Philip Ross’s Leviathans
Philip Ross's Leviathans
Phillip Ross says:
Hello,
This coming Saturday at eight I will be screening a video I have made as part of the MACHINE PROJECT FIELD GUIDE TO LACMA, at, of course, LACMA.
A few years back I set out to make a video about the behaviors of certain miniscule organisms, and wanting to shoot it with a microscope as my camera. After traveling many interesting roads I am ready to exhibit the first of these videos: Leviathans. This screening will be accompanied by a live musical performance and narrated reading, featuring the musician and composer David Eggars, and the percussionist Corey Fogel. I am super excited to see this happen.
Leviathans is composed entirely from images of the slime-mold Physarum polycephalum, a very interesting organism for a number of reasons. The slime-mold, though diminutive in size, is able to travel relatively large distances in a short period of time while searching for food. This is due in great part to the way its body pulses and moves, which can be imagined as a harmonically rippling jellyfish like thing, propelling itself along on the oscillating waves of its own body. While kind of skanky looking on a larger scale, the slime-mold’s patterns and movements are mesmerizing and otherworldly when seen up close with good lighting.
Leviathans is narrated by three voices in a conversation amongst alien entities. These aliens reminisce on a range of subjects, including the ecology of living space, the nature of time travel, and the problems with super-intelligent computers.