Programme: PoetryFilm: Altered States of Consciousness, Tate Britain, April 2006

Below is the full programme for PoetryFilm: Altered States of Consciousness which took place at Tate Britain in April 2006.

“Malgorzata Kitowski introduces a selection of experimental shorts: ‘filmifications’ of poems; films about altered states of mind; films jigsawed from cut-ups, beat writing, trips and dreamscapes.”

Alecto (Simon Ruben) 10m

A man’s involuntary memory is triggered by girl playing a piece of violin music, violently uniting the future, past and present in a flash moment where the past becomes more “real” than the present. Repressed emotions, scars and memories explore how the human mind can be both resilient and fragile.

The Arousing (Malcolm Hart) 10m

A car with a roaring engine drives at high speeds along winding roads; two bodies blur in curved distorted mirrors.
Central Control (Peter Gomes) 5m

A number of people suffering delusions in South London have referred to a large silver box at Elephant & Castle roundabout, believing that it works as a control centre delivering messages. The film consists of a voiceover conversation between a Man and a Doctor. The Man explains how and where he first began to hear voices in his head whenever he was near the box.

C (Grant Wilkinson, Nikos Dayandas) 10m
C is a twist through a dream world. From the city, through a fairground and a forest, to the sea, C is an exploration of what it is like to look at the world through a viewfinder for the first time; old memories captured through a new way of seeing.

Timers Run On (Malgorzata Kitowski) 7m

Cut-Up Experiment VIII. An Oulipo poem employing anagrams and numerology is turned into a triptych cut-up. Each segment contains exactly the same 166 words jigsawed in three different orders. The film also explores how we receive meaning: in the first section, the words are both seen and heard; in the second, the words are heard and not seen; in the third, the words are seen and not seen.

Deep Vain (Philippe Bergeron) 17m

A man tucks a newspaper under his arm and goes to work. Three essentially unrelated themes (a break-up / newspaper / aeroplane) agitate the routine of his everyday office context. The film was inspired by the effect of UK newspaper (tabloid) headlines on the collective subconscious.

What Did You Eat Today? (William English, Sandra Cross, Hugh de la Cruz,2001) 10m

Aspects of a persona that cannot necessarily be described are disclosed. There is an element of ‘what exactly is this person doing?’ i.e. he is eating but there seems to be something else happening. An unrehearsed subject is recorded as close as possible to a natural version of himself with minimum direction.

State of Mind (Mairead McClean) 10m

Music and images express the memory of a childhood experience. A girl runs through woods, apparently alone.

Animusic (John Holloway) 3m

Music is experienced synaesthetically through gestures and colour. Every single sound is accompanied by a gesture to represent that sound: buckets of paint thrown at people; bin-lids opening and closing; stretched elastic bands. Music becomes action becomes experience.