NODES

co-directed with Vjosana Shkurti @ Milieux Institute

NODES (2019) is a short experimental documentary that explores alternative ways of documenting the diversity of research-creation projects in Milieux institute. Nodes frames these projects outside of their usual academic or studio environments, and captures them in new contexts where they can take a new breath.

This is a short experimental documentary that explores alternative ways of documenting Milieux’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.