The Perpetual Movement of Dots and Grains

This book chapter presents notions of fragmentation that are relevant to the understanding of a number of contemporary moving image artists particularly Jurgen Reble, Makino Takashi, and Telcosystems (Lucas van der Velden, Gideon and David Kiers). Who look to push to an extreme the fragmentation of visual information, resulting in work that consists of an ever-changing flux of highly complex, abstracted patterns. All these artists use digital techniques with both Takashi and Reble combining analogue film with digital techniques to create work that interacts between, the materialism of both mediums: from the grain and emulsions of celluloid to the pixel structural and surface textures derived from digital formats.The notion of fragmentation put forward here is that work produced by these moving image artist’s can be seen to embody the digital as a constantly mutating and fragmented materiality. Ever increasing and affordable processing power has allowed an expansion of interest in how far the fragmentation of an image can be pushed via the manipulation of individual pixel information in ways that weren’t possible just with film. Whilst these moving image artists take inspiration from the traditions of abstract imagery in the history of avant-garde film and video, they also look to push to the limit the edges between film and digital and in so doing they can be seen to push the boundaries of the moving image that engages with visual notions of fragmentation.