Pattern of Activation (Gardens of the Galaxy)
WORLD CINEMA PREMIERE
A hypnotic view of where life and technology meet.
Pattern of Activation (Gardens of the Galaxy) is made from images used to train algorithms and assist scientific research. They range from wildlife camera photographs and astronomical images to snail embryos, monkey blood cells, proteins, bacteria and clouds on Mars. Such capture is never neutral, but a precondition of ecological surveillance and ultimately colonial control. Where the sheer abundance of machine-readable images might cheapen any meaning or aesthetic value, Novitskova digs the poetry back out. Animated at a speed faster than human sight, 1,440 images per minute, each picture chosen, touched, annotated and placed by the artist, the work offers a constantly shifting view of both the vast ecosystem and our own modes of perception.
Courtesy of the artist and VV Foundation.
Contains rapidly flashing images. Viewers with photosensitive epilepsy are advised to take care.
SCREENINGS
Saturday 7 November 16:00 (Between Film and Art 2)
Director Katja Novitskova will be present for a Q&A
Programme section(s): Between Film and Art
Original title: Pattern of Activation (Gardens of the Galaxy) | Year: 2024 | Runtime: 5′
Country: Estonia, Netherlands | Language: – | Subtitles: English
Director: Katja Novitskova | Production: Katja Novitskova | Editing: Katja Novitskova | Music: Kareem Lotfy
DIRECTOR’S BIO
Katja Novitskova (b. 1984, Tallinn; based in Amsterdam) is a visual artist whose work brings art, technology and science together at the level of nature. Tackling the complexity and eventual failures of depicting the world, she draws attention to the tools of mediation and representation – microscopes, brain scans and datasets. Her 2010 artist’s book, Post Internet Survival Guide, proved influential for a whole generation of artists. She was a resident at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and represented Estonia at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. Her work has since been shown at the Whitechapel Gallery, Hamburger Bahnhof, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, MUDAM Luxembourg and Kunstmuseum Den Haag, among others. Only recently, and with real fervour, has she turned to the moving image.
