding musicians with Music Under New York, performs, it is impossible to not stop and listen. His entire body and his violin become one instrument. He re-invents the sound a violin can make. As he puts it, “If you’re playing in the subways in NYC, you better be tough as nails.”
Lorenzo plays with his two custom-made, five string plexi-glass electric violins that took three craftsmen to build. His love for these instruments runs so deep that he refers to them as his ‘girls’, and named them Misu (the 30 year old) and Brianna (age 25). He tattooed Misu’s image and name on his shoulder and plans to do the same with Brianna- a testament to his adoration. He has since acquired another set of girls, his daughters, Bellamia (10) and Sierra (7).
Logline: A saw player’s mission to make life a little brighter for all New Yorkers.
Natalia Paruz, who calls herself “The Saw Lady”, has been a NYC fixture for 20 years. I’ve seen her in the subway on many occasions since I moved here in 1998. I have been captivated by her image and sound-- the ethereal, otherworldly tenor of the musical saw juxtaposed with the grittiness of the NYC subway. Another unfinished, short narrative film and my sustained fascination with Natalia became the inspiration for the entire Rhythm in Motion series.
Logline: A vibrant young beatboxer’s dreams of making it in the Big Apple.
When Adym Evans, who calls himself Verbal Ase, arrived in NYC, he, like many newcomers to NYC, was in a most vulnerable state. He was in the early days of chasing his dream. Adym packed up his life in Las Vegas and took the one-way trip to NYC to follow his ambition of making it as a beatboxer.
Hungry for familial comfort, he found solace at the religious institution SGI-USA in Manhattan where he practices Buddhism and at the local gaming store (VC Games) around the corner from his home (at the time) in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. There, he would entertain the owners’ kids.
This film exposes his innermost feelings and doubts about his decision to relocate across the country to pursue a dream. It was shot on the brink of Adym making it. Unlike what was captured, performing now, he always has a massive crowd surrounding him in the subways. He has been cast in a webisode for kids, Super Sprowtz, and has performed center court at a NY Knicks game at Madison Square Garden.
Logline: A woman who calls herself a “voice in the wilderness” sings for God and the destitute.
As a little girl, Arlethia slept with her bible. But as she entered adulthood, she strayed away. She became wrapped up in material things- “furs, a five-bedroom house, gowns, jewels, and the rich and famous.” Yet, she said, she felt empty. Then she heard a voice say to her, “Sing for me and only for me”. She had a spiritual awakening and believes God told her to do something “beyond me, that money can’t pay for.”
So she did. For the last twenty years Arlethia has known her purpose in life is to be a “voice in the wilderness, for people who don’t know which way to turn.” She volunteers her time singing for people in prisons, homeless shelters, women’s shelters and in the subways.
During the filming of this piece, it became evident that through song she truly has that gift to connect with a stranger on a spiritual level.
Logline: An artist's identity is challenged when she becomes a mother.
Nicola has a long history as a rock musician who has played in numerous venues around NYC as well as in the subways. After becoming pregnant, she came to realize that her performance persona might change. This film focuses on the dilemma female performers face after becoming mothers. Will they still be considered hip? Although Nicola loved being pregnant and felt beautiful and sexy the whole time, she didn't know if the public and her fans would see her the same way. "Motherhood" has many beautiful associations, but to most, "cool" is not one of them. This film reveals how Nicola has reconciled her performance style with her new role of being a parent.
Logline: An unmasked portrait of a band immersed in their innovative rock soundscapes.
Named after a line from Jurassic Park, You Bred Raptors?, a three-member band that always plays anonymously behind masks, stirs up a natural curiosity if you happen upon them in the subways. Peat Rains, the band’s leader, describes their music as being “an amalgamation of different genres: it’s post rock, it’s metal, it’s classical, it’s folky.” You Bred Raptors? can also be heard these days playing at Sleep No More, the highly popular interactive theatre located in a large warehouse in Manhattan that’s been transformed to a 1930’s-era macabre hotel. They just released their latest album, Grant.
Logline: A young songwriter finds her voice through otherworldly, spiritual experiences.
How does a precocious young Jewish girl growing up in NYC become a subway busker who practices witchcraft? This film introduces the singer, Samantha Echo, who changed her name from Samantha Marguiles after seeing herself as the reincarnated spirit of Echo, the mountain nymph from the Greek myth. In the myth, Hera takes revenge by stealing her voice so that Echo could only repeat the ends of others’ sentences. Samantha felt similarly stifled in her own creativity and has only recently been able to unearth her unique voice through “otherworldly experiences.” Samantha began singing in the subways at 17. “When I sing in the subways I feel like a nymph again- becoming one with the environment—meaning the city.”
Logline: A musical bond shared between a NYC teenager and an elderly southerner. Their story retold, ten years later.
While researching story ideas I came across the 2002 NYT Magazine article on Elijah Staley (known to many as Carolina Slim) and Jeremiah Lockwood and I was curious if their friendship remained intact over the years. I contacted Jeremiah and learned that they had played together for twelve years before a hip accident left Elijah, then 84, unable to perform in the subways.
I began filming Elijah upstairs in his living room. He was quiet and withdrawn. Little did I know how physically difficult getting down the stairs to his basement music studio would be for him. When Jeremiah arrived and the two started playing, Elijah came alive. We didn’t know then that the jam session I caught on camera would be the very last time the two would play music together. Elijah passed away February of 2014. The film is a testament to their beautiful and unlikely friendship.
The Multiple eXposure Project is run by a small group of image-makers, visual artists, and researchers coming from different backgrounds, with a wide range of interests.
profile
Please be patient, this page is under construction.
The Multiple eXposure Project incorporates theory and practice in image-making and publishes zine and scholarly articles, essays, stories on photography and visual narratives.
Collaboration with individuals and groups coming from different disciplines and backgrounds is of utmost importance at The Multiple eXposure Project especially in the workshops, exhibitions, and other projects. We underscore the potency of shared, ethical, participatory artistic process and accordingly of collaborative authorship by incorporating dialogical, performative interaction into image-making, bridging the gaps between the subject and the medium.
We curate our works in physical and digital configuration, applying methodologies on photo curation (of still and moving images) that are wide-ranging, alternative, experimental, and non-paradigmatic. To be specific, we delve into the concepts of photo curation, not just as praxis of selection or organization of images, or an archival method, but as a social intervention.
One of the crucial components of The Multiple eXposure Project is its practical initiative framed within the context of volunteerism, participation, and engagement. We believe in the collective power and benefits of sharing one’s skills and expertise with those who need them. We provide free photographic workshops, in cooperation with non-profit organizations, which are aimed at empowering marginalized individuals through photography or image-making.
PUBLICATION
The sophomore issue of The Multiple eXposure Project zine has been uploaded! You can read the e-zine at ISSUU or download the PDF version HERE.
Description: In this sophomore issue of the Multiple eXposure Project zine,“Moving Still”, we feature a heterogeneous breed of new media and video artists whose experimental and provocative works emphasize the potency of “videos” or “moving images” in the exploration and expansion of self-representation in the discursive flow of transmission and mediation – from the screen to the spectator; and the perceptive to the conceptual.
New media and video artists included in the publication are as follows:
Jessica Buie /
Liat Berdugo /
Laura Hyunjhee Kim /
Nicola Hands /
Tony Radin Jacobs /
(c) merry /
Talia Link /
Justin Zachary /
Adrian Errico /
Matteo Pasin /
Jean-Michel Rolland /
Manasak Khlongchainan /
Boris Contarin /
Hüseyin Çife /
Suman Kabiraj /
Patrick Moser /
Francesca Fini /
Aaron Oldenburg /
Benjamin Grosser/
You Qi /
Dénes Ruzsa /
Fruzsina Spitzer /
Fran et Jim /
Amelia Johannes /
Heidi C. Neubauer-Winterburn /
Jess, Lau Ching Ma /
Scott F. Hall /
Eleni Manolaraki /
Elise Frost
Harrison Banfield
Jack Rees /
Daehwan Cho /
Wu Siou Ming /
Masako Ono /
Bárbara Oettinger
The first issue of the Multiple eXposure Project zine is now accessible online! You can read the e-zine at ISSUU or download the PDF version HERE. Feel free to share!
Description: Divided into three interrelated chapters, this zine features oeuvres by artists and writers from different localities around the world and, as what its theme implies, is an exploration of the “self” and its manifold permutations – its presence, identity, representation, liminality, and (dis)embodiment - in this day and age of digitality, hypermobility, and hyperreality.
Featured artists and writers in the zine are as follows:
J.D. Doria /
Dr. Sayfan Giulia Borghini /
Aldobranti /
Olga Sidilkovskaya /
Ana Rita Matias /
Anne Paternotte /
Rudi Rapf /
Leigh Anthony Dehaney /
Laura Knapp /
Jennifer van Exel /
Derya Edem /
Arushee Agrawal /
Utami Dewi Godjali /
Çağlar Uzun /
Mahmoud Khattab /
Noel Villa /
Dawn Woolley /
Teresa Ascencao /
Kalliope Amorphous /
Katrina Stamatopoulos /
Gaspard Noël /
Florian Tenk /
Petra Brnardic /
Sana Ghobbeh /
Alonso Tapia-Benitez /
Libby Kay Hicks /
Agent X /
Rina Dweck /
Yoko Haraoka /
Claire Manning /
Pietro Catarinella /
Anne Beck /
Gabriel Orlowski /
Ralph Klewitz /
Anthony Hall /
Alessandro Martorelli /
Robin Gerris /
Carol Radsprecher /
Veronica Hassell /
Daniela Olejnikov /
Jayson Carter /
Nathaniel St. Amour /
Jonathan Armistead /
Piotr Boćkowski
Workshops
Excerpts from digital and analogue photography workshops at Koseli School, a center for slum and street children in Kathmandu, Nepal (January 2015). These participatory workshops incorporated photography with "playing" and performance.
Visual Intervention
Speech Acts and the Politics of Repetition SeriesDescription: This series explores the repetitive nature and patterns of speech acts and ritualized rhetorics of some of the world’s powerful and controversial figures by incorporating twice-recorded video footages with open-source background music.
Through the process of repetition, new meanings of the moving images and spoken texts are simultaneously (re)created. Specific words are on purpose repeated to generate a multitude of views and reviews and to deconstruct the stability of language. As a mode of visual intervention, these absurdly distorted and edited images/videos are also meant to make a dialogue with, distract, entertain, annoy, and disturb the viewers on the other side of the screen, while highlighting the intersections and contradictions between reality and absurdity; speech and power of the speaker.
Feel free to re-play and re-share!
#1 >>> Obama: You Kinda Screwed Up My Ending But That's Okay.
Video, animated gif, and stills created by Sherwin Altarez Mapanoo
Background music courtesy of einzimmersound
DIGITAL ART
Urban DomesticationDescription: An attempt to represent the psychological state of the subject who was performing to exist (and persist) as a corporate animal in the harsh and precarious dog-eat-dog world of the urban jungle.
Note: Point or click on the image to view its original version.
Rhythm in Motion is a ten-part video series depicting slice-of-life portraits of the extraordinary subway musicians of New York City. Created by Jenny Schweitzer, a NYC-based filmmaker, the series was filmed from late 2013 though mid-2014. Episodes have previously played with the Seattle International, HotDocs and Aspen Shortsfest film festivals and briefly on the Starbucks Network and AMEXnow VOD channel. The episode Flor de Toloache was included in this year’s eight-film lineup for Lunafest (www.lunafest.org), a 150+ venue, nationwide film festival sponsored by Clifbar to raise funds for The Breast Cancer Fund.
Films were created in collaboration with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s arts division, MTA Arts & Design and Music Under New York and in association with Killer Content(Still Alice, Alec Baldwin’s Here’s the Thing podcast) and Cinelan (FOCUS FORWARD Short Films, Big Ideas and WE THE ECONOMY 20 Short Films You Can’t Afford To Miss).
“I’m so fortunate that these brilliant artists, who continually brighten the underground for all of us New Yorkers, entrusted me to tell their deeply personal stories.” –Jenny Schweitzer, Filmmaker
“Rhythm In Motion is a remarkable series. From mariachi bands to beatboxers, Jenny Schweitzer recognizes the undeniable passions within street music, transforming each film into a big-hearted meditation about art, performance, and identity.” –Chris Heller, Senior Associate Editor at The Atlantic Video
“We can become desensitized to the sights and sounds of urban arts and culture. But Jenny Schweitzer, through exquisite filmmaking, gets us to stop, look and listen. At Killer, we look forward to continuing our support of this very talented filmmaker.” –Adrienne Becker, Killer Content
Filmmaker Bio
Jenny Schweitzer is a NY based film/video producer and director. She was nominated for a 2007 Independent Spirit Award for Twelve and Holding, which she produced.
Since 2000, she’s line produced numerous independent feature films including Sally Potter's Rage, Lodge Kerrigan's Keane, and Rebecca Miller's The Ballad of Jack and Rose andPersonal Velocity. She was invited to participate in the Sundance Creative Producing Summit in 2010 and IFP’s TransAtlantic Producers Lab in 2012 with Magnificent Girl.
Schweitzer is currently at work on Extracurricular, a ten part film series that highlights compelling educational programs New York City schools are implementing to enhance and transcend traditional, educational curricula.
She runs Notable Features, a production company in NYC to produce narrative feature films and short form video with partner, Brian Bell. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1998.
Artistic Statement
New York City subway buskers are a well-documented bunch. It is not unusual to witness a sea of iphones capturing those random performances as we scurry to our trains. Since arriving in NYC in the late-90’s, I, too, have marveled at them, mesmerized by this inimitable cast of characters. All the time, I have wondered what drove these performers underground. For me, these musicians serve as an essential thread woven into the great culture that forms our vibrant city.
It was difficult to develop the first pieces. Having been approached by filmmakers on so many occasions, the musicians initially were skeptical of me. My objective in making these films was to give these gifted people the opportunity to reveal a hidden aspect of who they are and to voice their artistic message. While the musicians' talent and performances serve as the framework for each film, for me, the allure lies beneath the music. The films peek into their arresting and deeply personal stories.
In 1987 the Metropolitan Transit Authority created Music Under New York to offer musicians access to coveted, high traffic spots in the subway system and to assure the commuters a high level of artistic accomplishment. An annual, highly selective public audition in Grand Central Station invites newcomers to the roster.
More than 350 individual performers participate in more than 7,500 performances throughout the transit system annually. Rhythm in Motion profiles ten members from the Music Under New York roster.
For me, collaborating with Music Under New York was a critical step in moving forward with the project. It was deeply important that this vital organization value what my films could reveal about their network of musicians and this slice of NYC culture.
Logline: A group of women challenge gender social norms in this depiction of an all-female mariachi band.
Mireya Ramos took bold steps when she founded her own, all-female mariachi band in 2008. Ramos, half Dominican and half Mexican, grew up in Puerto Rico and was exposed to mariachi music from an early age (her father was a mariachi singer). In 1999, then 17, she came to NYC and landed stints in various male mariachi bands. Ramos had a difficult time as a woman in this male-dominated musical genre that has been performed by men going back centuries. Her personal discomfort in this macho setting was the impetus for her forming her own all-female mariachi band, Flor de Toloache (named after a magical Mexican Toloache flower). Ramos’ love for mariachi turns tradition on its head.
Logline: One man's quest to heal society by teaching philosophies of traditional Korean drumming.
Taught by the masters in Korea, Vong Pak has been playing the traditional Korean drum for nearly 30 years. Shortly after coming to America in 1998, he embraced the opportunity to showcase this rarely heard musical genre to the public in the subway. By maintaining daily rigid training and meditation, he’s able to sustain the tremendous physical endurance required to perform the three-hour time slots scheduled with Music Under New York. Aside from Vong’s desire to make the public aware of this obscure musical form, he has a deep-rooted commitment to preserving tradition. He fulfills his mission by teaching NYC school kids about cultural differences by way of teaching Korean drumming.
Logline: An electric violinist who defines himself as "hardcore New York as you can get" reminds us of what dreams are made of.
When Lorenzo, who is one of the founding musicians with Music Under New York, performs, it is impossible to not stop and listen. His entire body and his violin become one instrument. He re-invents the sound a violin can make. As he puts it, “If you’re playing in the subways in NYC, you better be tough as nails.”
Lorenzo plays with his two custom-made, five string plexi-glass electric violins that took three craftsmen to build. His love for these instruments runs so deep that he refers to them as his ‘girls’, and named them Misu (the 30 year old) and Brianna (age 25). He tattooed Misu’s image and name on his shoulder and plans to do the same with Brianna- a testament to his adoration. He has since acquired another set of girls, his daughters, Bellamia (10) and Sierra (7).
Logline: A saw player’s mission to make life a little brighter for all New Yorkers.
Natalia Paruz, who calls herself “The Saw Lady”, has been a NYC fixture for 20 years. I’ve seen her in the subway on many occasions since I moved here in 1998. I have been captivated by her image and sound-- the ethereal, otherworldly tenor of the musical saw juxtaposed with the grittiness of the NYC subway. Another unfinished, short narrative film and my sustained fascination with Natalia became the inspiration for the entire Rhythm in Motion series.
Logline: A vibrant young beatboxer’s dreams of making it in the Big Apple.
When Adym Evans, who calls himself Verbal Ase, arrived in NYC, he, like many newcomers to NYC, was in a most vulnerable state. He was in the early days of chasing his dream. Adym packed up his life in Las Vegas and took the one-way trip to NYC to follow his ambition of making it as a beatboxer.
Hungry for familial comfort, he found solace at the religious institution SGI-USA in Manhattan where he practices Buddhism and at the local gaming store (VC Games) around the corner from his home (at the time) in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. There, he would entertain the owners’ kids.
This film exposes his innermost feelings and doubts about his decision to relocate across the country to pursue a dream. It was shot on the brink of Adym making it. Unlike what was captured, performing now, he always has a massive crowd surrounding him in the subways. He has been cast in a webisode for kids, Super Sprowtz, and has performed center court at a NY Knicks game at Madison Square Garden.
Logline: A woman who calls herself a “voice in the wilderness” sings for God and the destitute.
As a little girl, Arlethia slept with her bible. But as she entered adulthood, she strayed away. She became wrapped up in material things- “furs, a five-bedroom house, gowns, jewels, and the rich and famous.” Yet, she said, she felt empty. Then she heard a voice say to her, “Sing for me and only for me”. She had a spiritual awakening and believes God told her to do something “beyond me, that money can’t pay for.”
So she did. For the last twenty years Arlethia has known her purpose in life is to be a “voice in the wilderness, for people who don’t know which way to turn.” She volunteers her time singing for people in prisons, homeless shelters, women’s shelters and in the subways.
During the filming of this piece, it became evident that through song she truly has that gift to connect with a stranger on a spiritual level.
Logline: An artist's identity is challenged when she becomes a mother.
Nicola has a long history as a rock musician who has played in numerous venues around NYC as well as in the subways. After becoming pregnant, she came to realize that her performance persona might change. This film focuses on the dilemma female performers face after becoming mothers. Will they still be considered hip? Although Nicola loved being pregnant and felt beautiful and sexy the whole time, she didn't know if the public and her fans would see her the same way. "Motherhood" has many beautiful associations, but to most, "cool" is not one of them. This film reveals how Nicola has reconciled her performance style with her new role of being a parent.
Logline: An unmasked portrait of a band immersed in their innovative rock soundscapes.
Named after a line from Jurassic Park, You Bred Raptors?, a three-member band that always plays anonymously behind masks, stirs up a natural curiosity if you happen upon them in the subways. Peat Rains, the band’s leader, describes their music as being “an amalgamation of different genres: it’s post rock, it’s metal, it’s classical, it’s folky.” You Bred Raptors? can also be heard these days playing at Sleep No More, the highly popular interactive theatre located in a large warehouse in Manhattan that’s been transformed to a 1930’s-era macabre hotel. They just released their latest album, Grant.
Logline: A young songwriter finds her voice through otherworldly, spiritual experiences.
How does a precocious young Jewish girl growing up in NYC become a subway busker who practices witchcraft? This film introduces the singer, Samantha Echo, who changed her name from Samantha Marguiles after seeing herself as the reincarnated spirit of Echo, the mountain nymph from the Greek myth. In the myth, Hera takes revenge by stealing her voice so that Echo could only repeat the ends of others’ sentences. Samantha felt similarly stifled in her own creativity and has only recently been able to unearth her unique voice through “otherworldly experiences.” Samantha began singing in the subways at 17. “When I sing in the subways I feel like a nymph again- becoming one with the environment—meaning the city.”
Logline: A musical bond shared between a NYC teenager and an elderly southerner. Their story retold, ten years later.
While researching story ideas I came across the 2002 NYT Magazine article on Elijah Staley (known to many as Carolina Slim) and Jeremiah Lockwood and I was curious if their friendship remained intact over the years. I contacted Jeremiah and learned that they had played together for twelve years before a hip accident left Elijah, then 84, unable to perform in the subways.
I began filming Elijah upstairs in his living room. He was quiet and withdrawn. Little did I know how physically difficult getting down the stairs to his basement music studio would be for him. When Jeremiah arrived and the two started playing, Elijah came alive. We didn’t know then that the jam session I caught on camera would be the very last time the two would play music together. Elijah passed away February of 2014. The film is a testament to their beautiful and unlikely friendship.
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The Multiple eXposure Project is a multimedia, multi/trans/inter-disciplinary artistic practice and research-based initiative that explores the many layers of image-making, participatory photography, visual ethnography, and performative encounter(s) between the image and the spectator; the subject and the viewer. As what the name of the project implies, this endeavor is profoundly interested in the notions of the “multiple” and the “exposure” both in their literal and symbolic sense.
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