Gravity Spells II: Bay Area New Music and Expanded Cinema Art is a multimedia “bundle” published by Bimodal Press featuring 2 LPs, 4 DVDs, a perfect bound letterpress booklet containing original commissioned essays, color images, artist bios, a silkscreened show poster and announcement card, packaged in a hand-printed sleeve.
Contents:
LP (sound/music): Paul DeMarinis; Suki O’Kane; Laetitia Sonami; Zachary James Watkins
DVD (moving images): Keith Evans; Zach Iannazzi; Janis Crystal Lipzin; Scott Stark
Original Writing: John Davis; Steve Anker; Brian Darr; Paul DeMarinis; Tooth (arc); Kathleen Quillian; Tanya Zimbardo
The films and music within the publication are meant to give form to the ineffable. A physical set of transposable time-based variables that, when combined, approximate the uncanny and unpredictable inherent in live cinema and music performance.
The LP records and corresponding DVD media (as with the first Gravity Spells edition) are designed to be interchangeable. However, unlike the first edition which highlighted eight artists working as four designated pairs (one musician with one filmmaker), Gravity Spells II asked the eight artists to work independently as indirect collaborators (whereby four works of sound and music are randomly paired with four individual films). This approach re-emphasizes the project’s focus on chance and serendipity, while furthering an interest in the confluence of energies and synthesis of forms resulting from collaborative performance.
The artists selected for the live series were encouraged to collaborate with individuals they hadn’t worked with previously as a way to promote new works, while also helping extend community overlap and grow diverse audiences.
The writing contributions add unique perspectives from individuals embedded both within the project and beyond - scholars, artists, historians and curators (some, all of the above), each providing informed transmissions at various intersections from within the constellation of contemporary Bay Area Media Arts practice.