“No Computer Is An Island” : PowerPoint Film with Live Musical Accompaniment
Film by James Bell and music by Paul Deuth (a.k.a. Meteorologeist)
Runtime approx 1 hr.
Date: Saturday, November 19th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
“No Computer Is An Island” is a silent movie animated entirely in PowerPoint and accompanied by electronic music, mixed live during the presentation. Utilizing inventive music and limited animation presets, a depressing world of office life, shallow relationships and adult responsibility is presented in 256 colors. The presentation follows a day in the life of one workflow shape, appropriately named Bubbles, as he goes about the business of being a detached thought bubble. Other workflow characters overlap and interrupt his story, creating images that exploit the constraints of PowerPoint as an animation tool by using the conventions of silent film. “No Computer Is An Island” engages the timeless need for narrative, inviting the viewer to create meaning slide by slide.
James E. P. Bell regularly makes PowerPoint presentations in an office building in midtown Manhattan. A founding member of the interactive performance group PowerPoint, James has explored the aesthetic potential of MicroSoft Office applications in productions such as “Introduction to Change Management” (1999), “Violence in the Workplace” (2003), and now “No Computer Is An Island” (2010).
Paul Deuth is an electronic musician/composer/producer (A.K.A. Meteorologeist) and director of photography. With an extensive career in television, Paul most enjoys expressing himself in multi-media artistic ventures including projects with PowerPoint, Fire and Ice, Hold Please, and the Prospects. You can experience some of Paul’s music at http://www.myspace.com/meteorologeist