CRITICAL
OVERVIEW:
A common thread through all film and
my own explorations in particular, has been a fascination with
stories written by culture and the basic spectacle of the interaction
of motion and sound.
I have
consistently also been interested in creating sound and image
as quickly and cheaply as possible, coming from the junk collecting/
reworking/ do it yourself sensibility.
This
habit of working fast also comes from an interest in attempting
to capture, emulate, stimulate the speed at which our waking and
dreaming selves make connections and associations.
- Paul
Fletcher, May 2004.
FILMOGRAPHY:
Catholic
Loop (1979, indefinite duration, Super 8 film loop / cassette
sound)
Mowing
Around the World (1979, indefinite duration, Super 8 film
loop, slides, cassette sound)
Butchered
(1979, 25 mins, Super8, cassette sound)
No.11
Clifton St Box Hill (1980, 12 mins, Super 8, sound)
Scratched
(1980, 4 mins, Super 8, hand colored and scratched)
Royal
Visit (1980, 3 mins, Super 8)
Dolls
(1981, 10 mins, Super 8)
Mr Tsuzuki
Comes To Australia (1981, 22 mins, Super 8)
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They
Shoot Werewolves Don’t They |
Space
Mutants - Sci-Fi Musical (1982, 11 mins, Super 8)
Raggedy
Ann (1982, 10 mins, Super 8)
Monster
Film (1982, 30 mins, Super 8 + Slides)
Rover
Dog Elvis (1983, 2 mins, Super 8)
They Shoot
Werewolves Don't They (1983, 10 mins, Super 8)
Elephant
(1983, 10 mins, Super 8)
The Weird,
The Mysterious and The Unexplained (1983, 22 mins, U-Matic
Video, Mockumentary)
Disco
Mixers (1985, 30 mins, Super 8)
Watch
This Space (1991, 22 mins, 16mm)
Corporate
Turtle (1992, 10 mins, Digital +VHS)
Josie
and the Tecno Bunnies (1993, 3 mins, Digital/Video)
Ten Years
in Realville (1994, 10 mins, Super 8 + Digital/Video)
Virtual
Shopper (1995, 10 mins, Digital + SP-Betacam)
The Cloudwatchers
(2002, 6 mins, DVD)
Eleven
(2003, 5 mins, DVD)
De-emergence
(2003, 2 mins, DVD)
Creature
from the fractal lagoon (2003, 2 mins, DVD)
The Last
Retort (2004, 5 mins, DVD)
Lake Qualm
(2004, 3 mins, DVD)
Shed Film
(2005, 3 mins, DVD)
10,000
Days (2005, 6 mins, DVD)
Test Transmission
(2005, 5 mins, DVD)
Dreamlake
(2006, 6 mins, DVD)
The Program
(2007, 5 mins, DVD)
City of
Dust (2008, 7 mins, DVD)
Insectaesthesia (2009, 4 mins, DVD, Betacam Sp & Digital)
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The Isle of Insectaesthesia |
The Isle of Insectaesthesia (2010, 5 mins).
The small island of Insectaesthesia supports 10% of the world's species, many of which occur nowhere else and all of
which have their own unique perception of the world.
If you live on an island, or in fact, you are your own island, this film is for you! An abstract virtual nature observational documentary.
Time Ripples In Sense World (2011, 7 mins)
Sense implies its opposite. You are here. Enjoy the spectacle
before the inevitable farewells and next departure.
Ocean Forest (2011, 7 mins, 40 secs)
An exploration and evocation of the feelings of awe, terror
and wonder created by geographical and psychological
wilderness.
Ecstatic Mould (2013, 6 mins, 23 secs)
A roiling, surging wall of colour and densely
packed imagery. Perhaps the most colourful
and technically complex of Fletcher’s films to
date. (Malcolm Turner – MIAF Catalogue)
Pop Pyschology (2014, 5 mins)
DVD Digital Visual Music
Digital Abstraction
Junctions, Gaps and Diffusion.
Taking its name from the popularisation of science and psychology, this film takes license with ideas from neuroscience of communication between neurons carried by synapses..or something like that. A lively blast of attention grabbing sound and image synchresis, in-the-moment imagined neuron firing and receiving, rapid multi-layered, parrallel processing, split second pulses and flows.
Simple Cellular (2014, 7 mins)
An audiovisual composition, a gentle immersion in networks of intertwining dynamic flux and rapidly cycling patterns, complex textures and motion built from
permutations and increasing populations or duplication of simple units of cell-like circles and lines.
Uses sequences of sound built up in layers, some edited in realtime improvisation, some tradtionally, compositing, and simultaneous synthesis of sound and
picture.
GRID LIFE 2014
Shimmering, evolution and deconstruction produced as part of the research project Reconstructing the Familiar that is based on collaborative inter-disciplinary exchange and translation between music and animation by Mark Pollard and Paul Fletcher.
With Every Beat of its Wing 3:35 2014
Sonic and motion ripples, vibrations of light and air.
A collaborative audiovisual composition created in response to analysis of butterfly flight and wing patterns and movments observed in high speed footage and by the artists eye at the Royal Melbourne Zoo's Butterfly House.
City Symphony Noise Poem A city as a symphony. A poem of noise. A musical narrative.
A city that you live in but can never travel to. A city of connections and exchanges of collective and individual consciousness.
MIAF 2015, Old FireStation 2014
(Live Performance Version)
Review at
http://www.troublemag.com/undue-noise-expanded-cinema-moments/
Why Abstract Animation Matters
Presented at RENDER 2014 Conference online at
https://vimeo.com/99393364
Organic Chaos 2015 variable Duration 8 – 30 minutes
Live video improvisation recording based on a set of sound and video cycles and layers dynamically chosen, mixed, pitched and sequenced in realtime-first performed at The Bridge Hotel Castlemaine as part of the Fringe Festival March 16, 2015. In the live performance set up junk percussion is played and the sound from this also affects some of the layers and loops to create specific visualisations of sound with distortions color and timing or sequence changes.
https://vimeo.com/122780908
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We notice Raindrops as they fall... |
Introduced Species 2015 Abbot, Dollman, Fletcher, Fraser, Stephenson.
https://vimeo.com/131484074
Introduced Species: Symphony no.2 (excerpts from movements 2 & 3)
Composer: Katy Abbott
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra / Dollman
Animation in response to the music score and oceanic environmental issues.
We notice Raindrops as they fall... August 2015
Premiered at Sound Islands Festival Singapore August 2015
An extreme slowing of time to create a new experience and imagined observation of individual falling droplets of rain. Falling spherical shapes, generative patterns and interactions become to represent a calming mood and reflections that can be interpreted as many forms of organic phenomena and energy.
Collaborative Audiovisual Composition
Paul Fletcher & Mark Pollard
Practical Process.
A sound recording of rain on pavement was slowed by about 40 times and resynthesized to a 5 tone microtonal scale with celeste and vibraphone sampled custom digital instrument(in Metasynth)- from this new audio source material Mark selected a pattern he thought had composition promise.Mark composed the final music composition through extensive micro editing and larger scale additive compositional strategies.(Logic Pro) Visually the animation started with a macro photo of droplets of frost melting on a spherical like spider web. The photo was digitally processed and animated and also reconstructed and extended into other imagined forms and patterns in digital 3d and 2d Animation methods.
Supported by VCA & MCM University of Melbourne
We Notice Raindrops as they fall- 2015
first performed live at ADM NTU see https://vimeo.com/137206555, video layering sequencing and effects with surround mixing of sound layers
variable lengths.
Moth Ra Space 2016, 6 mins
Short Animated Film.
https://vimeo.com/189862439
Abstracted actual chaotic patterns of water in a city fountain combined with computer simulations of chaotic patterns; “particle animation” with “physics simulations” of gravity and turbulence. In the tradition of much experimental film it asks is it possible to escape any predetermined construction of narrative within images and between image and soundtrack in favour of an open experience of an audio-visual space for thought and feeling?
Psychoflorialis 2017
https://vimeo.com/198157678
Short Animated Film in the form of an animated virtual sculpture created through “complex dynamic systems” enabled in Artmatic Designer Software tool. Extensive layering of sound and image to create the experience of exploring an unfamiliar space. Exploring the question do we notice more when we are lost or in unfamiliar territory?
Selected as an award winner in Video Art Category of “Consciousness” exhibition a part of internationally renowned Anima Mundi Festival in Venice 2017.
Mysterious Space 2017, 6 mins
A follow on from Moth Ra Space.
https://vimeo.com/198976809
Mysterious Space
is an audiovisual construction of ,or metaphor for, an imagined space of thought, of human interactions and feelings, the feeling of the process of navigating social and cultural structures and spaces.
This piece grew out of piece of music I had created under the name of Ed Mundio and then further collaborated for improvised non verbal vocal contribution from fellow Soundcloud artist from France, Italia Walz.
Technically the film builds on many hours of playing with materials of production from finger painting/naive drawing on a digital tablet, photography, digital layering, particle simulations as sculptural generators, sound as driver, empathic and an empathetic interactor with the moving visuals.
Mysterious Space is abstract in its intention, structure and sequence.
The "Drive" To Work 2017, 3 mins
https://vimeo.com/213295397
A three-screen projection installation originally designed for the specific site of Zagreb Contemporary Museum. Responding to the road facing aspect of this site the work plays on the dual meaning of its title; people driving cars to and from work along the road and to the motivational drive to work, including for myself the compulsion to make such artworks.
Selected by Gallery Curators for inclusion in this years international Animafest.
Awarded first prize for Site Specific Artwork.
Will also be exhibited in Zagreb Museum, next March 2018.
A linear single screen version of the work is published on Vimeo, “ a hallucinatory blend of abstract animation and figurative scenes that completely capture the observer’s visual system. ... The result is a highly suggestive and rhythmically astonishing three-channel animation that completely revives the media facade of MSU” World Festival of Animated Film Zagreb.
Liquid Connections 2017, 4 mins
https://vimeo.com/233907737
A short film made for linear watching on various screens, installation/gallery and “full-dome”, Planetarium screen contexts.
In the tradition of conservation minded artwork, bio-art and artwork that synthesizes science and art in an engaging experience.
Dynamic, fluid-like. parallels and connections are made between symbiotic relationships and patterns of movement mirrored in micro and macro scales from the movement of tiny thoughts to rivers feeding oceans and stars circling above.
Sound is used to encourage different interpretations of only subtly changing footage. swirling strands of blue and green colour can suggest microscopic, cosmic, oceanic or forest environments influenced by changes in sound.
First exhibited as part of the Living Data conference exhibition, projected into the “Data Lens” exhibit at the Australian Society of Limnology (ASL) Conference, University of Technology Sydney.
Soon to be published on the Living Data website and published on Vimeo.
An immersive “fulldome” version was screened publicly at the Melbourne Planetarium Spotswood 7pm, 29th November, 2017.
“Talking to Cleopatra” June 2017, 4 mins
https://vimeo.com/album/1604748
Music Video
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Organic Chaos (2015, 9 mins) |
Moth Ra Space (2016, 6 mins) |
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Liquid Connections (2017, 4 mins) |
“Talking to Cleopatra” (2017, 4 mins) |
FESTIVALS:
Josie
and the Tecno Bunnies
1994
St.Kilda Film Festival
1993 Clermont
Ferrand
1993
AVE Netherlands
1993
Melbourne Fringe Film Festival
Watch
This Space
1995
Prix Leonardo
1993
Okomedia Festival Ecological Films - Freiburg, Germany
1993
St.Kilda Film Festival
Virtual
Shopper
1996
Atom Awards.
1996
Australian National Cinematheque Retrospective Program
Eleven
2004 Microcinema Touring Program "Independent Exposure 2004"
Lake Qualm
2005 Microcinema Screening Program "Animated Exposure 2005"
2005 Darwin International Film Festival - awarded Best Experimental
Australian Short Film
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from Hidden Creatures exhibition |
10,000
Days
2005 Allans Walk Artist Run Space June 2005
Shed Film
St Kilda Film Festival 2006
in competition in Prix Ars Electronica 2006
Dreamlake
short film and interactive performance using the Hover VideoVac,
Bendigo Commonwealth Games Cultural Festival
The Program
Amsterdam Film Experience 2007
City of
Dust
St Kilda Film Festival 2008
& in competition in Prix Ars Electronica 2008
Insectaesthesia
Melbourne International Animation Festival 2009
Live Cinema version at Castlemaine State Festival March 09
The Isle of Insectaesthesia
MIAF_ Melbourne International Animation Festival
London International Animation Festival
Independent Exposure
Imdb listing
Time Ripples In Sense World
Screened at MIAF (ACMI Cinemas)
and LIAF (Barbican).
Ocean Forest
Screened at Sardinia Film Festival Italy,
and
MIAF.
Ecstatic Mould
Official Selection at LEDEN Intl Short Film Experience
& MIAF
Pop Pyschology
MIAF 2014, Ars Electronica Linz Austria ,Brainwash USA
Grid Life
Rejkavik Visual Music Festival and MIAF PuntoYRaya Highlights 2015.
The "Drive" To Work
Animafest goes MSU 2017 – winner Best Site Specific Work
Moth Ra Space
Punto Y Raya @ ZKM Karlsruhe 2016
Mysterious Space
MIAF ACMI June 2017-11-27
Psychoflorialis
Shepparton Shorts International Festival, Anima Mundi Venice 2017
DVDs:
Animation in the Classroom - Applications and inspiration
DVD, NTSC/PAL
Year 2010 distrib. ARTFILMS
Length 16 mins
Code: PF-Anima
ISBN:
978-1-921882-26-5
Video-Animation & Sound Art - Paul Fletcher
2011
DVD, NTSC/PAL
Year 2010
Length 75 mins
Code: PF-Fletcher
ISBN:
978-1-921882-25-8
Animation Ambiences
Live and Installed by Paul Fletcher
A collection of short films exploring new contexts and
forms for animation, including; ambient animation,
animated light sculpture, virtual sculpture, custom
made audiovisual instruments and modified
domestic devices, outdoor exhibitions and gallery
installations and live semi-improvised modular film
performances.
The DVD + CD-ROM set includes a PDF booklet
presenting extensive stills of gallery and public
installations and live performance set ups
DVD, NTSC/PAL
Year 2011
Length 63 mins
Code: PF-Animation
ISBN:
978-1-921895-08-1
Departures, Delays and Returns
New Film Work that creates a fusion of the creative
fields of animation, abstract film, visual music, sound
art, video art and visual poetry.
DVD, PAL
Year 2012
Length 40 mins
Code: PF-Depart
ISBN:
978-1-922007-49-0
PERFORMANCE:
GRIDLIFE (2013) 1:28
Collaborative Audiovisual Composition with Mark Pollard
Screened at Loop Melbourne February 2014
Potter Musuem of Art November 2013
Reykjavik Visual Music and
PuntoYraya Festival Iceland January 2014
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Mysterious Space (2017, 6 mins) |
The "Drive" to Work (2017, 3 mins) |
SELECT
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
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Mr
Tsuzuki Comes To Australia |
"A multi-levelled
construction of film language . all headaches should be like this."
New Music Magazine No.2 1980 Philip Brophy.
"With both
Number 11 Clifton St and Dolls Fletcher works within
a narrative mode, constructing microcsomic worlds . in a sense
one could say that these films have a strange connection to the
works of Jules Verne and Lewis Carroll." Art and Text No.3
Rolando Caputo 1981
"To his usual
festival of effects affects: cartoon stylistics, multi-layered
media references, mad leaps in tone and register, narrative position,
Elephant adds a melancholy and a sensuality." Notes
for "The Adrian Martin Selection", Fringe Network screenings,
1986, Adrian Martin.
WEB SITES:
Paul Fletcher
is a member of the contemporary arts group Punctum.
Animation
sound and sculpture installation 2007
City
of Dust web page
Soundtracks and other music:
Digital Compost on SoundCloud
Moving Image Narrative on SoundCloud
Animated Image and Sound
©
Paul Fletcher, November 2017.
Paul Fletcher's website - DIGITAL COMPOST
Contact
Paul Fletcher
Back
to Melbourne independent filmmakers index page |
