“A weather lightning has occurred that will bear the name of Deleuze: A new thinking is possible … It is there, leaping, dancing, before our eyes, in our midst … One day, perhaps, this century will be called Deleuzian.“ Michel Foucault
ALPHABET UNPLUGGED: STOP’N’GOEXPANDED
The rapid development of the smartphone into an easy-to-use and technically advanced device for photo and film production gives rise to new artistic research practices. This allows us an expanded form of world exploration. Mobile recordings are often diary or travel movies in which authors are both the subject and the object of their narration. The incidental and the ephemeral become the subject; but also fragmentary architectural, art, media, knowledge, and human history, as well as animated, documentary, experimental, and cinema films are quoted or playfully deconstructed or restaged. Spontaneous thought and action, body and device enter into a close relationship. Can stop-motion technology be used to depict processual thinking and shape it into image and language games? Is it possible to animate an expanded “Mnemosyne Atlas” as a medial torso of histories/stories [Geschichte(n)] through recurring themes, patterns, and motifs?
“From ‘A’ like ‘Animal’ to ‘I’ like ‘Idea’ to ‘Z’ like ‘Zigzag’”: inspired by the French TV production GILLES DELEUZE’S ALPHABET BOOK [L’ABÉCÉDAIRE DE GILLES DELEUZE], Frank Geßner developed the long-term project, ALPHABET UNPLUGGED: a serial photographic open format that manifoldly unfolds all registers “from the trivial to the subtle“ in thousands of stop motion sequences (work in progress).
In Memory of Gil Alkabetz, Jean-Luc Godard, Monica Rau, Peter Weibel …
REFERENCES:
FRAGMENTE EINER SPRACHE DER LIEBE. UNVERÖFFENTLICHTE FIGUREN. Erstmals das ganze Alphabet. Roland Barthes. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2015
ABÉCÉDAIRE – GILLES DELEUZE FROM A TO Z. ABC idea and form by Claire Parnet, directed by Pierre-André Boutang, edited by Valeska Bertoncini and Martin Weinmann, produced by Pierre-André Buotang. Extended booklet: interviews with Claire Parnet and Pierre-André Boutang and a small abc with numerous cross-references and links between the ABÉCÉDAIRE and the writings of Deleuze. A Treasure Trove. Published by absolut MEDIEN / Zweitausendeins, 2009
DVD 1 / A-F 145 Min.
A* Animal / Tier B* Boisson / Alkohol C* Culture / Kultur D* Désir / Wunsch E* Enfance / Kindheit F* Fidélité / Treue
DVD 2 / G-M 162 Min.
G* Gauche / Die Linke H* Histoire de la philosophie / Geschichte der Philosophie I* Idee J* Joie / Freude K* Kant L* Littérature / Literatur M* Maladie / Krankheit
DVD 3 / N-Z 146 Min.
N* Neurologie O* Oper P* Professor Q* Question / Frage R* Résistance / Widerstand S* Style / Stil T* Tennis U* Un / Das Eine V* Voyages / Reisen W* Wittgenstein *XY Unbekannt *Z Zigzag / Zickzack
DELEUZE UND DIE KÜNSTE. Edited by Peter Gente and Peter Weibel. With the essay “The Actual and the Virtual” by Gilles Deleuze and with photographs by Jean-Jacques Lebel. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2007
FOUCAULT UND DIE KÜNSTE. Edited on behalf of the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) by Peter Gente. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2004
ABY WARBURG. DER BILDERATLAS MNEMOSYNE. Edited by Martin Warnke and Claudia Brink. Abteilung II, Band 1. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2000
ABY WARBURG. BILDERATLAS MNEMOSYNE. DAS ORIGINAL. Edited by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and The Warburg Institute with contributions by Roberto Ohrt, Axel Heil, Bernd M. Scherer, Bill Sherman, and Claudia Wedepohl. Hamburg: Hatje Cantz, 2020