Artist's Talk: Kurt Ralske on "Zero Frames per Second"

Friday, September 12
6 to 7pm
Free admission

MFA Computer Art Gallery
132 West 21st Street (7th Floor) between 6th and 7th Avenues, New York City


School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents an artist's talk by MFA Computer Art Department faculty Kurt Ralske, for the closing of "Zero Frames per Second," an exhibition of digital prints, and video. The artist will discuss his work and the representation of time and duration in photography, cinema, and media art. (The exhibition is on view through September 12; to schedule a viewing appointment call 212.592.2532.)

"Zero Frames per Second" is an exploration of Cinema and Time. Via custom software, the 150,000 frames of a film by Godard, or Kubrick, or Murnau are transmuted into a single image, perhaps 30 feet long. All the motion that occurred within a film is extracted and abstracted, presented next to a record of everything that was motionless within the film. A software program scans a database of movies, identifying moments of uncanny similarity across films of different genres, eras, and nationalities. Within this work, the cinematic experience is freed from duration, narrative, and signification. What is revealed is only the residue left by the workings of motion and rest.

Kurt Ralske's video installations, performances, digital prints and software art have been exhibited at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Los Angeles MOCA, and the Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels. He created the 9-channel HD video installation that is permanently in the lobby of the MoMA, in NYC. Kurt is the recipient of a 2007 Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowship and received First Prize at the 2003 Transmediale International Media Art Festival, Berlin, Germany.

The gallery is accessible by wheelchair. For further information call 212.592.2532.

"Zero Frames per Second" is made possible in part by The Media Arts Fellowships (a program of Tribeca Film Institute, founded and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation) and The Experimental Television Center's Finishing Funds program (supported by the Electronic Media and Film Program at the New York State Council on the Arts).