“unbroken pieces” by Amy Alexander
Title:
- unbroken pieces
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Filmmaker, Video Artist, or Animator(s):
Symposium:
Artist Statement:
unbroken pieces is an abstract computer animation exploring the relationship between unity and disjunction. The work addresses the arbitrary nature of distinctions such as chaos and order, amorphous and solid, flatness and volume. unbroken pieces makes extensive use of spatial and temporal rhythms, as well as spatial ambiguity, in expressing these similarities and contradictions.
To demonstrate these thematic contradictions, unbroken pieces utilizes 3D and 2D computer graphic techniques to create spaces which could not exist in the physical world. Reflection, refraction and transparency, are used in the amorphous opening environment, while texture mapping and multi-layer compositing techniques are used throughout the piece to create spaces which have the feeling of being simultaneously two and three-dimensional. The integration of the amorphous imagery throughout the various phases of the piece builds on the theme of unity among the apparently dissimilar.
A work in the abstract film category known as “visual music,” the piece progresses through a structure of thematilland [sic!]. Like the animation, the music is structured so that the sections of the piece have very distinct identities and initially seem quite different, but are later revealed to be unified in theme, liveness of appearances, the arbitrary nature of classification and stratification, and the ultimate dissolution of apparent stability. In unbroken pieces, I was interested in using formal devices to express these general concerns of ambiguity and instability on an abstract level.
The title unbroken pieces refers to the unity of the divisions between the parts of the whole. This is demonstrated through the ambiguity of the separations between elements within the frame, but primarily through the divisions between the seemingly dissimilar, yet unified, pieces which comprise the structure of the work.
The music for unbroken pieces was written by Kent Clelland. Like the animation, the music is structured so that the sections of the piece have very distinct identities and initially seem quite different, but are later revealed to be unified in theme.
Other Information:
Video:
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unbroken pieces from Amy Alexander on Vimeo.
