Future Tense

Tom Leeser and multiple filmmakers in person!

We cannot perceive the future directly or 'remember' it.

- Oesten Dahl "Tense and Aspect Systems"

Future is a word we use to describe a time that has not yet occurred, but is imagined to occur. Tense refers to time as well, but it can also be a mental or nervous condition, a state of anxiety.

The works chosen for this show are not a singular reference to the future, instead, they are framed as multiple "time and spatial shifts."  These shifts run in parallel to form simultaneous futures that represent our current condition of displacement, complexity and instability. 

Curated by Tom Leeser, Future Tense is a collection of video and sonic works that can be seen to represent these parallel futures through abstraction, performance and narrative. These eight time based works consist of animation, found footage, spoken word, performance, electronic music and sound.  Included in the Filmforum show are three works by sound artists and composers, Justin Asher, Stephanie Cheng Smith, and Gregory Lenczycki. Each of these three sound artists used NASA footage as a basis for creating new electronic music compositions. There are two works by visual artist and composer Kadet Kuhne that incorporates the elements of body performance, endurance and electronic music. Kerstin Larissa Hovland's two works employ computer animation to produce a synthesis of  “visual movement with a musical impulse.”  The final video fuses Claire Phillips' science fiction short story with Tom Leeser's manipulation of found footage from a NASA shuttle launch. All the work share a common interest and critique of technology and its role in fostering impossible futures that can only be imagined.  Never realized.  

Future Tense originally was a collaboration between the Centre for Living Arts in Mobile, Alabama and the Center for Integrated Media at CalArts. It included twenty artists and was part of a larger exhibition at the Centre for the Living Arts called the Futures Project. The Centre's director, Robert Sain curated the exhibit, which ran from May 2013- February 2014. The project also included paintings, sculpture and installations by Kenny Scharf, Candy Chang, Dawn DeDeaux and Nina Waisman.

Tickets: $10 general, $6 students/seniors; free for Filmforum members.  Available by credit card in advance from Brown Paper Tickets at http://bpt.me/845697 or at the door.

For more event information: www.lafilmforum.org, or 323-377-7238

Center for Integrated Media

Centre for Living Arts

Tom Leeser is a digital media artist, educator, curator and writer. He is the Program Director of the Art and Technology Program in theSchool of Art and the Director of the Center for Integrated Media at the California Institute of the Arts.

Tom's film, video and online work along with his interactive installations and public performances have been exhibited through MoCA- Los Angeles, Machine Project, Telic Arts Exchange, MassMoca, Eyebeam, The Santa Monica Museum of Art, The Kitchen, The Millennium, Redcat, Siggraph and film and video festivals worldwide. Tom's projects have received support  from Art Matters, Creative Time and the Daniel Langlois Foundation 

Tom's recent curatorial projects include: 'Futures Project' for the  Centre for the Living Arts, 'Radical Cosmologies, ISEA2012',  'Indirect Intention- A Home and Garden Intervention at the Museum of Jurassic Technology and the Center for Land Use Interpretation',  'Future Imaginary' for the Ben Maltz Gallery at the Otis College of Art and Design, 'The Lament Project- An Evening at the Manual Archives',  'Underground Cinemamachine' for Machine Project and 'Object Lessons' for Gigantic Artspace in New York. Tom is also an editor and producer with the web based journal and curatorial project- viralnet.net. (http://viralnet.net)

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This program is supported by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque. We also depend on our members, ticket buyers, and individual donors.