Alfred, NY - October 10, 2023 - Prepare to embark on a visual journey like no other as "Light Matter," the celebrated Experimental Film and Media Art Festival, returns for its third annual edition in the picturesque village of Alfred, NY, from November 3rd to 5th. Curated by James Hansen, this year's festival promises to be a mind-bending experience, showcasing the work of both emerging and established artists from around the globe.

With over 90 films from 34 countries and more than 1000 minutes of programming, "Light Matter" pushes the boundaries of experimental cinema and media art. Featuring 8 World Premieres, 24 North American / USA Premieres, and 24 New York State premieres, it is a celebration of the avant-garde, where visual storytelling takes on new and exciting forms. This year's festival boasts a diverse selection of films and programs, ensuring there's something for everyone [lol].

Special programs at "Light Matter" will elevate the festival experience to new heights.

On Saturday, attendees will have the unique opportunity to witness a presentation by Tara Merenda Nelson (Curator and Director of Public Programs at Visual Studies Workshop) featuring Luther Price's 35mm slides, coinciding with the release of the book "New Utopia: Slides by Luther Price" (VSW Press, 2023). This event promises to be a captivating exploration of art in its most experimental form.

Although Light Matter is known for shorts programs, Saturday will include the North American premiere of renowned media artist Joost Rekveld’s abstract science-fiction feature film “Mechanisms Common to Disparate Phenomena: #59) (2022) in which all images were produced by analog electronic signals, in a re-enactment of antiquated ways of computer. A reflection on the 1961 independent discoveries of deterministic chaos by Edward Lorenz and Yoshisuke Ueda, “Mechanisms…” is a powerful film that has to be seen to be believed!

FLICKER WARNING! Sunday will mark the 30th anniversary of the passing of the legendary artist Paul Sharits [fact check: Sharits passed on July 8, 2023], and "Light Matter" will honor his legacy with a special program. Audiences will have the rare chance to view two seldom-screened silent 16mm films, "Analytic Frame Study II" and "Declarative Mode." The Sunday extravaganza, a nearly four-and-a-half-hour shorts program, will also feature 16mm screenings of Marie Menken's "Excursions" and Joyce Wieland's "Hand Tinting," amongst an exciting selection of contemporary films It's a day dedicated to celebrating the rich history of experimental cinema.

In addition to these special programs, "Light Matter" will feature seven shorts programs running alongside exhibitions in the Harland Snodgrass/TS1 Gallery and the Immersive Gallery.

The festival embraces a diverse range of themes, from feminism and visual abstraction to 3D and AI-generated content, ensuring a dynamic and thought-provoking experience for all attendees.

"Light Matter" is not just a film festival; it's a celebration of experimental moving image art that cannot be missed. It challenges the conventions of cinema and dares to explore the uncharted territories of visual storytelling.

Flicker warning: this festival promises to push the boundaries of your perception and leave you in awe. Are your eyeballs ready for a workout? Join us at "Light Matter" from November 3rd to 5th in Alfred, NY, and immerse yourself in the world of experimental film and media art.

For more information and to purchase tickets [ALL SCREENINGS ARE FREE], please visit www.lightmatterfestival.com.For more information or press/media contact, write James at lightmatterfilmfestival@gmail.com and follow Light Matter on Instagram.

About "Light Matter": "Light Matter" is an annual experimental film and media art festival dedicated to pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling. Curated by James Hansen, the festival showcases the work of emerging and established artists from around the world, celebrating the avant-garde in cinema and media art. "Light Matter" offers a unique platform for artists to explore new forms of expression and captivate audiences with their innovative creations.

Light Matter is supported by the Dean’s Office of Alfred University’s School of Art and Design (New York State College of Ceramics), the Institute for Electronic Arts, the Expanded Media division and the Art History division.

The curator would like to acknowledge the unpaid labor of Erin Taylor and Micah Alhadeff who substantially contributed to Light Matter 2023.

The website will be updated in the coming weeks with more information on individual films

LIGHT MATTER 2023 FULL SCHEDULE

* denotes returning artist

FRIDAY NOV 3 (Holmes)

4:30 PM – Program One: Transparence

Blanca Garvia, ipse (I watched the Moon around the House), 15 minutes, Spain

Arash Akbari, Bec0m1ng, 2 minutes, Iran

*Stephanie Barber, The Enlightenment, 12 minutes, USA

Friedl vom Gröller, Entrucken, 3 minutes, Austria

Alvin Nugroho, JENNIFER, 2 minutes, Indonesia

Wayne Koestenbaum, I Started Selling Sadness, 3 minutes, USA

Mark Street, Clear Ice Fern, 12 minutes, USA

*Matt Whitman, Today is a Very Special Day, some-times, 8 minutes, USA

Barbara Lattanzi, Perpetual Conjunction, 2 minutes, USA

Luciana Decker, Spoils, 8 minutes, Bolivia

*Erica Sheu, It follows it passes on, 5 minutes, Taiwan

DataSpaceTime (Lisa Gwilliam/Ray Sweeten), Palinopsia, 10 minutes, USA

Lori Felker, Patient, 20 minutes, USA

7:30 PM – Program Two: Body Party

Bridget Coderc, Hither & Thither, 5 minutes, UK

*April Lin, Fiebre, 2 minutes, Sweden

Lorelei d’Anriole, Halo is a Symbol, 8 minutes USA

*S4RA, RAVE, 9 minutes, Portugal

Miriam Simun, Interspecies Robot Sex, 20 minutes, USA

[pause]

Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Exterior Turbulence, 11 minutes, USA

Sasha Waters, Ashes of Roses, 12 minutes, USA

Peggy Ahwesh/Jackie Goss, OR 119, 55 minutes USA

SATURDAY NOV 4 (Holmes)

1 PM – Program 3: Luther Price Slides & Presentation by Tara Merenda Nelson (60 minutes)

2:30 PM – Program 4: Artifice? What Artifice?

Tina Frank, PROTOTIPO, 4 minutes, Austria

Nini Korkalo, The Best Lover, 13 minutes, Finland

*Mandy Eugienou, Kompromat, 7 minutes, UK

Gioula Papadopoulou, AI made me do it: Ophelia, 2 minutes, Greece

Victoria Schmid, NYC RGB, 8 minutes, Austria

Michael Mersereau, Haxan:Reducida, 6 minutes, USA

Lilan Yang, The Perfect Human, 13 minutes, China

Ian Haig, AI Lobotomy, 2 minutes, Australia

*Alex Broadwell, Refuse 2 (Disc), 2 minutes, USA

Sarah Ballard, to be with you (grotto), 3 minutes, USA

Blake Williams, Laberint Sequences, 20 minutes, Canada

4:30 PM – Program 5: Chaos

Ben Balcom & Julie Niemi, Growing Up Absurd, 15 minutes, USA

Joost Rekveld, Mechanisms Common to Disparate Phenomena #59, 79 minutes, Netherlands

7:30 PM – Program 6: Paradise

Part One (93 minutes)

Colectivo Los Ingravidos, The Floating Gardens, 5 minutes, Mexico

Andres Medina, Stained Night, 11 minutes, Argentina

Piibe Kolka, Cellula Filia, 22 minutes, Estonia

Getong Wang, Dream of Splendor, 8 minutes, China

Eduardo Gutierrez, Refraction, 9 minutes, Peru

Jude Abu Zaineh, FORMations, 5 minutes, Canada/Palestine

Charles Kadkin, Superfund, 3 minutes, USA

*Laura Kraning, de-composition, 3 minutes, USA

Hogan Seidel, Konstantin, 3 minutes, USA

Micah Weber, Reservoir, 8 minutes, USA

*Leonardo Pirondi, Vision of Paradise, 16 minutes, Brazil

[Break –

Part Two will begin at 9:30 PM]

Part Two (84 minutes)

*Arvcuken Noquisi, Kolaswvt Vfulles, 11 minutes, Muscogee Nation

Hiroya Sakurai, The Stream XII-II, 5 minutes, Japan

Wai Yin Yan, Muted Bridges 4 minutes, Hong Kong

Saif Alsaegh, Bezuna, 8 minutes, USA/Iraq

Ogochukwu Azuya, Swimming in a Sea of Trauma, Nigeria, 7 minutes

Teresita Carson, Monolith, 14 minutes, Mexico

Yusuf Demirors, Suya Dokun (Touch the Water), 8 minutes, USA/Turkey

*Zsolt Gyenes, ElectroLandscape, 3 minutes, Hungary

Justin Jinsoo Kim, The Far and Near, 10 minutes, Korea

*Alexandre Alagoa, When I Close My Eyes, I See Everything, 14 minutes, Portugal

SUNDAY NOV 5 (Nevins)

1 PM – Program 7: Unframing

Part One (130 minutes)

Paul Sharits, Analytical Frame Study II, 30 minutes, 16mm, USA

Simon Payne, Edges: Mirrors, 5 minutes, UK

*Michael Lyons, Parts, 5 minutes, Japan

Mike Stoltz, Tomorrow: it’s not too late to join, 8 minutes, USA

Joanna Byrne, Diane (wrapped in plastic), 4 minutes, UK

Esperanza Collado, Tragame nube , 13 minutes Spain

Caique Poi, Recycling, 2 minutes, Brazil

Jordan Wong, I Would’ve Been Happy, 9 minutes, USA

Sam Taffel, Jews Harp or: Harpaud, 7 minutes, USA

*Ignacio Tamarit, Sin titulo, 2 minutes, Argentina

Joyce Wieland, Hand Tinting, 8 minutes, 16mm, Canada

Oakley Mertes, It’s time to patch up my own soul, 3 minutes, USA

Joshua Gen Solondz, We Don’t Talk Like We Used To, 36 minutes, USA

[break –

Part Two will begin at 4:30 PM]

Unframing, Part Two (133 minutes)

Marie Menken, Excursions, 5 minutes, 16mm, USA

*Linnea Nugent, In the Fishtank, 3 minutes, USA

Roger Deutsch, Flame of the Spent Hour, 8 minutes, Hungary

Yasaman Baghban, I Was Born in 1988, 9 minutes, Iran

Maximilien Luc Proctor, Fluid Fragments, 4 minutes, 16mm, Germany

Nicholas Christensen, Sightreading, 3 minutes, 16mm, Germany

Anna Kipervaser, Next Her Heart, 12 minutes, Ukraine

Tina Sulc Resnik, Retreat, 1 minutes, Slovenia

Louise Borque, Bye Bye Now, 9 minutes, Canada

*Abindai Meza, Tlaloc (Lines Drawn in Water), 9 minutes, USA

[15-minute breather]

Emily Apter/Elijah Stevens, bliss.jpg, 10 minutes, USA

Izabella Retkowska, Anamnesis, 1 minutes, Poland

*Ross Meckfessel, Spark from a Falling Star, 21 minutes, USA

Paul Sharits, Declarative Mode, 39 minutes, 16mm, USA

SNODGRASS/TS1 GALLERY (Nov 1 – 15) --- 85 minutes

Anna Utopia Giordano & Carlo Alleva, Entelechy (or on the sense of duty), Italy, 5 minutes

*Jason & Deborah Bernagozzi, Ritual for Synthetic Media, 19 minutes, USA

Nilson Carroll, me with and without my brain, 8 minutes, USA

Barry Doupé, RED HOUSE, 3 minutes, Canada

Melissa Faivre, The Becoming, 5 minutes, France

Joris Guibert, DATAVISION, 5 minutes, France

Mary Tiffany Lewandowski, Body Building, 11 minutes, USA

Simon Payne, Intervals, 10 minutes, UK

Francisco Rios, Education Lost, 13 minutes, Ecuador

Edwin Rostron, Help Desk, 3 minutes, UK

Ajunie Virk, When I Said Express I Meant the Train, Not the Clothing Brand, 3 minutes, USA

*David Witzling, Discriminator Loss, 9 minutes, USA

IMMERSIVE GALLERY (Nov 3-5) --- 76 minutes

Damian Anache, Compre(hen)ssion of Artifacts, 6 minutes, Argentina

Pierre Avajon, Motorik Innervisions, 8 minutes, France

Kjell Bjørgeengen, Ultra HF44, 11 minutes, Norway

Jenn Grossman, dark forest // invincible summer, 10 minutes, USA

*Justin Rhody, Abigail Smith, Ben Kujawski, Same Old Santa, 14 minutes, USA

Kit Young, Thalassophobia, 16 minutes, USA

Martin Moolhuijsen, grain cloud atmosphere, 7 minutes, USA

Valentin Sismann, Plasforms, 5 minutes, France

Light Matter is Curated by James Hansen

Website Assistance Provided by Javiera Cisterna Cortés

Support provided by School of Art & Design Dean's Office (NYSCC) at

Alfred University, the Divisions of Expanded Media & Art History,

and the Institute for Electronic Arts.

Light Matter is an annual festival dedicated to experimental film and media art

Light Matter 2024 programs coming soon!

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