Koyaanisqatsi - Life out of Balance, a film by Godfrey Reggio
Tonight, thanks to a tip from un4scene, I was fortunate to see an extraordinary film at the National Academy of Sciences: Koyaanisqatsi - Life out of Balance. My mind is still reeling -
ko.yaa.nis.katsi (from the Hopi language), n. 1. crazy life. 2. life in turmoil. 3. life disintegrating. 4. life out of balance. 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
I was actually introduced to the second film in the Qatsi trilogy, Powaqqatsi by my best friend amgvln back in university when she was acquainting me with minimalist composer Philip Glass (who I admire greatly). I had never seen this first film, and have only vague memories of Powaqqatsi, so when I learned of the chance to see Koyaanisqatsi on a big screen, I didn't want to miss it. Tonight, Lois accompanied me to the film, and the companion photography exhibit.
The photography exhibition: The Altered Landscape: The Carol Franc Buck CollectionThis exhibition features photographs that explore humankind's impact on the planet. It traces the 1970s New Topographics tradition through its derivations over the past four decades. Much of the imagery focuses on topography of the New West, including military landscapes, mining sites, housing developments, dams and desert trails. It includes work by Robert Adams, Ed Burtynsky, Virginia Beahan and Laura McPhee, Robert Dawson, Terry Evans, Peter Goin, Mark Klett, Richard Misrach, Joan Myers, Patrick Nagatani, John Pfahl and Jim Sanborn.
The Altered Landscape: The Carol Franc Buck Collection has been organized by the Nevada Museum of the Arts, Reno, Nevada
[above text from the program]
According to JD Talasek, the Director of the Exhibitions & Cultural Programs at NAS, New Topographics was a response to the more romanticized and idealized landscapes of photographers like Ansel Adams; the photographers of this movement wanted to show landscapes touched by humanity - construction, factories, mines, etc. The photographs of this particular exhibit were very beautiful, and most of them were fabulous black and whites, but my favorite was a red-tinged nickel excavation of some sort by Ed Burtynsky. Both Lois and I were very impressed.
Koyaanisqatsi
I can't say enough good things about this film. We both loved it! Philip Glass's music was perfectly wedded to the imagery, and the imagery left you with your mouth hanging open in amazement a great deal of time. The film covers a myriad of images of landscapes and humanity's indelible fingerprints - the diversity of images is quite impressive! Deserts, mountains, canyons, beaches, cities, factories, rockets, airplanes, machinery, cars, parking lots, traffic,hotdogs, twinkies, and many, many people. People in swarms and people alone, people eating, people talking, walking, standing still. It took Godfrey Reggio six years to make this film, beginning in 1975, and the film was not released until 1983. However, one thing that struck me, is that outside the clothing, hairstyles and cars, how timeless everything looks - the cityscapes are so similar and familiar, the endless streams of cars and humanity are the same as they ever were and continue to be - therefore, it doesn't feel as dated as I suppose it could.
From http://www.koyaanisqatsi.org/films/koyaanisqatsi.php
KOYAANISQATSI, Reggio's debut as a film director and producer, is the first film of the QATSI trilogy. The title is a Hopi Indian word meaning "life out of balance." Created between 1975 and 1982, the film is an apocalyptic vision of the collision of two different worlds -- urban life and technology versus the environment. The musical score was composed by Philip Glass.
KOYAANISQATSI attempts to reveal the beauty of the beast! We usually perceive our world, our way of living, as beautiful because there is nothing else to perceive. If one lives in this world, the globalized world of high technology, all one can see is one layer of commodity piled upon another. In our world the "original" is the proliferation of the standardized. Copies are copies of copies. There seems to be no ability to see beyond, to see that we have encased ourselves in an artificial environment that has remarkably replaced the original, nature itself. We do not live with nature any longer; we live above it, off of it as it were. Nature has become the resource to keep this artificial or new nature alive.
That being said, my intention in-other-words, let me describe the bigger picture. KOYAANISQATSI is not so much about something, nor does it have a specific meaning or value. KOYAANISQATSI is, after all, an animated object, an object in moving time, the meaning of which is up to the viewer. Art
has no intrinsic meaning. This is its power, its mystery, and hence, its attraction. Art is free. It stimulates the viewer to insert their own meaning, their own value. So while I might have this or that intention in creating this film, I realize fully that any meaning or value KOYAANISQATSI might have comes exclusively from the beholder. The film's role is to provoke, to raise questions that only the audience can answer. This is the highest value of any work of art, not predetermined meaning, but meaning gleaned from the
experience of the encounter. The encounter is my interest, not the meaning. If meaning is the point, then propaganda and advertising is the form. So in the sense of art, the meaning of KOYAANISQATSI is whatever you wish to make of it.
This is its power.
While this dialogue-less, abstract film that requires the viewer to provide their own narrative may not be everyone's cup of tea, it's 87 minutes worth of visual fascination. If you can spare the time, I highly recommend checking it out (it's available on DVD). The cinematography and time-lapse photography is stunningly beautiful (oceans of swirling clouds...). I am so blown away by this film.
For more information, see http://www.koyaanisqatsi.org/index.php
Btw, the price for tonight's mind-blowing film & exhibition? Zero. I love living in the D.C. area - we are so lucky to get so much entertainment, education, illumination and beauty, and many times there is no cost whatsoever.
ko.yaa.nis.katsi (from the Hopi language), n. 1. crazy life. 2. life in turmoil. 3. life disintegrating. 4. life out of balance. 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
I was actually introduced to the second film in the Qatsi trilogy, Powaqqatsi by my best friend amgvln back in university when she was acquainting me with minimalist composer Philip Glass (who I admire greatly). I had never seen this first film, and have only vague memories of Powaqqatsi, so when I learned of the chance to see Koyaanisqatsi on a big screen, I didn't want to miss it. Tonight, Lois accompanied me to the film, and the companion photography exhibit.
The photography exhibition: The Altered Landscape: The Carol Franc Buck CollectionThis exhibition features photographs that explore humankind's impact on the planet. It traces the 1970s New Topographics tradition through its derivations over the past four decades. Much of the imagery focuses on topography of the New West, including military landscapes, mining sites, housing developments, dams and desert trails. It includes work by Robert Adams, Ed Burtynsky, Virginia Beahan and Laura McPhee, Robert Dawson, Terry Evans, Peter Goin, Mark Klett, Richard Misrach, Joan Myers, Patrick Nagatani, John Pfahl and Jim Sanborn.
The Altered Landscape: The Carol Franc Buck Collection has been organized by the Nevada Museum of the Arts, Reno, Nevada
[above text from the program]
According to JD Talasek, the Director of the Exhibitions & Cultural Programs at NAS, New Topographics was a response to the more romanticized and idealized landscapes of photographers like Ansel Adams; the photographers of this movement wanted to show landscapes touched by humanity - construction, factories, mines, etc. The photographs of this particular exhibit were very beautiful, and most of them were fabulous black and whites, but my favorite was a red-tinged nickel excavation of some sort by Ed Burtynsky. Both Lois and I were very impressed.
Koyaanisqatsi
I can't say enough good things about this film. We both loved it! Philip Glass's music was perfectly wedded to the imagery, and the imagery left you with your mouth hanging open in amazement a great deal of time. The film covers a myriad of images of landscapes and humanity's indelible fingerprints - the diversity of images is quite impressive! Deserts, mountains, canyons, beaches, cities, factories, rockets, airplanes, machinery, cars, parking lots, traffic,hotdogs, twinkies, and many, many people. People in swarms and people alone, people eating, people talking, walking, standing still. It took Godfrey Reggio six years to make this film, beginning in 1975, and the film was not released until 1983. However, one thing that struck me, is that outside the clothing, hairstyles and cars, how timeless everything looks - the cityscapes are so similar and familiar, the endless streams of cars and humanity are the same as they ever were and continue to be - therefore, it doesn't feel as dated as I suppose it could.
From http://www.koyaanisqatsi.org/films/koyaanisqatsi.php
KOYAANISQATSI, Reggio's debut as a film director and producer, is the first film of the QATSI trilogy. The title is a Hopi Indian word meaning "life out of balance." Created between 1975 and 1982, the film is an apocalyptic vision of the collision of two different worlds -- urban life and technology versus the environment. The musical score was composed by Philip Glass.
KOYAANISQATSI attempts to reveal the beauty of the beast! We usually perceive our world, our way of living, as beautiful because there is nothing else to perceive. If one lives in this world, the globalized world of high technology, all one can see is one layer of commodity piled upon another. In our world the "original" is the proliferation of the standardized. Copies are copies of copies. There seems to be no ability to see beyond, to see that we have encased ourselves in an artificial environment that has remarkably replaced the original, nature itself. We do not live with nature any longer; we live above it, off of it as it were. Nature has become the resource to keep this artificial or new nature alive.
That being said, my intention in-other-words, let me describe the bigger picture. KOYAANISQATSI is not so much about something, nor does it have a specific meaning or value. KOYAANISQATSI is, after all, an animated object, an object in moving time, the meaning of which is up to the viewer. Art
has no intrinsic meaning. This is its power, its mystery, and hence, its attraction. Art is free. It stimulates the viewer to insert their own meaning, their own value. So while I might have this or that intention in creating this film, I realize fully that any meaning or value KOYAANISQATSI might have comes exclusively from the beholder. The film's role is to provoke, to raise questions that only the audience can answer. This is the highest value of any work of art, not predetermined meaning, but meaning gleaned from the
experience of the encounter. The encounter is my interest, not the meaning. If meaning is the point, then propaganda and advertising is the form. So in the sense of art, the meaning of KOYAANISQATSI is whatever you wish to make of it.
This is its power.
While this dialogue-less, abstract film that requires the viewer to provide their own narrative may not be everyone's cup of tea, it's 87 minutes worth of visual fascination. If you can spare the time, I highly recommend checking it out (it's available on DVD). The cinematography and time-lapse photography is stunningly beautiful (oceans of swirling clouds...). I am so blown away by this film.
For more information, see http://www.koyaanisqatsi.org/index.php
Btw, the price for tonight's mind-blowing film & exhibition? Zero. I love living in the D.C. area - we are so lucky to get so much entertainment, education, illumination and beauty, and many times there is no cost whatsoever.