Synopsis
NODES, directed by Vjosana Shkurti and Agustina Isidori, is a short experimental documentary that explores alternative ways of documenting Milieux Institute’s research-creation projects outside of their usual academic or studio environments. Nodes frames these projects in new contexts where they can take a new breath.
“We took a 3D printer and looked at its movements so closely that it formed into a spacecraft controlled by a giant spider,” explain the directors. “We made a tiny robot land on the moon and watched as they lost the love of their life; we found a stranger in the woods; we met an avatar from the future in real life; we discovered lost vessels on the shore; we searched for clues on the walls; we became entranced by a dance of hair; we were held within circuits embedded on fabric; we witnessed the birth of a new earth; we saw skin crawl its way out; we were blinded by lights speaking a coded language; we danced with them; we saw a reflection of a ghost in our last days before the end of it all.“
During the process of making this film, project creators participated in the creative decisions to figure out collectively how to best create a story around their object. By experimenting with scale, lighting and natural locations, the film looks at these projects with a new eye that has influenced the project creators in return. The feedback loop is where this film becomes an extension of the ethos that is ascribed to research-creation as a process of research, experimentation, development and innovation.
Research-creation projects with a physical component became the focus of this film as they allowed us to manipulate their shape and scale into sometimes unrecognizable forms or new structures and performative characters.
Watch the full film
Credits
Directors/Camera Agustina Isidori & Vjosana Shkurti
Musical Contributions
by Marc-André Cossette
Silktone Project – Contact from the ice
Plumes of Water (Beethoven training data set)
Generative music performance CMMAS
by Ricardo Dal Farra
Tierra y Sol
Clones (with Arturo Gervasoni)
Civilizaciones
Karma
Sound editing
Vjosana Shkurti
Featured Projects (in order of appearance)
Machine Ménagerie | Joseph Thibodeau |
Sensum | Alexandre Saunier |
Mannequin for the Otsitsakáion costume (from She Falls for Ages) |
Skawennati & the Indigenous Futures Cluster |
Promises | Ida Marie Toft |
Traces | Jess Marcotte |
Listener | Suzanne Kite |
Body:Suits:Score | Alex Bachmayer, Sandeep Bhagwati, Marcelo Wanderley, Joanna Berzowska, Isabelle Cossette |
The Leftovers of the Sword | Patil Tchilinguirian |
Bucci dress | Théo Chauvirey & WhiteFeather Hunter |
Roots | Enric Llagostera & Rebecca Goodine |
Pero Sans Cimon | Emma Forgues & Sam Bourgault |
tangibleFlux φ plenumorphic chaosmosis | Navid Navab |
Cloud bodies | Allison Moore |
Totem | Chris Salter & Alexandre Saunier, Sofian Audry, Thomas Spier, Takashi Ikegami |
The Enchantment of Cloth: Book / Sound Table / Mirror / Sensing Carpet | Studio subTela (collaborators: Barbara Layne, Janis Jefferies, Marc-André Cossette and Ahmed Khisk / contributors: Ryth Kesselring, Claire Nadon, Tahseen Mustafa, Fanny Savoie, Martin Peach, Hesam Khoshneviss, Geneviève Moisan, Sareh Majidi) |