Ephemera
Audiovisual Performance Piece
Filmmaking & Electroacoustic Music
Eliza Gelinas (they/them)
Marcel Zaes Sagesser (mentor)
2023-2025
“Ephemera” is an audiovisual performance piece that combines filmmaking and electroacoustic music. The footage is shot on 16mm color and black and white film with a consumer-grade Bolex. The style of the film is abstract and experimental, using the film subjects and hand drawn animation symbolically by presenting them in sequences without a concrete narrative, allowing the viewer to derive their own meaning from the arrangement of images. The accompanying score is performed live on euphonium running through a Max/MSP sampler. Melodies are recorded in real time and looped through the sampler, and manipulated further by effects such as timestretch, grain delay, pitch shift, etc., to create an evolving ambient score to match the experimentation of the film. The score is written using a mix of spatial/ proportional notation, where noteheads are written on traditional staves with determined pitches but the metric value is decided upon by the performer using the relative distance of a timeline, and interpretive graphic notation. This allows the performer to listen and respond to the electronic soundscape, performing the score differently every time. Ephemera are items that were not originally designed to last or be preserved, but have been collected and cherished. This work is an exploration of the things that hold memory, of our desire to capture memory on film and the inherent quirks in our memory preserving technologies. Throughout the piece, imagery of abandoned buildings and factories, mirrors, trees, mountains, water, cars and people are portrayed in many different forms to highlight their ephemeral, transitory nature even when captured immortally on film.