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Earthglow

Liza Béar

1983 00:08:00 United StatesEnglishColorMono4:3Video

Description

Earthglow is a poem written for the character generator and switcher that conveys a writer's internal dialogue through both subtle and dramatic color changes and through movement, size, and placement of words. The ambient soundtrack evokes the confluence of past and present perceptions.

"A city dweller attempting to write a poem about a desert trip is distracted by a recent argument. Earthglow, whose only images are words, uses character animation to convey the writer’s internal dilemma through the shuttling of words across the screen, as well as color changes and ambient sound. Using an analogue character generator and switcher in a live edit, parts of the text are keyed in real-time and others are pre-recorded. On the score, an off-air burst from a Billie Holiday blues song (whose lyrics infiltrate the words of the poem) disrupts the strains of César Franck’s Violin Sonata. Earthglow is a film about the writing state of mind; past and present perceptions are reconciled in the act of writing."

— Liza Béar

Electronic engineering by Bruce Tovsky.

 

 

About Liza Béar

During t​he ​late​ 1970s Liza Béar created an intriguing body of work that focuse​d​ on communications issues — specifically the use of media and the disempowered role of the public in communications policy. Central to Béar's ​early ​work ​was​ a desire to tie the means of production (technology) to the reasons for production (​economic advantage, national ideology, etc.). While Béar's concerns ​have diversified, her approach is always personal and experimental — collapsing the norms of narrative and documentary, subjective authorship and objective document.