Organic Urbanic / Tender Prey

Media: video and sound Format: projection. installation. 3+5x720x576 pixel. color 25fps. Print edition
 Year: 2002/2008
 Duration: 08:06 / 15:00 minutes Locations: Tel Aviv

Introduction

Organic Urbanic / Tender Prey seeks to draw lines between urban systems and organic natural systems. In a modular setup of 1- 5 synchronized screens, Tel Aviv is revealed in kaleidoscopic multiplicities of skyline photos by the complex mechanism underlying their production: a saturated entanglement of architecture and machines, additions, multiplicities and layers – an urban ornamentation. From within this dense fabric of city elements new forms are created via these new relations. Amplifying and enhancing the existing reveals a new microcosmos of artificial organisms and complex mechanical amalgamations: Human urban building as an organic evolutionary dimension. The technical process involved in creating the work began with photos of the city. The photos were duplicated with various kaleidoscopes; fragments of the city were worked with animation. Then two different frames from the film were “melted” to create a third frame which came about randomly. That frame was fed into a computer for further 3D animation processing.

Brief Scenarios of Urban Cosmology

High angle video images of Tel Aviv’s city scrapers are the image core to this dynamic 1-5 channel piece. Inspired by satellite and outer space exploration "Organic Urbanic/Tender Prey" seeks an interface/interference between cosmological, technological and science fiction factors. Satellite scanning of outer space, inter and outer probes of kaleidoscopic examinations, signal interceptions and urban schemes form the map and plan for the 5 channel video installation "Organic Urbanic/Tender Prey". Aerial video adjust and joined into science fiction panoramas, short scenarios of urban cosmology, out folding and manifesting itself as a vulnerable planetarium despite its violent surges and tense atmosphere. Reminiscent of data maps as seen through guided missiles and future planet imaginings, the city in Slavin's "Organic Urbanic/Tender Prey" is a mesh of monochrome metal, futurist machine, fantastic architecture, in-versed fields of digitalia and disquiet. A dark star. Tel Aviv transformed into a playground of the future fantastic, relocated and chaotically reconfigured to become a mechanical lost star in a fantasy of dystopian beauty.

Nili Goren (September 13, 1965 - July 20, 2016) taught art criticism and photography at various institutions and was the photography curator of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art from 2000-2016.