BISFF Correspondence 通信计划
为了跨越种种障碍，开辟更多交流空间，我们设置了“BISFF Correspondence 通信计划”，对部分国际单元的参展作者进行系列访谈，这些访谈将在作品放映后发布在联展各个媒体平台。
This program involves conducting brief email interviews with the directors of the international films featured in the festival, in lieu of the traditional Q&A session that follows the screenings. Through this program, we hope to provide a platform for filmmakers to discuss their work and share their insights with our audience in China.
CYCLES OF CREATION Variation 2｜创造的循环 变奏2
Guli Silberstein
UK | English | 0:22:22 ｜ 2023
Q&A
Director导演: Guli Silberstei
Interviewer&translator采访、翻译:乔屿
Q1: After watching the film, I am curious about the creation process. Do you start by creating the music with the composer first or making the visual images first? Or is it a simultaneous process, considering that music played a crucial role in this work? Also, I am interested to know the reason why the name of the music is "Meditation". Can this music better help the viewers focus on the visual images they watch or impact their perception in any way?
观看完影片后，我很好奇您的创作过程。在这部短片中，音乐起了非常重要的作用。我很好奇您是先和作曲家确定了音乐的风格，还是先构思视觉图像？亦或同时进行？以及，音乐的名字是“冥想/沉思”，这个音乐可以更好的帮助观众专注在视觉图像上吗？它是否会在某些方面影响观众的感知？
A1: I first worked on the visuals, by my internal time perception. I then found this music on a free, copyright-free music website. A dialogue with the composer was impossible sadly for technical reasons. But I felt we have a dialogue through the music. which magically really fitted the visuals’ pacing, and the hypnotic feeling I wanted to create, of getting immersed in the images. This is even stronger in the first variation of this project. In the short film version it still acts as hypnotic, but we more lifted up by the “story” it tells. That’s why in the short film I added also natural sounds, to make the images more grounded in reality so to speak, with different aspects of Earth – water, wind, fire, etc,.
我首先进行的是视觉图像的创作，遵从的是我内在对时间的感知。后来，我是在一个免费的, 免版权的音乐网站上发现的这个作品。由于一些技术原因，和作曲家的沟通过程非常痛苦。但我感觉我们通过音乐完成了一次对话。这首音乐与视觉图像的节奏，以及我想要创造的一种催眠效果——我希望人们能够沉浸在画面里，神奇地相匹配。尤其在这个项目的第一次变奏中，这种感受更为强烈。但在短片的版本里，尽管这种昏睡感仍然存在，但我们仍能被其中所讲的“故事”所刺激着。这就是为什么在短片版本里，我会在呈现地球上，比如水，风，火等不同元素的时候，加入了一些自然音，目的是为了让图像更具有一种现实的依托。
Q2: The movement of the images and the processing of the colors created an extremely immersive experience for me. I felt like I had turned into one of the particles or matters in the film and was passing through the nine cycles with the camera. However, I couldn't help but wonder who I am or what kind of subject I am when I watch this film. Do you intend to create such an immersive experience to captivate the audience? Do you want them to identify with any specific subject while watching the film (for example, imagining themselves as a cell, air, or pure living consciousness)?
图像的运动和色彩的处理让我拥有了一次非常沉浸式的观影体验： 我感觉自己仿佛变成了视频中的某种粒子或者物质，并且随着镜头穿梭在九个不同的生命循环中。但与此同时，我禁不住思考作为观看者的我真正到底是以什么样的身份在观看这部电影。你是故意制造这种沉浸式的体验来吸引观众的吗？你希望观众在电影中投射具体的主体形象吗？（比如想象自己是一个细胞，是空气，亦或者一种纯粹的生命意识）。
A2：Yes, “pure living consciousness” is best description :-) I love this way you described the desired watching experience. No more words are necessary.
是的，“纯粹的生命意识”是最好的形容。我很喜欢你描述的这种观看感受。无需赘述。
Q3: What the voice-over said in the film reminds me of Donna Haraway's famous essay, "A Cyborg Manifesto." At first, I was skeptical about who the man speaking in the video might be - perhaps god or the first human being to awaken. However, it is not until the end that I realize that the voice, which is hoping to create a better future for all, is a cybernetic manipulated by an AI mechanism. Since you have written nine cycles, ranging from light to human, will the tenth one be about cybernetics? Why are cybernetics and mechanisms of artificial intelligence important themes and inspirations in your creation?
电影的旁白内容让我想起了唐纳哈拉维的《赛博格宣言》。一开始，我对这个声音的身份表示怀疑，猜测他可能是上帝的化身，或者指涉第一个觉醒的人类。但是，直到最后我才意识到这个声音是某个系统中被创造和控制的机械神经。你已经写了九个创造循环了，第十个会是cybernetic吗？为什么AI的机械和神经系统在你的创作中成为如此重要的灵感？
A3: You totally hit the target here. Cybernetics theory is the source of my work, since my time at the M.A in Media Studies in New York NY. The idea of machine theory, feedback loops, and the in-between fascinates me, especially in the context of futuristic thinking. And as digital video artist, I’ve always been interested in the capabilities of new technology to push the boundaries of visual representation. AI is especially fascinating, in its amazing ability to process the whole history of human visual culture, and through the artist’s input, to output predictions and conceptions that act as a mirror to ourselves, humanity. The voice by the way is a bit of a parody of the all-knowing narrator in documentary TV, while this is obviously total fiction. But is it?… And also it creates a sublime feeling I think, of mythological storytelling, echoing both “god’s voice” indeed, and also ancient tribal storytelling around the bonfire.
你说到点子上了。自我在纽约攻读媒体研究的硕士时期起，控制论就成为了我作品的理论来源。有关机械理论的思想，反馈回路，以及这之间的关系非常吸引我，尤其是在一种未来主义思维的语境里。作为数字视频艺术家，我一直对新技术能够突破视觉表现界限的潜力非常感兴趣。AI特别迷人的地方在于，它拥有惊人的，处理整个人类视觉文化史的能力。并且，通过艺术家的输入/参与，它能够输出一些预言，以及一些观念/看法。而这些看法可以被当作我们自身人性的一面镜子。另外，影片中的旁白的确是有一点对纪录片中全知视角叙述者的戏仿，尽管很明显，这个声音是完全虚构的。但，真的只是这样吗？我认为，它同样产生了一种崇高的感受，贴近于一种诉说神话故事的讲述方式。一方面它的确呼应了你说的“上帝的声音”，但同样有一种围绕着篝火，讲述古老部落故事的感受。
Q4: Could you explain more about how artificial intelligence can help people reflect more on ecological concerns surrounding our earth? How is it specifically represented in this short film?
你可以解释一下人工智能到底如何帮助人们反思“人和人类所生活的地球上的生态环境”之间的问题吗？这种关系和反思是怎么具体体现在这部短片里的？
A4: In thinking cybernetically, especially following Gregory Bateson’s writings, specifically his “Ecology of Mind”, it’s very helpful to think about Earth and humans as part of one system that reflects on each other within. As Bateson said, if humans destroy their natural environment that would end up destroy themselves, simple as that. We must rise above the daily shortsighted view, and see the world in a wider perspective, understand that we are all part of big processes, and the way we act would reflect back at us. The film highlights the magic which is planet Earth and the whole universe, and the new technology we have now, hoping that it would be used to save Earth, not the opposite. Also, the parody aspect of the work hints that we really can depend on no one for better ecology than ourselves.
在思考控制论的问题上，特别是循着作家格雷戈里·贝特森的著作，尤其是他那本《心灵生态学》，将地球和人类视为一个系统里的组成部分是非常有帮助的。在这个系统里，地球和人类是相互作用，影响的。正如贝特森所说，如果人类破坏自然环境，最终就会毁灭自己，就这么简单。 我们必须超越日常的短浅目光，要以更广阔的视角看待世界，要明白我们只是巨大过程的一部分，我们的行为方式最终会反馈到我们自身。 这部影片展现出的是一种魔法：它串联起地球，整个宇宙，以及我们现在拥有的新技术。希望这个魔法可以用来拯救地球，而不是毁灭。此外，作品中戏仿的部分想要暗示的是，在追寻更好的生态环境的问题上，我们只能依靠自身的努力。
Q5: Was this dreamy and dizzy atmosphere intentionally created regarding the deployment and processing of colour?
在色彩的运用和处理上，这种梦幻的，眩晕的风格是你刻意创造的吗？
A5: Artificial Intelligence is known to hallucinate. What is an obstacle in Science and providing factual analysis, is actually a huge advantage in art, where we’re allowed, and even encouraged to dream. So the AI naturally produces those dreamy visuals, that mirror in my opinion the “collective unconscious” of humanity. And I enhanced that, even in the text font design. It connects to psychedelic movements of around the 1960s with ideas of freedom, connection to nature etc, what may seem naive these days, but I think we need more of this “naivety”. And more than that, watching the film in “psychedelic state” takes down the barriers of conformist thought for the viewers, and frees the mind to open up to new ideas, a bit indeed like in a dream state, a recurring mode in my work from the start in 2001.
人工智能因其能制造幻觉而闻名。在科学和事实分析领域做不到的，恰好是艺术发挥其优势的地方——艺术本身就被允许，甚至被鼓励去制造梦境。所以， 那些由AI自然地制造出的梦幻般的视觉效果，在我看来，投射出的正是人性里面的“集体无意识”。这甚至体现在了我的字体设计上面。而它勾连起的是1960年左右的迷幻运动——鼓励自由解放，亲近自然等思想。这些思想在当下显得有些天真或者幼稚，但我觉得我们需要的，是更多的 “天真”。不仅如此，以这种“迷幻状态”观影也可以让观看者放下固有的思想，敞开心灵去接受新的想法。这的确有一点像是在做梦的感觉。但这种风格，自2001年我开始创作的时候，就循环出现在我的作品里了。
▌more information：https://www.bisff.co/selection/cycles-of-creation-variation-2