UBU web Report:Paul Glabicki’s Object Conversation (1984)

Paul Glabicki’s Object Conversation (1984)
Glabicki, found under film & video on ubu web has many animations on film accredited to him. These experimental animations are what intrigued me the most. Not only because these were painstakingly hand done but also because they deal with issues relating to natural and human processes is fascinating. Paul Glabicki presents his work in an conceptual sense, where metaphors and ideas integrate into layers of images and sound. This is most obvious in the piece “Object Conversation” along with the visual treatment it possesses. The piece comes across as an abstract, aural and visual conversation that deals which numerous issues that relate to existence, time, interpretation and the human brain and its processes. A lot like psychology. The film comes across as a test that plays with the mental processes that take place in the human mind such as tests on memory, experiences, perception, semiotics, language and interpretation. Each viewer, therefore, see’s the same film in association to their mental processes and that means, each viewers perception is different because the layers of associations present in the film are different depending on the perception its viewed from. Objects that are familiar to almost anyone are featured in this animation and they, basically create a multi layered “dialogue” between the objects shown and the audio heard. The relationship that is created by this conversation varies on each viewer.
The certain pop art quality about this piece makes it artistically interesting, this treatment makes the viewer feel like a work of art is being viewed but instead of being on a canvas it’s being presented on film. Paul Glabicki is clearly an artist whose medium is film rather than a filmmaker who makes artistic films. His animations produced thousands of drawings that had been used for the animation because they were all hand done. This means that his animations are in paper form too each paper an individual work of art. I think that’s why his work is much more interesting compared to experimental animations today.