m a r t e n b e r k m a n
the ecology of perception
erratic silence/silence des erratiques
Interactive stereo 3D video installation
duration 3m
dimensions variable
“Berkman’s work concerns the land and our relationship to it. He uses his medium to open an intimate door on remote geographies, and offers reflection on our connections to these places. In Erratic Silence, two women wander and seek to bridge Brontë and the boreal, searching for their home between boulders left by glaciers like apostrophes in letters from the heart. In this piece, in which viewers create ephemeral shadows in remote landscapes they may never see first hand, Berkman is asking if a sense of detached impact is perhaps an accurate portrait of our collective relationship to the far north.”
- Jenn Snider, TAIS
installation by marten berkman
interactive software design baptiste bohelay
featuring emily sessford, jennifer walden
Characters play a Brontë-esque moment,
but in the Canadian arctic landscape
between erratic boulders left by glaciers.
I beg to ask, what are our contemporary emotive and spiritual stories
in this land which is just recently home?
...a land which has witnessed discrimination
and forced relocation
imposed on those who have lived here
for millenia?
When and where is the gyre of suffering broken?
- marten berkman
Commissioned by Toronto Animated Image Society for their group show The Frame is the Key Frame.
Raw material filmed in Dechenla with the generous participation of Emily Sessford, Jennifer Walden, Natalie Parenteau, Barbara Gale. Many thanks to the wonderful Madi Pillar for this opportunity to push the boundaries of animation, interactivity, 3D imaging, and our picture of ourselves, our collective heritage, in this land which is home.
