After Dark

Using purely visual language, this global selection of short animations offers a dose of eye-catching abstraction using simple forms. Comprising the best selections from the 2016 Punto y Raya Film Festival, eighteen short films highlight diverse techniques. From synesthetic representations to computer-generated hallucinations, each film challenges and rewards viewers with an appetite for eye candy. The selections are the finalist and awarded-winning films that were shown at ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany.

Punto y Raya (Dot & Line), dubbed “the most abstract festival in the world” by the Japanese press, explores experimental narrative expressions in filmmaking and live cinema through the use of pure form, color, motion ,and sound, avoiding direct representation. Since its launch in 2007, Punto y Raya aims to overcome intercultural barriers and bring together people worldwide under the motto “back to basics.”

Special thanks to Larry Cuba at the Iota Center.

Featuring

Zdarzenie plastyczne (Ink meets blank) by Tymon Albrzykowski & Sebastian Ładyżyński, Poland (2016, 5 min.)

Proportion (Balance 5 of 5) by Daniel Iregui & Mitchell Akiyama, Canada (2015, 5 min.)

Line by Steven Subotnick, USA (2014, 2 min.)

Fugue by Oerd van Cuijlenborg & Miho Hazama, France (2016, 6 min.)

Vitreous by Robert Seidel & Nikolai von Sallwitz, USA/Germany (2015, 3 min.)

Kompozicija (Composition) by Mitja Mancek, Slovenia, (2015, 4 min.)

Boeygen (The Boyg) by Kristian Pedersen & Erik Hedin, Norway (2016, 6 min.)

Interference Oscillations by Matthew Biederman & Pierce Warnecke, Canada (2016, 4 min.)

The Dancing Line by Shelley Dodson & David Rose, USA (2016, 2 min.)

Almost 1.0 by Gábor Szûcs, Slovakia (2015, 4 min.)

letters.EHO by Aga Jarząb & Maciek Bączyk, Poland, (2016, 4 min.)

Vagina Cosmica by Cosmic Vagina] (Luca Pertegato & Otolab, Italy (2009, 5 min.)

Jazz Orgie by Irina Rubina & Emanuel Hauptmann, Germany (2015, 1 min.)

SusY by Barbara Doser & Hofstetter Kurt, Austria (2016, 7 min.)

Oneiria by Jeroen Cluckers, Belgium (2014, 4 min.)

Point by Matt Abbiss & Martins Strautnieks, UK (2013, 2 min.)

Virtuos Virtuell by Thomas Stellmach & Maja Oschmann, Germany (2013, 8 min.)

RGB Colour Model by Blanca Rego Constela, Spain (2016, 5 min.)

Trailer

TRAILER | The Best of Punto y Raya Festival 2016 from Punto y Raya Festival - dot&line on Vimeo.

Join marine scientist Claire Till to explore the significance of dissolved scandium. Learn what it’s like to be at sea collecting samples of trace elements, and the elaborate steps her team undertakes to avoid contaminating them with their ship or themselves. Find out how this seemingly obscure element illuminates important chemical and physical processes in the ocean.

Claire P. Till is Assistant Professor of Analytical Chemistry at Humboldt State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz in Ocean Sciences in 2016. Dr. Till’s research focuses on the concentrations of metals (especially scandium) in the ocean, and how they impact or provide insights into biological, chemical, and physical systems.

Scandium
A transition metal found mixed among rare earth elements, scandium is thinly scattered across the globe, and is considered expensive and difficult to obtain. Its existence was predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev, known as the father of the Periodic Table, in 1869. In his groundbreaking Periodic System, Mendeleev determined a gap between the atomic weights of calcium and titanium would be bridged by an unknown element he termed ekaboron. Lars Frederick Nilsen confirmed this prediction in 1879, naming his discovery for the Scandinavian Peninsula where it was found. Pure scandium was ultimately isolated in 1937.

Alloyed with aluminum, scandium strengthens jet planes and high-end bicycle frames but is too costly (6.5 times the value of gold) for widespread applications. And although pure scandium is seldom seen, its compounds are used in film set lamps and stadium lights to simulate natural sunlight.