whiteonwhite:
algorithmicnoir 

by Eve Sussman/Rufus Corporation
Co-presented with the Houston Cinema Arts Festival

OPENING: Friday, November 9th, 6:00-9:00PM, artist talk with Jeff Wood at 7:30PM 
Additional viewings on Saturday and Sunday, November 10th & 11th from 12-4PM

Location: Aurora Picture Show, 2442 Bartlett
FREE ADMISSION
For ticketing, please go to: www.cinemartsociety.org



Aurora Picture Show and Houston Cinema Arts Society partner to present the one of a kind whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir on Friday, November 9 at Aurora Picture Show (2442 Bartlett Street). As part of the "Cinema on the Verge" series of installations during the Houston Cinema Arts Festival, the new media arts center of Aurora Picture Show will be transformed into an installation space for the first time to host this retro-sci-fi film.  For the opening night on Friday, the space will be open from 6-9PM with an artist talk at 7:30PM where Sussman will discuss both the processes for filming and creating the computer code that powers the piece and re-edits it live so it is never the same story twice. Additional viewing times will be hosted on Saturday, November 10 and Sunday, November 11 from 12-4PM.     
 
An expedition to the banks of the Caspian landed Rufus Corporation in a dystopian “future-opolis” that became the location for their experimental film noir. Pushing the envelope of cinematic form, the film is edited live, in real time, by a custom programmed computer they call the “serendipity machine.” whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir delivers a changing narrative - culled from 3,000 clips, 80 voice-overs and 150 pieces of music - that runs forever and never plays the same way twice. The unexpected juxtapositions create a sense of suspense alluding to a story that the viewer composes. Driven by key words, the work seamlessly comes together as a movie – that is not a movie.

The film follows the observations and surveillance of the central protagonist, a geophysicist named Holz (Jeff Wood), stuck in a 1970’s looking metropolis operated by the New Method Oil Well Cementing Company. Voiceovers and dialogues (in English and Russian with English subtitles) forge the implied narrative – wire tapped telephone conversations, reel-to-reel tapes, snippets of a job interview between Mr. Holz and his employer and a mysterious woman referred to simply as “Dispatch”.  A narrator describes various impositions on the citizens including strangely manipulated time keeping, a language ration, lowered suicide statistics, the effects of lithium, and the workings of the water factory. It becomes evident that the character is controlled by the city and the factory he is working in, as the course of the story is controlled by the machine that edits the film.

About Eve Sussman
Eve Sussman is an artist whose work incorporates film, video, installation, sculpture and photography. In 2003 she began working under the rubric Rufus Corporation. Rufus has evolved into a 'think tank' of performers, artists, musicians, writers and programmers who have collaborated on films and art works. Under the direction of Sussman, the company has created 89 seconds at Alcázar, The Rape of the Sabine Women, Yuri's Office and whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir, an experimental film noir. Eve Sussman/Rufus Corporation's projects have been supported by Haupstadtkulturfonds, Berlin; Creative Capital; New York State Council on the Arts; The Trust for Mutual Understanding and The Guggenheim Foundation among others. 

About Jeff Wood
Jeff Wood is an actor and writer from Ohio, currently living in Brooklyn and Berlin. He studied theatre and philosophy at The School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Miami University of Ohio and has traveled extensively through wilderness regions of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Tibet. He is a founding member of the art/film group Rufus Corporation and the Wallabout Oyster Theatre Brooklyn. He has performed works by Cormac McCarthy, Sam Shepard, Eugene O'Neill and Bertolt Brecht, among others. He has collaborated internationally with film-artists Eve Sussman, Julian Rosefeldt, and Nuno Cera; theatre makers in San Francisco; dance-theatre makers in Berlin; musicians in Ohio; and sardines in Portugal. He is the author of The Glacier, and other works.

About Houston Cinema Arts Society
Houston Cinema Arts Society is a non-profit organization created in 2008. With the support of former Houston Mayor Bill White and the leadership of Franci Crane, HCAS organized and hosted the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Houston Cinema Arts Festival (HCAF), a groundbreaking and innovative arts festival featuring films and new media by and about artists in the visual, performing, and literary arts. The festival celebrates the vitality and diversity of the arts in Houston with the objective of enriching the cityʼs film and arts community. The fourth annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival will be held Nov. 7-11, 2012. For more information, visit www.cinemartsociety.org.

About "Cinema on the Verge" at HCAF
Cinema on the Verge at the Houston Cinema Arts Festival is a gallery, a diverse selection of interactive media installations that will show at 4411 Montrose, headquarters for the 2012 film festival. In addition, new this year is HCAF's CINEMA 16 SCREENING ROOM, projecting programs made in phenomenal 16-millimeter film. Finally, CINEMA ON THE VERGE will also include two satellite exhibitions at locations around Houston, in partnership with Project Row Houses and Aurora Picture Show.