Futuro – A New Stance for Tomorrow is screening at Le Studio Hermes, Maison Hermés, Ginza, Tokyo six times in December 2014: on the 6th, the 7th, the 20th, the 21st, the 23rd, the 27th and the 28th. The screening program is themed “Metamorphoses” and includes two other films dealing with architecture: Unfinished Italy (dir. Benoit Felici) and La construction du Centre Georges-Pompidou (dir. Joseph Morder).
link to Finnish Institute in Japan
Two programs of short films by Mika Taanila are screeing at the 28th Stuttgarter Filmwinter – Festival for Expanded Media in Germany on 15–18 January, 2015. Taanila is also a member of the Short Film Competition jury at the festival.
Mika Taanila’s turntable set entitled Stimulus Progression (Ascending Curve) performed live at A-musik record store on Saturday 22 November 2014 at 13:00 hour. Duration approximately 45 mins. Address: Kleiner Griechenmarkt 28-30, Cologne.
The site-specific audio/video installation Stimulus Progression (Köln) is on show at Temporary Gallery, Maurituswall 35, Cologne, Germany. The show runs only on 20–22 November 2014 and is part of SoundTrack_Cologne 11 festival, dedicated to the art of film music.
The programme of SEE THE SOUND, the music film festival of SoundTrack_Cologne 11 will screen three programs dedicated to projects by Mika Taanila. Each screening comes with a short introduction and a Q&A with Mika.
Screening #1, Friday 21 Nov 2014, 19:00, Kölnischer Kunstverein:
The Future Is Not What It Used To Be, 2002, 52’, with English subtitles
Spindrift, 1966-67, 15’, Directed by Jan Bark & Erkki Kurenniemi, reconstructed in 2013 by Mika Taanila
Screening #2, Friday 21 Nov 2014, 21:00, Kölnischer Kunstverein:
“Mika Taanila,Werkstattgespräch mit Kurzfilmen & Musikvideos”: Optical Sound (2005), A Physical Ring (2002), Thank You for The Music – A Film about Muzak (1997, with English subtitles) and nine music promo clips 1991–2002 (22-Pistepirkko, Circle…).
Screening #3: Saturday 22 Nov 2014, 18:00, Kunsthaus Kat18: The Double – Russian Industrial Music and Low Tech Videos
1993, 55’, directed by Mika Taanila & Anton Nikkilä / with English subtitles
read the full festival program
SoundTrack_Cologne is the German festival of music and sound in film, games and media.
Mika Taanila was the curator of the Theme program for the 60th Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen in Germany. Entitled “Memories Can’t Wait – Film without Film” the series featured nine individual programs and one special program for children. Altogether 38 cinematic works were shown during May 1–6, 2014.
read full program notes by Mika Taanila (PDF)
read Andréa Picard’s article in Cinema Scope issue 59, 2014
read Erika Balsom’s feature in Artforum, September 2014
read Isabella Tommaso’s review in Filmidee #10 (in Italian)
read Jared Rapfogel’s review in Cineaste Vol. XXXIX, nor 4, 2014
lue Tytti Rantasen raportti, niin & näin 2/2014
Spindrift is 1966 short film by Jan Bark and Erkki Kurenniemi, reconstructed in 2013.
Spindrift was a project initiated by Swedish composer/musician Jan Bark. In 1965 he proposed SVT to produce an experiment for a new kind of “music for black and white TV”, exploring audiovisual synesthesia. Bark’s friend Erkki Kurenniemi programmed the animations with Pace TR-48 analogue computer at Helsinki University’s Department of Nuclear Physics where he was hired as an assistant while being a student at the same time. These animated sequences were then shot directly off the computer screen, some of them treated with optical printer later on.
Spindrift was completed in 1966 and premiered at Computer Music Seminar, Dipoli, Espoo on the 28th of October 1967 on 16mm film print. On the 15th of December 1968 it was broadcasted by SVT. No further screenings are known.
The screening print and the negative of Spindrift are no longer at SVT archives. They are lost, most likely destroyed accidentally in the early 1970s.
The reconstructed film is a not the definite form of what Bark and Kurenniemi achieved. The editing is based on the surviving 16mm positive ”work copy” film reel, which has been cleaned and re-scanned. The soundtrack is compiled from the two 1/4” unedited tapes containing music composed for the film, edited now on the basis of Bark’s hand-written “mixing process chart”. This reconstruction of sound and image was done with the help of Bark’s work diaries, laboratory notes and reminiscences of people who were involved in the making or saw the film screened in 1967.
SELECTED SCREENINGS
The short film Six Day Run is screening at Underground Film & Music Festival in Lausanne, Switzerland on 15–19 October 2014. The screening is part of international short film program “Documentary Shorts”.
The short film SIX DAY RUN is screening at the competition of the 10th Reikäreuna Festival in Orivesi. The “Competition 1” program takes place twice, on Saturday 6 September at 16:00 at Asema and on Sunday 7 September at 10:00 at Taiston sali.