Fragment | 12 mins | 2016

For May 2016 Video Jam was commissioned by FACT (Foundation for Art and Technology) in Liverpool to curate an event in response to unfold; a new large scale 3 screen immersive audio/visual installation by Japanese artist Ryoichi Kurokawa (image below). 5 film artists were given free reign to expand on the ideas and images within unfold such as synaesthesia, cosmology, and the relationship between science and art; as well as work with the unique set up that the installation provided by showing their work in the form of 3 separate films or one vertical image. The resulting films were either made especially or adapted from existing material with this context in mind, each of which was accompanied live by an original score.

Liverpool based video artist Sam Wiehl produced Fragment; containing bold, textural monochrome 3-D renderings suggestive of outer space, stretched across 3 screens to create one giant evolving image hovering above its audience. The piece was scored by a pummelling electronic soundtrack with lo-fi strings from Manchester based Karl Astbury.

unfold by Ryoichi Kurokawa

Sam Wiehl is an artist predominantly working in the visualisation of sound. His work exists at the intersection of image and tone and takes in many forms, often focusing on live performance and installation, with a view to creating immersive experiences for an audience. Recent commissions include Tate Britain, Unsound Multimedia Festival in Krakow, Loop Berlin, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial, FutureEverything, AND Festival, Supersonic Festival, FACT, The Reader Organisation, Abandon Silence, Metal and The Bluecoat. He has collaborated with a number of contemporary musicians which have included Plaid, Matthew Herbert, Chris Watson, The Coral, Forest Swords, Vessel and the Immix Ensemble, Hookworms and Bill Ryder Jones producing live installations and visual sets. Sam is one of the Directors of the annual Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia which showcases experimental music and visual art bringing artists and audiences from all over the world. 

Karl Astbury is a musician and writer based in Manchester. He is a member of bands MOTHER and Nine Black Alps.

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