DE/EN
Crista Brandstaetter’s video projects deal intensively with the aspects of light, motion and colour. She traces the
transformation of various light sources by factors of motion and spreads a spectrum of floating light effects. While the light
sources alienated by elements of motion draw fascinating figures, the remaining area of the screen is immersed in abstract
coloured surfaces which partially provide a transcendent impression. The horizontal or vertical coloured stripes which are
included in the image sequences, emphasize the “basic colouring” of the videos.
Crista Brandstaetter uses the potential of the videos not solely for representation of naturalistic – realistic images of a given
world of objects, but creates a new conspicuousness normally not accessible to human perception. In cases where the
video is documentary (and each video recording is basically documentary), this is not meant in the sense of a document of
the external reality, but rather in a sense of a documentation of the genesis of unknown ways of appearance of this reality.
The possibility of the process of generating such new ways of appearances is mainly predetermined by the technical
potential of the medium (including of the possibility of digital post-processing). In Crista Brandstaetter’s videos this
potential of the medium is used deliberately for the generation of new ways of visualization. Action and image language
partially tend to an extreme reduction of form and content.
This reduction of aspects of form and content is, on the one hand, the necessary precondition for generating such novel
sequences of images and perception and, on the other hand, enables a more intensive attentiveness to qualitative
elements which are, otherwise, easily overlooked or which barely exceed the threshold of perception.
In the present videos the very “pictorial” characteristic could be considered as a successful aspect of video sequences – as if
Crista Brandstaetter tries to paint with the video camera and not with the brush. Any reduction, be it of real objects to
selected details, e.g. an eye in the moving light and reflection on a water surface or of a cigarette to its glowing tip, or every
formal reduction represents a step into abstraction as a precondition for new experience of visualisation. When the
basically stationary night illumination of houses is recorded by a walking person and by this transformed into wavelike
phenomena which are contrary to the stationary light source, one thing becomes apparent beyond any aesthetic stimulus:
the relative character of our perception and the changeableness of appearances of objects.
The videos achieve an additional level of abstraction by their serial, assembly-line character, culminating in an endless loop.
The acoustic addition to the videos represents a corresponding dimension, an acoustic transcription of the visual to make
the conspicuous also audible.
Text by Mag. Dr. phil. Erwin Fiala
DE/EN
Crista Brandstaetter’s video projects
deal intensively with the aspects of
light, motion and colour. She traces
the transformation of various light
sources by factors of motion and
spreads a spectrum of floating light
effects. While the light sources
alienated by elements of motion
draw fascinating figures, the
remaining area of the screen is
immersed in abstract coloured
surfaces which partially provide a
transcendent impression. The
horizontal or vertical coloured
stripes which are included in the
image sequences, emphasize the
“basic colouring” of the videos.
Crista Brandstaetter uses the
potential of the videos not solely for
representation of naturalistic –
realistic images of a given world of
objects, but creates a new
conspicuousness normally not
accessible to human perception. In
cases where the video is
documentary (and each video
recording is basically documentary),
this is not meant in the sense of a
document of the external reality, but
rather in a sense of a documentation
of the genesis of unknown ways of
appearance of this reality. The
possibility of the process of
generating such new ways of
appearances is mainly
predetermined by the technical
potential of the medium (including
of the possibility of digital post-
processing). In Crista Brandstaetter’s
videos this potential of the medium
is used deliberately for the
generation of new ways of
visualization. Action and image
language partially tend to an
extreme reduction of form and
content.
This reduction of aspects of form
and content is, on the one hand, the
necessary precondition for
generating such novel sequences of
images and perception and, on the
other hand, enables a more
intensive attentiveness to qualitative
elements which are, otherwise,
easily overlooked or which barely
exceed the threshold of perception.
In the present videos the very
“pictorial” characteristic could be
considered as a successful aspect of
video sequences – as if Crista
Brandstaetter tries to paint with the
video camera and not with the
brush. Any reduction, be it of real
objects to selected details, e.g. an
eye in the moving light and reflection
on a water surface or of a cigarette
to its glowing tip, or every formal
reduction represents a step into
abstraction as a precondition for
new experience of visualisation.
When the basically stationary night
illumination of houses is recorded by
a walking person and by this
transformed into wavelike
phenomena which are contrary to
the stationary light source, one thing
becomes apparent beyond any
aesthetic stimulus: the relative
character of our perception and the
changeableness of appearances of
objects.
The videos achieve an additional
level of abstraction by their serial,
assembly-line character, culminating
in an endless loop. The acoustic
addition to the videos represents a
corresponding dimension, an
acoustic transcription of the visual to
make the conspicuous also audible.
Text by Mag. Dr. phil. Erwin Fiala