Gregg Biermann
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Contact Information*:
Hackensack New Jersey USA |
Contact Type: Artist |
| web: http://www.greggbiermann.com | |
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Bio:
I was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1969. I started making work primarily in 16mm film in the late 1980's. I did a good deal of this work on the JK optical printer. The films themselves which include Montage, fell somewhere between what are often called the structural and lyrical strains. As an undergraduate, I studied filmmaking with Ken Jacobs, and Larry Gottheim, video with Ralph Hocking and film criticism with Maureen Turim at Binghamton University, where I graduated with honors in 1991. By the early 1990’s my work moved into some very strange psychological territory involving works that were comprised of a series of almost whole separate shorter movies inside. In these works there are distinct episodes, and their currents exert force on each other-- usually pushing away from a nearest neighbor but also calling across time to each other. Eliciting different kinds of attention from the viewer creates these currents, causing a short circuit each time there is a shift -- but this might not negate the work. Subsequently I studied film and video with a host of characters including Ernie Gehr, Janis Lipzin, Steve Anker, Carolee Schneemann, George Kuchar, Nick Dorsky, Gunvor Nelson, Dan Eisenberg, Phil Weisman and others at the San Francisco Art Institute where I received an MFA in 1993. In the winter of 1994 I moved to Chicago where began showing films at a weekly showcase along with Scott Trotter. The series began informally at a Rogers Park sandwich shop but eventually became more ambitious when Trotter, Francis Schmidt, James Bond, Martin Rumsby and I co-founded X-Film Chicago in 1995. X-Film Chicago was a “micro-cinema” that showed a wide variety of experimental films and videos for several years on a weekly basis. X-Film screened many contemporary artists’ work including those of: Barbara Hammer, Stephanie Barber, Ariana Gerstein, Saul Levine, Mark Street, David Rimmer, Donna Cameron, Dan Eisenberg, Larry Gottheim, Janis Lipzin, MM Serra, David Gatten, Heather McAdams, Tom Palazzolo, Tony Conrad, Brian Frye, Peter Rose, Robert Flowers, Jim Seibert, Stan Brakhage, Steve Bartoo, Mark Wilson, Ulrike Reichhold, and Alfonzo Alvarez, as well as my own. The screenings were a strong presence in Chicago in the mid-1990’s and received critical acclaim in the local press including a back page story in the Chicago Sun Times and a feature story in the Chicago Reader. I worked in 16mm film almost exclusively until 1996 when I made Appearances -- a geometric abstract animated movie on a computer and transferred it onto 16mm with the help of Francis Schmidt. At the time, Schmidt had developed a low cost way to transfer computer imagery to film by using the serial port on a home computer to very accurately control pin registered film camera motors. During this time I supported myself by working as a computer graphic artist for M&L International in Chicago (Biscayne Apparel) and by teaching computer graphics and multi-media at Barat College (DePaul University) in Lake Forest, Illinois. I moved from Illinois in 1998 to New Jersey where I now teach Computer Animation Production and Cinema Studies at Bergen Community College in Paramus. I co-founded the Cinema Studies program at Bergen with Sarah Markgraf and Jared Saltzman several years ago and since then have invited a number of interesting film artists to present on campus including Luis Recoder, Sandra Gibson, Mark Street, Greta Snider, Monteith McCollum, Ariana Gerstein and Rob Schmidt. Cinema Studies classes I've taught have included the following topics: Film Noir, History of Animation, Horror Films and American Films of the 1970's. Since 2000 I have been collaborating with electronic composer Ron Mazurek, on a series of improvisational real-time music video performances. These pieces blur the distinction between live performance and recordings by having musicians improvise with and against video recordings, which are triggered in a random access fashion from a laptop connected to a MIDI keyboard. Musical collaborators have also included James McBride (playing tenor sax) in Blues , and Wendy Luck (playing flute, bass flute and piccolo) in Pipes. Many of my short video works from 2002-2005 involve appropriated imagery from iconic Hollywood films, which include The Waters of Casablanca, Cinema Study, Gone, and The Hills Are Alive have been widely shown. They are made from Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone with the Wind, and The Sound of Music respectively. The original works are transformed with a variety of techniques from narrative films into visual and sonic abstractions. In 2003 I completed Material Excess an epic “hand made” computer animation made from junk mail and junk food. Presently l continue my work with computer animation and digital video with the intention of incorporating technologies not generally associated with avant-garde cinema into the aesthetic concerns of my work. These concerns include techniques such as 3D modeling, lighting, and texturing. (See Spherical Coordinates). I also continue my collaborative work with musicians in real-time music/video performance. Filmography/Awards Info: Happy Again - video, 5 minutes, sound, 2006 Hackensack Motet - video, 4 miinutes 40 seconds, sound, 2006 Spherical Coordinates - video, 8 minutes 38 seconds, sound, 2005 The Hills Are Alive - video, 7.5 minutes, sound, 2005 Gone - video, 10 minutes, sound, 2005 Apple - video, various running times 1- 15 minutes, sound, 2005 Blues - real-time video performance, variable length, sound, 2005, James McBride - sax, Ron Mazurek- keyboard Field Study - video, 7 minutes, silent, 2004 RNC Protest: New York City - video, 12 minutes, silent, 2004 Orange - video, 5.5 min, silent, 2003 Cinema Study - video, 7 min, sound, 2003 Material Witness - video, 7 1/2 min, sound, 2003 Cookie - video, various running times 1 - 5 minutes, silent, 2003 Grapefruit - video, 2 1/2 min, silent, 2003 goat song - video, 5 min, sound, 2003 The Body of Satan - video, 3 min, 2003 *(RIPB) Suspended Animation - video, 3 minutes, silent, 2003 material excess - video, 73 min, sound, (Inferno 2002, Purgatorio & Paradiso 2003) The Waters of Casablanca - video, 6 min, sound, 2002 *(RIPB) Falcon - real-time video performance, variable length, sound, 2002, Ron Mazurek- keyboard Pipes - real-time video performance, variable length, sound, 2002, Wendy Luck - Flute, Ron Mazurek- keyboard Brief Encounters - real-time video performance, variable length, sound, 2001, Ron Mazurek- keyboard Occurrences and Aberrations on Your Retina - video, 11 min, silent, 2001 Durations - video, 5 min, sound, 2001 Etude - real-time video performance, variable length, sound, 2000, Ron Mazurek- keyboard & piano Dissonances - video, 14 min, sound, 2000 The Hobgoblin of Little Minds - video, 8 min, sound, 1999 Appearances - 16mm film, 8 min, sound, 1996 You Never Worry - 16mm film, 20 min, sound, 1993 Detached Americans - 16mm film, 8 min, sound, 1993 Giants of the Sea - 16mm film, 30 min, sound, 1992 Montage - 16mm film, 17 min, sound, 1990 Eye Ear Information - 16mm film, 36 min, sound, 1990 A Composition of Photons - 16mm film, 10 min, silent, 1988 This Contact appears in this database if Microcinema International has screened a film directed by the Contact, a film directed by the contact is featured in a DVD distributed by the Blackchair Collection Shop, or featured an organization or activity linked with the Contact. This database is used for commercial as well as informational, non-commercial purposes. It is a historical archive of Microcinema International's activities. Inclusion in this database and archive in no way implies a continuing formal relationship or affiliation with Microcinema International or the Blackchair Label nor an endorsement of its activities by the Contact. Contact details are not displayed in order to protect privacy. If you wish to contact this artist please see their website as listed above or write Microcinema International and we will be happy to forward your e-mail.
Microcinema Interview/Article:
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