Energie!

source: highlike

Work: From a mere technical point of view the TV/video screen comes alive by a controlled beam of electrons in the cathode ray tube. For ‘Energie!’ an uncontrolled high voltage discharge of 30.000 volts exposes multiple sheets of photographic paper which are then arranged in time to create new visual systems of electron organization.
Photographer: Thorsten Fleisch
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source: vimeo

From a mere technical point of view the TV/video screen comes alive by a controlled beam of electrons in the cathode ray tube. For ‘Energie!’ an uncontrolled high voltage discharge of 30.000 volts exposes multiple sheets of photographic paper which are then arranged in time to create new visual systems of electron organization.
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source: letempsdetruittout

– I make experimental short films. they are literally experimental. some prefer the term avantgarde (which I think is pretty deceiving) but I’m quite happy with the term experimental cinema as I really consider my films little visual and aural investigations. I have a theme that I’m interested in, it might be a material like for examples crystals (in my film kosmos) or something less solid and concrete like high voltage (in my film energie!), and then experiment on that theme regarding what I can get out of it with film and video technology. it is a very procedural approach meaning that I normally don’t know where it will lead me in the end. I just try to find what I think looks interesting and beautiful and then when I have experimented enough I try to put the different results together in a way that makes sense to me.
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source: avfestival

Thorsten Fleisch creates films that reveal the shapes and patterns of natural forces and phenomena. In this work he reveals what energy in one of its simplest forms looks like in motion. Energie! is a sequence of still images created on light-sensitive photographic paper. The artist exposed dozens of sheets of paper to enormous electrical discharges, each leaving its imprint as a trail of light. Animating these images reveals patterns in their flow of energy, akin to tracing the flow of electricity at each moment of a lightning strike. As the images are photographs created without cameras, they are records of single moments. Accordingly we see dozens of split-second documents animated to reveal the shape and power of energy.

Biography
Thorsten Fleisch is a Berlin based experimental filmmaker, who works with digital and analogue film. He studied experimental film with Peter Kubelka at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. With materials such as the body, crystals, fire and electricity, he works directly on 16mm film strips. The results are poetic and abstract visual systems with references to catharsis, cosmos and the universe. In 2003 Fleisch received an Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica in Linz for his computer animated film Gestalt. His films have received several awards and have been shown at festivals including: New York Film Festival, Ars Electronica, Transmediale, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, San Francisco Film Festival and Videoex.