Review, Aperture Magazine
Serial Grey - Roma Publication 411Brian Sholis’ review of
Serial Grey - Roma Publication 411
as part of the 70th anniversary issue of Aperture Magazine:...
After the Kunsthalle Leipzig closed, Weber returned to impersonal generative technologies: the patterned grids in the early pages of this book are, in fact, recent photograms resulting from a hacked-together combination of artificial neural networks, torn-open LCD displays, and a traditional photographic enlarger. Such oblique strategies require explanation for their impact to be fully felt. But, as hermetic and aloof as the book can seem, it is both intellectually fertile and, surprisingly, emotional.
SERIAL GREY makes plain that Weber derives meaning from reciprocity, whether the relationship in question is with another person, with a tool, or, above all, with art. - Brian Sholis
H - The Notion of Humanist Photography,
Publisher: Centre national de l’audiovisuel (CNA)All That Is Solid
Melts into Light
by Michael Baers
In a series of six photographs, artist Jeff Weber documents the restoration process undertaken on the large “Ivy Mike” hydrogen bomb test photo, carried out by Studio Berselli of Milan as part of a general restoration of The Family of Man between 2011 and 2013 under the auspices of the Centre national de l’audiovisuel (CNA), where the exhibition has been on permanent display since 1994. Outside of the delicious paradox presented by documenting a restoration process conducted on an image depicting destruction on a monumental scale, Weber, an artist notable for an interest in blurring what can properly be considered inside or outside a work of art, has described his motivation as a move to contextualize The Family of Man within the era of its creation—the Cold War and nuclear arms race. So contextualized, his photographs of the restoration process become both an antithetical representation of the exhibition and an uncannily accurate depiction of the pervasive political atmosphere in which it traveled.
Anthology Film Archives, New York
Imageless Films, Part 3: Flicker Films 25th June, 7.30 pm
Peter Kubelka, Arnulf Rainer, 1960, 7 min, 35mm, b&w
Jeff Weber Untitled ( Neural Network, nn_oxb_1), 2021, 60 sec, 35mm, silent
The film explores the idea of an externalization of the cognitive instance that occurs through the application of artificial intelligence, and the recursive principles it relies on: the work resonates and interferes with the very system that initially has constituted the model for the structure applied on it: the human body.
The 1,440-frame-long film has been made with a score, generated and coded in Python. The structure of the film relies on the automated organization of six different grey tones that correspond to the dynamic range of the film print stock used.
Sequences (I), 2021, 11 sec, 35mm, silent
Sequences (II), 2021, 11 sec, 35mm, silent
Sequences (III), 2021, 11 sec, 35mm, silent
Sequences (IV), 2021, 11 sec, 35mm, silent
These short films are built upon the number of grey tones determined by the dynamic range of the film print stock used, and converted into numeric values between 1 and 6. These then constitute an initial sequence that is altered and iterated through the program by means of a specific algorithm and a pre-determined method – a kind of weaving together of numeric values.
Paul Sharits Declarative Mode
1976, 39 min, double-screen 16mm. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives.
John Cavanaugh Blink (Fluxfilm No. 5) 1966, 2.5 min, 16mm-to-digital, silent
Victor Grauer Archangel, 1966, 7.5 min, 16mm. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives.
Total running time: ca. 65 min
Jeff Weber Untitled ( Neural Network, nn_oxb_1), 2021, 60 sec, 35mm, silent
The film explores the idea of an externalization of the cognitive instance that occurs through the application of artificial intelligence, and the recursive principles it relies on: the work resonates and interferes with the very system that initially has constituted the model for the structure applied on it: the human body.
The 1,440-frame-long film has been made with a score, generated and coded in Python. The structure of the film relies on the automated organization of six different grey tones that correspond to the dynamic range of the film print stock used.
Sequences (I), 2021, 11 sec, 35mm, silent
Sequences (II), 2021, 11 sec, 35mm, silent
Sequences (III), 2021, 11 sec, 35mm, silent
Sequences (IV), 2021, 11 sec, 35mm, silent
These short films are built upon the number of grey tones determined by the dynamic range of the film print stock used, and converted into numeric values between 1 and 6. These then constitute an initial sequence that is altered and iterated through the program by means of a specific algorithm and a pre-determined method – a kind of weaving together of numeric values.
Paul Sharits Declarative Mode
1976, 39 min, double-screen 16mm. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives.
John Cavanaugh Blink (Fluxfilm No. 5) 1966, 2.5 min, 16mm-to-digital, silent
Victor Grauer Archangel, 1966, 7.5 min, 16mm. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives.
Total running time: ca. 65 min
-> Anthology Film Archives : Film Screenings
Image:
Untitled (Neural Network, nn_oxb_1), 2021, 1440 frames / 60 sec, 35mm, silent
Image:
Untitled (Neural Network, nn_oxb_1), 2021, 1440 frames / 60 sec, 35mm, silent
Roma Publication 411, Amsterdam
Serial GreyNovember 2021
Serial Grey is the publication for Jeff Weber‘s exhibition at Carré d‘Art, Nîmes.
The four chapters of the book correspond to the four galleries of the exhibition. It starts with the Neural Networks, a series of large format grid-like photograms that establish an enigmatic dialogue with his photographic and archival practice.
As counterpart to these photograms, the other end of the exhibition consists of black and white 35mm films. Some monochromatic animation films are projected together with short real life sequences.
The publication traces the conflicting forces of photography and film within his work, up to the point that, at the end, we rediscover the principles that constituted the abstract photograms at the beginning, transposed into the linearity of the medium of film.
Book Presentation at After 8 Books, Paris
13 November 2021, 6pm
Marie Muracciole will discuss his practice with Weber, and the role of Weber‘s previous book An Attempt at a Personal Epistemology / Kunsthalle Leipzig, that relied on the experience of an "art space", and relates to what she calls a praxis, in the Aristotelian sense of the word, in which a subject transforms himself by means of his acts.
With texts by Marie Muracciole and Jean-François Chevrier.
Photographs & Idea: Jeff Weber
Design: Joris Kritis
Publisher: Roma Publications, Amsterdam (www.romapublications.org)
Distribution: Idea Books, Amsterdam (www.ideabooks.nl)
ISBN 978-94-6446-000-1
192 p, ills bw, 20 x 30 cm, pb, english & french
© 2021 Jeff Weber and authors
The four chapters of the book correspond to the four galleries of the exhibition. It starts with the Neural Networks, a series of large format grid-like photograms that establish an enigmatic dialogue with his photographic and archival practice.
As counterpart to these photograms, the other end of the exhibition consists of black and white 35mm films. Some monochromatic animation films are projected together with short real life sequences.
The publication traces the conflicting forces of photography and film within his work, up to the point that, at the end, we rediscover the principles that constituted the abstract photograms at the beginning, transposed into the linearity of the medium of film.
Book Presentation at After 8 Books, Paris
13 November 2021, 6pm
Marie Muracciole will discuss his practice with Weber, and the role of Weber‘s previous book An Attempt at a Personal Epistemology / Kunsthalle Leipzig, that relied on the experience of an "art space", and relates to what she calls a praxis, in the Aristotelian sense of the word, in which a subject transforms himself by means of his acts.
With texts by Marie Muracciole and Jean-François Chevrier.
Photographs & Idea: Jeff Weber
Design: Joris Kritis
Publisher: Roma Publications, Amsterdam (www.romapublications.org)
Distribution: Idea Books, Amsterdam (www.ideabooks.nl)
ISBN 978-94-6446-000-1
192 p, ills bw, 20 x 30 cm, pb, english & french
© 2021 Jeff Weber and authors
Mudam Luxembourg - Musée d'Art Moderne Grand Duc
Jean
Freigeister 11 November - 27 February 2022
Untitled (Suzanne), 2021, 3 min, 35 mm
Jeff Weber's 35mm film Untitled (Suzanne) is a portrait of french artist Suzanne Lafont, known for her conceptual approach to photography.
Weber filmed her while she was installing her exhibition How Things Think in the spring of 2021 at Erna Hecey Gallery in Luxembourg. Lafont’s series of photo-graphs [Embarrassment] (2002) refer to a scene in the Charlie Chaplin short A Day’s Pleasure (1919), with the protagonist’s comic but unsuccessfully unfolding of a deckchair.
Through the use of the artworks’ reflective surfaces and of the camera’s movements through the exhibition space, Weber’s film intensifies the theatricality of Suzanne Lafont’s work, reverses the relationship between photography and cinema, and intersects their temporality.
Jeff Weber's 35mm film Untitled (Suzanne) is a portrait of french artist Suzanne Lafont, known for her conceptual approach to photography.
Weber filmed her while she was installing her exhibition How Things Think in the spring of 2021 at Erna Hecey Gallery in Luxembourg. Lafont’s series of photo-graphs [Embarrassment] (2002) refer to a scene in the Charlie Chaplin short A Day’s Pleasure (1919), with the protagonist’s comic but unsuccessfully unfolding of a deckchair.
Through the use of the artworks’ reflective surfaces and of the camera’s movements through the exhibition space, Weber’s film intensifies the theatricality of Suzanne Lafont’s work, reverses the relationship between photography and cinema, and intersects their temporality.
