FRAME - Slime Mold Aliens

There are people, animals, plants, stones, bacteria and there are slime molds (Physarum polycephalum). In their life cycle, they go through stages from a tiny immobile cell to slimy, amorphous organisms to fruiting bodies.
In their Plasmodium stage, they digest anything they can overgrow, rotten leaves, rotten wood, grain flakes. As "Caca de Luna" they are eaten grilled by humans and they are prey for beetles and mites.
Slime molds are agile and can even find their way in a labytinth. That is insofar
surprising as these creatures only have one cell and no brain-like structures. Nevertheless, Physarum polycephalum is able to purposefully connect the entrance and exit of a labyrinth with its body.
Slime molds are a living example of metamorphosis, forming networks that are both efficient and redundant and are therefore used in bionics research projects.
10 silent films were made of the growth of the slime mold. They show the slime mold in fast motion and allow you to observe him doing his thinking in different habitats.
The silent films go back to a project that used slime mold growth to develop exit strategies for behavior in labyrinths, predictions about the outcome of parliamentary elections, conclusions about archaeological excavation sites and reading out proposals for future urban planning.

10 composers (Erik Janson, Johannes Sandberger, Christoph Theiler, Theodor Pauss, Miro Dobrowolny, Laura Marconi, Gianluca Castelli, Henry Mex, Martin Wistinghausen and Claes Biehl) were commissioned to set these films to music with saxophone, accordion and piano.
In a concert on September 19, 2021 in the Jazzschmiede Düsseldorf, the compositions were presented live together with the films.

FRAME - Slime Mold Aliens is the third film in this 10-part series.

  • Christoph Theiler
    Director
  • Renate Pittroff
    Director
  • Christoph Theiler
    Writer
  • Renate Pittroff
    Writer
  • Christoph Theiler
    Producer
  • Renate Pittroff
    Producer
  • Renate Pittroff
    Camera / Habitat
  • Christoph Theiler
    Composition / Music
  • Christoph Theiler
    Schnitt / Montage / Mastering
  • Renate Pittroff
    Schnitt / Montage / Mastering
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Music Video, Short
  • Genres:
    SCI, Short short, Experimental
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 27 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 1, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    3,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Austria
  • Country of Filming:
    Austria
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • New Counterpoints – Rhizome/Schleimpilz-Klänge
    Düsseldorf
    Germany
    September 19, 2021
    World Premiere
Distribution Information
  • wechselstrom
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Christoph Theiler, Renate Pittroff

BIO wechselstrom
wechselstrom: Renate Pittroff & Christoph Theiler
"wechselstrom" was founded in 2004 by Christoph Theiler and Renate Pittroff and is based in Vienna's 16th district. There is also the off space "galerie wechselstrom", which is operated as a work space and temporary exhibition and performance space. In addition to works for theater and radio plays, wechselstrom is active in interdisciplinary areas such as sound installation, media art and social sculpture.
Since their beginnings, the artist duo has often dealt with peripheral areas of art at the interfaces to sociology, communication science and technology.
REPLY was a project for the Mozart year, in which Mozart's begging letters were sent again under their own name to the 100 richest Germans and Austrians. SAMENSCHLEUDER should transform driving a car into an environmentally friendly measure. In the TRACKER DOG project, the owners followed their dogs. New hiking maps for Lower Austria were created from the routes recorded with GPS. A PIEFKEDENKMAL was created in Gänserndorf near Vienna in 2009. It is a sound sculpture made of corten steel. RE-ENTRY (2010) was an experimental opera production for the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater. With FLUID CONTROL they developed a tool that makes it possible to control sound/video software and computers (Arduino, Raspberry) using water synthesizers.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Media art, which wants to be more than a mix of materials, has to start where formative processes are emerging.
We, the artist group "wechselstrom", work primarily at this interface. We don't change perspectives, we create new eyes. We don't design an environment, we invent new lounges. We don't put old things in new contexts, we are the context.
One of our main concerns is to what extent such action can be classified in terms of market technology. In this respect we are venture capitalists.
Our projects are either hated or loved - there is nothing in between.
Subcutaneous effects cannot be ruled out.
In the "Tracker Dog" project, owners followed their dogs. New hiking maps for Lower Austria were created from the routes recorded with GPS. This project was partially prohibited due to the special Austrian right of way.
In “Reply” we sent Mozart's begging letters, slightly updated, under our own name in 2005/06 to the 100 richest Austrians and Germans as well as to selected artists in the international classical music industry. The cancellation routines of the moneyed nobility began to falter. The radio play produced from it was shortlisted for the German War Blind Prize.
"Calf embryo tasting" - a metaphor for the flow of money in the financial world - took place under police protection in January 2009 in the gallery AC with 12 guests. From 500 hate mails to death threats, 5 parliamentary questions in the Austrian National Council and further interference by city and district councillors.
"Seed thrower" should make the car an environmentally friendly means of transport.
The car tire coated with a seed-containing paste was supposed to sling the seeds while driving, in order to let the roadsides bloom in many ways. This project was banned because the authorities claimed that the roadside was a natural area where interventions are not possible.
"Piefke" is the common dirty word for the Germans in Austria. In 2009 we erected a Piefke monument in Gänserndorf near Vienna. It is there in the shopping street in front of the cultural center with library and music school. The word "Piefke" is lasered into a rotating corten steel disk; a tongue of spring steel gliding over it creates an interesting rhythm as the disc rotates.
One project that has been in development since 2012 is "Fluid Control". We conduct electricity through water and use the resulting voltage differences to operate synthesizers, sound and video software. Sound video performances and interactive installations were developed from this.
In the project "Rotational Body" we stand in front of churches with foreign percussion instruments (Chinese gongs, singing bowls, Syrian darbuka, etc.) and counterpoint and transform the Sunday bell ringing with our improvisations. The resulting game between harmony and dissonance is recorded and presented at the Klangturm St.Pölten (in the administrative district of Lower Austria).