Earthglow
1983 | 00:08:00 | United States | English | Color | Mono | 4:3 | Video
Collection: Single Titles
Tags: Language, Poetry, Technology


Earthglow is a poem written for the character generator and switcher that conveys a writer's internal dialogue through both subtle and dramatic color changes and through movement, size, and placement of words. The ambient soundtrack evokes the confluence of past and present perceptions.
"A city dweller attempting to write a poem about a desert trip is distracted by a recent argument. Earthglow, whose only images are words, uses character animation to convey the writer’s internal dilemma through the shuttling of words across the screen, as well as color changes and ambient sound. Using an analogue character generator and switcher in a live edit, parts of the text are keyed in real-time and others are pre-recorded. On the score, an off-air burst from a Billie Holiday blues song (whose lyrics infiltrate the words of the poem) disrupts the strains of César Franck’s Violin Sonata. Earthglow is a film about the writing state of mind; past and present perceptions are reconciled in the act of writing."
— Liza Béar
Electronic engineering by Bruce Tovsky.
Exhibitions + Festivals
1983 Edinburgh International Film Festival
1983 AFI National Video Festival
1983 Squat Theatre Video Café, New York
1983 San Francisco Art Institute
1983 L.A.C.E., Los Angeles, Ca
1983 Art Institute of Chicago
2010 Union Docs, Brooklyn , New York
2011 Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles
2012 Institute of Contemporary Art, London
2013 "Image, Text, Typography in Artists' Films", ICA, London
2013 Kine Festival, Muzeo of Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland