Private Project

Elemental Studies

Elemental Studies (2022–25) is a cinematic cycle exploring the fractured dialogue between human industry and the ancient pillars of our world: Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. Comprising twelve monochrome shorts, the series functions as a surreal, meditative mantra, inviting viewers to lose themselves in the raw, alchemical textures of an environment in flux. Stripped of color, the project serves as a visceral witness to Mother Nature’s primal system of checks and balances during an era of unprecedented climate upheaval.

The project is rooted in a borderless, massive collaboration that transcends traditional filmmaking. Featuring a definitive sonic architecture, the series includes original scores from twelve international composers, further expanded by thirteen additional artists who provided "re-imagined" interpretations. This collective effort, involving twenty-five sound artists from eighteen countries, is preserved as a deluxe double compact disc set via Carpe Sonum Novum Records (USA). Elemental Studies has earned international recognition, including an Irish Premiere at Gallery X (Dublin) and the Best Arthouse Film award at the Absurd Film Festival (Milan). It is set to be featured as a 4-Channel AV installation at the A4 Art Museum in Chengdu, China, in the winter of 2026–27.

- Technical Lead: TJ Norris
- Soundtrack: carpesonum.bandcamp.com/album/elemental-studies

  • TJ Norris
    Director
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Music Video, Short, Other
  • Runtime:
    53 minutes 8 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 5, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    7,850 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    France, Italy, Mexico, United States
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Gallery X Screening
    Dublin
    Ireland
    September 6, 2025
    Irish Premiere
  • Absurd Film Festival
    Milan
    Italy
    Official Nominee
    Best Arthouse Film (October 2025)
Director Biography - TJ Norris

TJ Norris is an award-winning multidisciplinary conceptual artist and curator whose practice navigates the abstract psychology, social complexities, and the evolving friction between the natural and the manufactured. With a career spanning over forty years, his work is defined by a "wabi-sabi" sensibility and Surrealist influences, focusing on the beauty found within the fractured, the ephemeral, and the urban environment. Norris’s rigorous conceptual foundation was built at the Massachusetts College of Art and the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design.

His cinematic practice has seen a prolific return since 2022, building upon early highlights like the micro-short 'auto-porto-matic' (1993)—curated by Cheryl Dunye for DCTV—and the two-channel installation 'Infinitus' (2008), which was a recipient of the New American Art Union’s Couture Grant. This recent body of work has earned international recognition, with screenings and honors at the Absurd Film Festival (Best Arthouse Film), the Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival (Best Short Film), the East Village Film Festival (Honorable Mention), the I, Immigrant International Film Festival, and the Faba Film Festival. Additionally, his 4-Channel AV installation 'Elemental Studies' is scheduled for an Asian premiere at the A4 Art Museum in Chengdu, China.

Norris’s exhibition record spans global institutions and biennials, including the Tacoma Art Museum’s 10th Northwest Biennial, Gallery X (Dublin), Millepiani (Rome), CoCA Seattle, and the South Bend Museum of Art. His photographic vision was codified in the 2018 monograph 'Shooting Blanks,' and his contributions to the field have been documented in esteemed publications such as Leonardo (MIT Press), Art Ltd, The Boston Globe, and PhotoBook Journal. As a freelance curator and founder of the gallery Soundvision, Norris has curated over thirty exhibitions for venues including Tufts University, Boise State, and the Linnfield College Art Center. His work is held in prominent international collections, including the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the Vanhaerents Art Collection (Brussels), Harvard University, the Fuller Museum of Art, Nike, and the Museo de la Ciudad.

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Director Statement

Three years in the making, this project is a collaborative labor of love—a visceral mélange of audio-visual synergy that functions as a rhythmic pulse for an ailing planet. We exist at a definitive crossroads in history where the creative voice must serve as a conduit for the Earth’s distress. This series is an act of collective witness, pairing my layered, monochromatic visual work with the sonic architectures of two dozen international artists to create a dialogue that demands both reflection and action. It is a cinematic "exquisite corpse" stretched across borders, a global response to a world in transition.

At the heart of this narrative lies a meditation on the four ancient pillars that have served as the functional core of organic life since the dawn of time. However, the legacy of the Industrial Revolution has fractured this ancestral bond, pushing the interaction between humankind and nature into a state of violent imbalance. The traditional symbols of stability, expansion, rebirth, and fluidity have been transmuted into harbingers of dread: the fracking-induced quake, the predatory forest fire, the atmospheric wrath of the tornado, and the rising flood. We are living through a "dark alchemy" where the very forces that sustain us have been stressed into a savage system of checks and balances.

This series takes artistic license with these elemental shifts, interpreting them through a non-narrative, illogical lens that mirrors the organic unpredictability of a planet in flux. By stripping away the distraction of color, the work forces an intimacy with the raw, grainy textures of the earth. Together, my collaborators and I have constructed a sonic and visual map of our fragile ecosystem, inviting the viewer to breathe within this imbalance and acknowledge the inherent capacity for change that resides between humankind and nature’s wrath.

— TJ Norris