Luke Fowler, Electro-Pythagorus (production still), 2016. Image courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute.
Screening: Luke Fowler: Electro-pythagorus
March 29, 2017, 7pm
Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
149 W. Hastings St.
Electro-pythagorus is a portrait of Canadian computer music creator who taught at SFU and was a co-founder of the Western Front, Martin Bartlett. Created largely from unseen archival material (correspondence, personal notebooks, still photos, music, film and video) as well as new 16mm film notes that Fowler shot in Vancouver, Burnaby, Victoria and Amsterdam, the film addresses Bartlett's life, work and the cultural milieu that he produced in. The film is a crafted consideration of Bartlett's musical interests (minimalism, world music, early computer music languages and microtuning), and considers the influence of his teachers Pauline Oliveros, David Tudor, John Cage and Pandit Pran Nath. Electro-pythagorus follows Fowler's style of building complex portraits as a form of meta-documentary, and in so doing reclaims elements of Bartlett's cultural contribution, which has been largely unknown since his passing from an AIDS related illness in the early 1990s.
For its Canadian premiere, Electro-pythagorus will be screened as a 35mm print at SFU. The screening will be followed by a conversation with respondents.
Luke Fowler is an artist, filmmaker and musician based in Glasgow. He studied printmaking at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee. He creates cinematic collages that have often been linked to the British Free Cinema movement of the 1950s. His documentary films have explored counter cultural figures including Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing and English composer Cornelius Cardew.
Electro-pythagorus was produced through a residency at the Western Front. The film is a co-commission of Sonic Acts and the Stedelijk Museum, and is supported by the Harvard Film Study Centre and Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Creative Scotland.
Co-presented by SFU Galleries and Western Front. This screening is part of Spring Fever: Vancouver Independent Archives 2017.
Events
Listening Event: Sara Gold and Max Ammo
Wednesday, March 29, 2017, 10 – 11PM
Selectors’ Records
8 E. Pender St. Vancouver
Taking Martin Bartlett's computer music as a point of departure, please join us following the screening at Selectors’ Records for an evening of electroacoustic music with with Vancouver based artists Sara Gold and Max Ammo.
