APPERCEPTION (2024)
Apperception is the state where you attend to your own making sense of an experience, while it is happening. I created Apperception as a tool for triggering synaesthesia and practicing apperception. Much as Memory Theatre One (1985) was an interactive/digital formation of Frances Yates’ The Art of Memory; Apperception is a digital/cinematic formation of J. T. Frasier’s On Time, Passion, and Knowledge. 1 hr. 2.5 min.
To request viewing access, email rbedgar@gmail.com.
Simultaneous Opposites
(Series, 2008 – Present)
THIS 90-CINEMA SERIES BEGAN IN 2008, AND CONTINUES THROUGH THE PRESENT.
ALL CINEMA IN THE SERIES CONSTRUCTED USING ROBERT EDGAR’S SIMULTANEOUS OPPOSITES ENGINE. CLICK IMAGE BELOW FOR WEBPAGE
MEREDITH EDGAR BAND (2018)
My daughter Meredith Edgar is a beautiful and wonderful singer/songwriter. Before she left for a year in Italy, I produced this concert film of Meredith with her band. She shared the band with Paul Griffiths, who changed the name of the group whenever they played a gig that he had secured. This video includes songs by both of them. It was directed by Palo Alto videographer David Simon; I produced, mixed, and edited it.
COMPLEMENTARY OPPOSITES: MAKROCOSMA BALI (2011)
The documentary film is by me and the “Media Production Workshop” class I taught at the Art Institute of California/Sunnyvale. It is of a live San Francisco performance of “Makrokosma Bali” with music by composers I Made Arnawa (Bali) and Wayne Vitale (USA). The music is performed by the 25-musician ensemble Seka Gong Taruna Mekar of Tunjuk, Bali, and is accompanied by the projected video and light work of Allen Willner, Eric Koziol, Ian Winters, and the audio engineering of Gregory T. Kuhn. 82 minutes, HD.
FILM MEMO 002: THEN IT IS WHAT I AM (2012) (video, Simultaneous Opposites Engine)
FILMMAKING MEMO 001 (2012) (video, Simultaneous Opposites Engine)
DUNG SYI (1980) 16mm film Audio updated 2024
DUNG SYI is the last celluloid film I made; right after I finished it I sold my Beaulieu 16mm camera, bought an Apple //e, and learned to program.
DUNG SYI is a meditation on the Chinese word for “thing”, which comprises an ideogram made from two separate characters, one for “east” and one for “west”. The characters themselves are each compound images: one is the sun seen through the branches of a tree, and the other is a bird in a nest.
So the concept of “thing” is already compound. So is film: audio and image, word and sound, shot and still, continuous and discontinuous.
The content of the film DUNG SYI is about recipes and food. Merrilee was my subject matter expert (SME) for the film, and supplied much of the text for the film (some of the words were from others’ texts). She is also the narrator, chef, and cook.
So the film appears to be about food and recipes, while it is also about words and things. It is compound, always.
This year (2024) after having the film digitized, I added a music track, by recording an electric guitar solo while the film played. While I played, Merrilee’s narration fed a “ducker” and automatically interrupted and split the recorded solo. The two elements are together but separate, and both interrupt each other. It’s not a smooth path: it’s kind of like Brecht driving a car with a fucked up clutch. I like it, though.
IMPLICIT X EXPLICIT (1976) 16mm film. Audio updated 2024
Digitized from a 16mm film containing images of Syracuse NY and Cocoa Beach FL. Shot and edited in 1975 and 1976. I designed and produced the film around three separate approaches to personal cinema making: sculptural, anthropoetic, and performance-based. The 16mm film was projected onto a specially-prepared screen.
Digitized and soundtrack updated in December 2023. Music Tracks available on robertedgar.bandcamp.com:
– Late Shore, Late Shore II (Robert Edgar, Epiphone SG 60s Maestro Vibrola, GP-200 pedal)
– Name Your Game (Robert Edgar, Taylor 410 KCE)
– Weakness (Robert Edgar Taylor 410 KCE)
CLOSE/UNCLOSE (1975) Super-8 film, 1″ video.
A recording of a performance, exploring some themes later used in Implicit X Explicit.
Intersticies (1973) 16mm film, 1/2″ video, Moog synthesizer
I produced Intersticies in 1973 at Synapse Video in Syracuse, NY. I shot the content on 16mm film, then transferred it to video and electronically manipulated it, finally kinoscoped it back to 16mm film. For transfer to the web, I projected the film and captured it using a Panasonic HVX200A at 24fps. The soundtrack I produced on a Moog synthesizer in 1974/5.
SMALL (1972) 8mm film, edited in-camera
SIMULTANEOUS OPPOSITES (1972) Super 8mm single-framed film, tripod, protractor, script
This is a film I captured frame by frame, positioning each exposure of the camera according to a pre-composed script that indexed to a sort of protractor I mounted on my tripod.
In the early 21st century I revisited this single-frame approach, when I developed my “Simultaneous Opposites Engine”, which I used to not pivot the camera around a room, but to navigate through frames of video recordings that I’d previously shot.