Director, cinematography, and editing: Aaron Dylan Kearns
Genre: Experimental
Runtime: 1:55
Budget: $0
Release Date: June 9, 2018
The Thinklematter Visual (TV) series is, in concept, a multi part instillation of multiple minute long short films. The films are meant to be projected in a box-like room with plain walls, with each entry of the series being played simultaneously on each wall of the room, including the floor and ceiling. The number of shorts in the series is indefinite.
Watching Thinklematter Visual (TV): 5
Commentary by JMK
Open on a still that looks like it could be to the side of a night street, bound with architecture, a white field bisected by a great black shape that could be a pool of water left after a rainstorm, but also creates the impression of a great silhouette, head and shoulders, overshadowing the scene. Cut to a shot of the bottom shelf of a white bookcase that holds an ashtray, a recording device, and an iPhone resting on the black circle of a plate. The black circle stands out, enclosing the shite of the plate against the white shelf. Somehow, the interior edge of the shelf behind the plate is completely whited out so that the plate's relationship to the shelf is not as definite as the other objects. The black of the iPhone resting on the plate acts as the line in geometry that would calculate the radius of the circle.
The soundscape in this film, is an old recording of a hell and brimstone style preacher advocating physical punishment of children. God's plan, he says, is the disciplining rod that teaches respect of authority of parents, school, later one's boss, the government, police, and, ultimately, God. Does this voice emanate from the recording device? Has the recording device anything to do with the voice at all? We hear enough to know exactly what the recording is about, then cut back to the opening still of the white field of light beside what seems a night street consumed in dark, the impression of a great silhouette, head and shoulders, bisecting the white field.
