karnias0402_150's blog

A Year in Review - Support AgX!

karnias0402_150 — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 16:20:30 +0000

Learn about what we did in 2017 and help AgX by donating to support our events in 2018!

Friends,

Thank you for another amazing year at AgX! As we near the end of 2017, we are grateful for all we've learned, shared, and built together, with your support.

The AgX Film Collective is the only non-profit, artist-run film lab in New England - and it's also a passionate and inspiring group of local artists in film and video who make up our membership. We value openness and experimentation, and we regularly use the AgX space to share resources and equipment, to make work, and to teach one another and the public about the unique qualities and enduring rewards of working with photochemical film.

We're very excited to share that the Boston Society of Film Critics has just awarded AgX a special commendation for "creating a space dedicated to fostering skill-building and interest in photochemical-based moving images through workshops, events and collaborative experimentation." We are honored to receive this recognition for our collective work, and look forward to continuing to foster this community in support of our mission in 2018. Read on for more on what we did in 2017!

We believe that art and community arts organizations like AgX are crucial for encouraging critical thought and lifting spirits in these uncertain times. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us continue to nurture this collaborative space for film and filmmaking in Boston.

Yours,
AgX

Make a tax-deductible donation to AgX today and support us in 2018!

2017 in Review at AgX

We shared our love and knowledge of filmmaking

Workshop participants at this year's public Film Foraging workshop, offered in collaboration with the Waltham Land Trust.

In 2017, AgX organized workshops on 16mm and Super 8 production basics, black-and-white hand-processing, cameraless filmmaking / direct animation, editing on 16mm, analog projector repair and digital projection mapping.

Special events have included a Super 8 film workshop in partnership with the Somerville Community Media Center, a "film foraging" 16mm workshop in partnership with the Waltham Land Trust, a field day film shoot for AgX members on Peddock's Island in Boston Harbor, and three hand-made film workshops in partnership with the student chapter of the Association of Moving Image Archivists at Simmons College, the Dedham Youth Commission, and the Harvard Art Museums, respectively.

Workshops were led by AgX members Anto Astudillo, Janet Benn, Sarah Bliss, Susan DeLeo, Stefan Grabowski, Christina Hunt, Mike Piso, David Reeder, Wenhua Shi, Robert Todd, and guest instructor Stuart Cody. Over 80 participants took part in our workshops throughout the year.

AgX was a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Local Cultural Councils grant program, which funded two of our workshops in the past year. A grant from the Somerville Arts Council made our Super 8 workshop possible and a grant from the Waltham Arts Council made our Film Foraging workshop possible. Thank you so much to our funders, and to all who participated!

We presented intimate and awe-inspiring screenings of film and video

Temporal Currents || was an expanded cinema event featuring AgX film installations and experimental music sets by Victoria Shen and Asha Tamirisa, co-presented with the Balagan Film Series and Non-Event at the Waterworks Museum in Boston.

In 2017, we presented public screenings of AgX member works at Emerson College, Aeronaut Brewery, Keene State College, Tufts University, the Northampton Film Festival, and at the AgX space in Waltham during Open Studios and throughout the year. We also hosted several screenings from outside filmmakers, including a program of two films by Manila-based filmmaker Shireen Seno when she was in town. Screenings were curated by Anto Astudillo, Sarah Bliss, Genevieve Carmel, Stefan Grabowski, Natalie Minik, and Mike Piso.

In September, we collaborated for a second year with the experimental music series Non-Event, the Balagan Film Series, and WZBC to present Temporal Currents ||, a site-specific live film installation featuring work by AgX members, paired by experimental music sets by local sound artists Victoria Shen and Asha Tamirisa, at the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum. The event brought roughly 200 people out for an unforgettable evening of shadow, light and sound. Participating AgX members included Janet Benn, Ethan Berry, Susan DeLeo, Janeann Dill, Peaches Goodrich, Stefan Grabowski, Brittany Gravely, Evan Greene, Morgan Hoyle-Combs, Alex Miklowski, Natalie Minik, Mike Piso, Douglas Urbank, and Wenhua Shi. You can see some video documentation of the event here, taken by AgX member Deniz Tortum.

In October, AgX took part in Immersion, a live, nighttime arts experience taking place over the course of several days on Boston City Hall Plaza as part of HUBWeek. AgX taught visitors about direct animation while projecting a diverse selection of member works directly onto the walls of City Hall, using both live-manipulated video and film, for a moving exhibition of light in conversation with the city's brutalist architecture. This exhibition and partnership was conceived of and organized by AgX member Ethan Berry.

We fostered community at home and abroad

This past October, five AgX members took part in "Film in the Present Tense", an international gathering of filmmakers, artists, programmers, technicians and representatives from museums, independent film labs and cinemas to collectively address questions of how film remains a vital format for new work, and how it can be better supported in a hybrid film and digital era of filmmaking.

Following the event, a group of projectionists, filmmakers, programmers and archivists created "Reel to Reel", an international mailing list to discuss, interact and organize in order to deal with current issues facing photochemical filmprojection and to imagine its future. Additionally, you can now find AgX listed on the International Film Labs website! We're excited to continue to contribute to building this international community of labs and filmmakers devoted to experimentation with and access to photochemical film processes.

Back home in the Greater Boston area, we remain involved in the city-wide Boston Film Potlucks, which have a goal of encouraging more regular cross-cutting conversations among filmmakers and filmmaking groups in Boston. We also took part in the 41st Annual Waltham Mills Open Studios, celebrating the role of all kinds of artists in our city and sharing our films and space with all of the curious and creative minds we met that weekend.

Within the AgX space, we got together for regular work-in-progress screenings nearly every month, providing vital opportunities for us to view and provide constructive feedback on one another’s work, allowing us to grow and strengthen our creative output through the sharing of ideas in a supportive yet critically minded environment. We also continue to host an active, weekly AgX darkroom session for members to hand-process their Super 8 and 16mm films. These sessions also serve as experimental labs for discovering our DIY tools for production.

Make a tax-deductible donation to AgX today and support us in 2018!

Interested in becoming an AgX Member? Learn more and join us!

Several AgX members after our June 2016 meeting. Photo by Matt McWilliams.

AgX Receives Award from Boston Society of Film Critics

karnias0402_150 — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 16:10:41 +0000

Projector Repair Workshop Wrap-up

karnias0402_150 — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 14:08:33 +0000

The Projector Repair Workshops with Stuart Cody was a great success! It was inspiring to see participants becoming empowered to troubleshoot and repair their own machines. We're looking forward to having Stuart back!

AgX Participates in WMAA Open Studios

karnias0402_150 — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 00:47:32 +0000

This November the Waltham Mills Artists Association (WMAA) will hold its 41st annual Open Studios weekend. More than 60 artists will open the doors of their workspaces to over 2000 visitors to display and sell their work. The free event features pieces by established and emerging artists from Waltham Mills Artist Association, Lincoln Studios and Metalwerx. Work ranges from painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture to jewelry, textiles, glass, photography, woodworking, film and more.

AgX will participate in Open Studios offering the public a chance to get to know our space and what we do with special events including installations, special film screenings and outdoor projections.

Saturday Nov. 04

12:00 - 6:00pm: Loop of films made in AgX workshops, AgX members films, and installations
After 6pm: We will host a curated screening of 16mm films featuring work from AgX members and films from our 16mm collection.

Sunday Nov. 05

12:00 - 6:00pm: Loop of films made in AgX workshops, AgX members films, installations, and live music
After 6pm: Outdoor projection event with installations, video and music.

For more information visit: https://walthammillsopenstudios.com/portfolio/agx-film-collective/

Accessible by Commuter Rail (Fitchburg line), MBTA Bus (70, 553, 556, 558), and the Charles River bike path

HUBWEEK ANNOUNCES “IMMERSION” - AgX featured participant

karnias0402_150 — Sat, 29 Jul 2017 03:27:07 +0000

HUBWEEK ANNOUNCES “IMMERSION,” A LIVE, NIGHTTIME ARTS EXPERIENCE TO TAKE PLACE ON CITY HALL PLAZA DURING HUBWEEK 2017

BOSTON – Tuesday, July 25, 2017

HUBweek, Greater Boston’s festival for the future, today unveiled new details on “Immersion,” a live, nighttime arts experience taking place October 12-14th on Boston’s City Hall Plaza at The HUB, the festival’s centralized site. Each night, The HUB will come alive through light, sound, and performance.

The HUB, presented by Liberty Mutual, is designed and developed in collaboration with award-winning design firm, CBT, and will feature more than 60 shipping containers, dozens of art installations, and 4 geodesic domes–one of which will be taller than the Green Monster.

Headlining Immersion 2017 is Masary Studios, a team of local artists who awaken built environments through live music, performance and video projection. Each night, Masary Studios will present “Brutal Rhythm,” an original music, light, dance and video composition inspired by the brutalist architecture of Boston’s iconic City Hall. It investigates and responds to the rhythm of the sharp edges, modular format and strong presence the building and surrounding plaza brings. The various scores are created in collaboration, one feeding the other, resulting in a united and bold statement that embraces the spirit of innovation, all while performed inside a wall of stacked shipping containers at the center of The HUB.

The three artists behind Masary Studios, Maria Finkelmeier, Ryan Edwards, and Sam Okerstrom-Lang (or Samo), worked together on a widely popular project for ILLUMINUS as part of the very first HUBweek in 2015, “Waking in Monster,” when they performed directly onto and inside of the Green Monster at Boston’s Fenway Park.

“The opportunity to bring one of the most iconic landmarks in Boston to life in 2015 through sound, light, and performance was thrilling! It brought our team together and launched our career as Masary Studios. Now, we have our creative minds set on City Hall Plaza,” said Maria Finkelmeier, “Our piece, ‘Brutal Rhythm’ will celebrate the bold, gritty, and strong people that inhabit our great city. Inspired by the architecture of City Hall, you'll be able to see and feel the rhythm of Boston.”

Also as part of Immersion, HUBweek features dozens of additional projects involving a roster of over 100+ artists, and collaborations with a number of organizations including AGX, Arck, Artists for Humanity, swissnex Boston, Project Urbano, Museum of Science, Boston Cyberarts, New England Conservatory, and BAMS Fest and many others.

”The HUB serves as a platform to showcase the tremendous and diverse artistic talents present in the Greater Boston area and beyond,” said Leonie Bradbury, director of art and creative initiatives for HUBweek. “Each night, Immersion will present transformative experiences using light, movement, and sound that blur the boundaries between, art, science and technology. The idea behind presenting multi-disciplinary environmental installations, both inside the shipping containers and on the plaza itself, was to create transformative experiences for the HUBweek audience, or as we like to call them “wow moments.”

Projects include:

SWISSNEX DOME

In collaboration with HUBweek and MySquare, swissnex Boston will present the swissnex Dome. A fulldome concept that allows a 360 degree realization of images and sounds and will take the audience on a fully immersive experience. The swissnex Dome will feature workshops, panel discussions, and other events like cosmic yoga during the day. At night, the dome will come alive as part of Immersion with fulldome projections, live digital, visual, and sound performances and more. Additional content collaborators include Museum of Science, Boston and Nest Immersion, Montreal. The dome will feature an exciting roster of artists from Switzerland, Canada, and plenty of local talent including a recent fulldome video project by MassArt students.

OUTDOOR PROJECTION PROJECTS

A select group of artists will project moving image content directly onto City Hall.

Masary Studio’s Samo will accompany the nightly live Masary performances with live
digital visuals.
Fascinated by the power of natural elements, Georgie Friedman will create a custom
video projection inspired by our psychological and societal relationships to natural

phenomena.
Perry Hall integrates painting and filmmaking and his moving image projections are
created by using natural dynamic forces such as turbulence, thermodynamics, magnetism,

gravity, chemical reactions, instead of any digital processes.
AGX, an analog film collective, will project a series of direct animation directly onto the
City Hall at various locations.
Boston Cyberarts, the legendary festival of digital art, performance and film created using
new technology will curate a nightly content block.

IMMERSIVE CONTAINERS

“Shadow Coding,” an experiment from Karen Schoucair and Rachelle Villalon that transforms the small confines of a physical space into an interactive and engulfing spatial experience, emanating from the larger than life responsive shadows of everyday objects.
“Zephyr,” taking inspiration from the spirit of the California Light and Space movement, Clint Baclawski moves the medium into newly de-constructed ground beyond the tradition and constraints of a photographic frame.

“Go to the Light: Neon Dream,” a unique, immersive black light experience by Helen
Popinchalk and Morgan Grenier of Trifecta Editions, Jay LaCouture, AntiDesigns and a

blacklight mural by Andrew Bablo.
Ginkgo Bioworks “1:1” will feature design futurist Natsai Audrey Chieza. Their collaboration
explores the dynamics of converging bio and digital fabrication technologies, and seeks to

determine their impact on materials and product design ecosystems.
“POLLINATE” explores the intersection points of art, technology, and science. Comprising
PlantBot Genetics, the Widow Maker collaborative, and Umwelt Operations Unlimited, POLLINATE blends thought-provoking idea-candy with hands-on, interactive, and immersive experiential activations that engage all the senses.
“I AM...You” is an interactive, multimedia installation co-created by Art Resource Collaborative for Kids (ARCK) and their 7th grade participants from Gardner Pilot Academy, a Boston Public School. Through fiber art, text, and projection, this work will explore the role empathy plays in envisioning both our cultural identities and solutions to societal issues.
EYP Architecture and Engineering presents “Butterfly Effect,” a multi-sensory container installation that speaks to transformation, sustainability and new fabrication methods. It is created in collaboration with Skanska, Northeastern University, GreenGoat, Associated Energy Developers and Dynalloy. The effort is being produced at the Autodesk Build Space.
NIGHTTIME DOME PROGRAMMING

The 49’ high geodesic dome at The HUB will transform each night through projections and performance. Thursday and Friday nights are curated in collaboration with BAMS Fest (Boston Art, Music and Soul Festival), a local organization that strives to break down racial and social barriers to arts and culture.

Thursday night headliner immersive experience, a live DJ silent disco party featuring a diverse roster of local DJs.
Friday night’s headliner is a twelve person Cypher, a dynamic, multi-disciplinary jam session that will bring artists and the public together through improvisation, beats and lyrics.
Saturday night’s closing party will feature Pico Picante, Goodlife’s monthly transnational bass party that celebrates the cultural sources of forward-thinking dance music.
POP-UP PERFORMANCES

Roving performances will take place throughout The HUB, amongst shipping containers and in unexpected places.

Sarah Slifer Swift and Meek Productions will present movement performance scores for 4 dancers that respond to crowds, light, sound and architecture.
Ben Cosgrove, a traveling composer, pianist, and multi-instrumentalist and classical guitarist Zaira Meneses will perform solo on City Hall Plaza.
Ian Diver will present “Nightclub,” a curated showcase of local queer nightlife characters in Boston.
New England Conservatory’s students will provide a variety of musical performances surprising HUBweek attendees throughout the site.
A Multi-Disciplinary Pop-Up Symphony that explores cultural identity and American immigrant narratives provided by Ashley Gong (Poet), Carissa Chen (Painter), and Miles Hewitt (Musician) the lead singer/songwriter/guitarist for The Solars, a Boston- based indie folk band.

PARTICIPATORY PROJECTS

Philips Lighting presents “Aura,” an interactive experience that allows people to connect
with light and sound in new ways.
“Enchanted Forest,” designed by Fish McGill, Saul Baizman, Andrew Ringler is a
responsive, interactive, multi-sensory “forest” in the wooded promenade on the perimeter

of Government Center.
“TriMe,” an interactive, projection project designed by Philip Gedarovich, explores the self
by removing all concrete physical properties and replacing them with a digital triangulation

of the human form.“
Salvador Jiménez-Flores and Project Urbano present “Tortilla Social” with Urbano Youth
Artists. Tortilla Social is a mobile printing press that produces handmade tortillas and tostones. It transforms public spaces through printmaking as a tool for self-expression, advocacy, and art education.

HUBweek, now in its third year, explores and showcases innovation at the intersections of art, science and technology and was founded by The Boston Globe, Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital, and MIT.

Festival organizers expect tens of thousands of attendees for this year’s festival. Insider Passes are on sale now and registration is open for The HUB, which includes access to Immersion. The full schedule and registration will open August 16, 2017. Passes are also on sale for Future Forum, presented by MilliporeSigma, a 3-day ideas festival and confab taking place at The HUB. More details can be found at HUBweek.org and media kit can be found here. The majority of HUBweek events, which will take place Oct. 10-15, will remain free and open to the public.

***

About HUBweek:

HUBweek is a festival for the future that explores innovation at the intersections of art, science and technology. Founded by The Boston Globe, Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and MIT, HUBweek is a first-of-its-kind civic collaboration that brings together the most creative and inventive minds in making an impact in Boston and around the world. In the past two years, together with over 150 organizations and institutions, HUBweek has hosted more than 250 events, attracting approximately 20,000 registered attendees each year from 49 countries and 40 states.

Super 8 Workshop Wrap-up

karnias0402_150 — Sat, 29 Jul 2017 03:19:21 +0000

Listen to AgX member Mike Piso talk about the Super 8 Workshop he led on Boston Film Society's podcast.

Boston Film Society Podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/user-951185138/episode-2-agx-8mm-worshop-and-cagil-harmandar

This episode we go to an 8mm workshop put together by Mike Piso with AgX Film Collective and Somerville Community Media Center. We also talk to çağıl harmandar who has recently screened her animation "Stretch" at Boston Short Film Festival.

AgX Visits Dedham Youth Commission

karnias0402_150 — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 03:43:41 +0000

We had 22 students (coming into their freshman year of high school) and 5 high school aged counselors from the Dedham Youth Commission’s College Bound program working with film in two ways: each had some film to work with for a direct animation extravaganza, and they teamed up into trios to shoot a roll of Super8 Film. We hope to process the film soon, and we have the direct animation roll at the AGX space for showing.

AGX members David Reeder, Susan Deleo, Peaches Goodrich and Rob Todd were running this show, which the program leaders were thrilled about, and hope to invite us back next summer.