Feb 18
International Film Forum: New Work from Ernst Karel
Ernst Karel will show his new work – introduced by Laska Jimsen, Q&A with Ernst Karel
Ernst Karel will present and discuss a preview of an augmented sound work composed from the audio archives of the Harvard Peabody Expedition to the Netherlands New Guinea, 1961, made in collaboration with Veronika Kusumaryati.
Ernst Karel works with sound, including electroacoustic music, experimental nonfiction sound works for multichannel installation and performance, and postproduction sound for nonfiction vilm [film/video], with an emphasis on observational cinema. His recent solo projects are edited/composed using unprocessed location recordings; in performance he sometimes combines these with analog electronics to create pieces which move between the abstract and the documentary. Recent sound projections have been presented at Sonic Acts, Amsterdam; Oboro, Montreal; EMPAC, Troy NY; Arsenal, Berlin; and the 2014 Whitney Biennial. Audio-video collaborations include Expedition Content (2020, with Veronika Kusumaryati), Ah humanity! (2015, with Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel) and Single Stream (2014, with Toby Lee and Pawel Wojtasik). From 2006 until 2017 he managed the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard University, doing postproduction sound for vilms including The Iron Ministry, Manakamana, and Leviathan. He developed and has taught a practice-based course in 'sonic/audio ethnography' both at Harvard and through the Center for Experimental Ethnography, University of Pennsylvania (fall 2019).