Amanda VanValkenburg

Using the concept of Volumetric cinema to examine this video capture of fireworks exploding off a building. Fireworks are celebrations of the ephemeral, controlled explosions in the night. Through this process of layering the start and end of each explosion can be seen at once.

This is a visual investigation of proliferation, growth through repetition and accumulation. Continuous expansion and endless repetition are permanent fixtures of contemporary life, and this video utilizes found footage and 3D software to play with loops, repetition, and nightmarish visions of replication. Inky digital blemishes bleed into the visual collages, and wash away the image as the expanding “carchitecture” inevitably collapses.

Starting with a recognizable image of a digital mountain and clouds, over the course of time the image melts and breaks down into particles and melted distortions as particles and sphere emit from the earth into the sky.

Part of a series using archival footage and looking at volumetric cinema, layering and spacing frames to create video "sculptures" looking at the way the past reverberates and echoes through the present. Imitating software used for medical scanning and imaging, this attempt to flesh out the anatomy of a scene serves as a portrait of historical figures where each fleeting expression and gesture is echoed and solidified into a moving sculptural portrait. Clarice Lispector was a Brazillian novelist who explored themes of intimacy and introspection.

Part of a series using archival footage and looking at volumetric cinema, layering and spacing frames to create video "sculptures" looking at the way the past reverberates and echoes through the present. Imitating software used for medical scanning and imaging, this attempt to flesh out the anatomy of a scene serves as a portrait of historical figures where each fleeting expression and gesture is echoed and solidified into a moving sculptural portrait. Oscar Niemeyer was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture.

Forbidden Spaces: The Shining Hotel Lobby: This is an image from an ongoing series on re-creating cinematic architecture in 3D software, creating videos, prints, 3D printed models, and interactive game spaces based on cinematic architecture. In certain films the setting can be the most important character. These artificially constructed spaces can be escapist dreamy destinations or more haunting than a physical space. By recreating these spaces in a medium that is ephemeral by design it functions both as a portrait of a space, a reenactment of the original process of creation, and democratizes the way the space is experienced.

This is an image from an ongoing series on re-creating cinematic architecture in 3D software, creating videos, prints, 3D printed models, and interactive game spaces based on cinematic architecture. In certain films the setting can be the most important character. These artificially constructed spaces can be escapist dreamy destinations or more haunting than a physical space. By recreating these spaces in a medium that is ephemeral by design it functions both as a portrait of a space, a reenactment of the original process of creation, and democratizes the way the space is experienced.

Unnatural Disasters is an ongoing series of digital recreations of physical spaces. This approach to contemporary landscape portraiture enables multiple outputs and interaction with virtual spaces. These 3D models and video vignettes serve as mediations of a space overtime. Focusing on this intersection where there is a tension between human made structures and nature, the project looked at abandoned buildings and structures for artist residencies.

Unnatural Disasters is a series of 3D animated video vignettes that is ongoing. The buildings are modeled off of real architecture and are focused on images of neglected Americana. These digital interventions were partly inspired by cinematic trends of “disaster porn” and apocalypse films. These mood driven vignettes explore the anxiety of a contemporary world and the cathartic desire to see it destroyed using a medium anchored in contemporary technology.

Unnatural Disasters is an ongoing series of digital recreations of physical spaces. This approach to contemporary landscape portraiture enables multiple outputs and interaction with virtual spaces. These 3D models and video vignettes serve as mediations of a space overtime. Focusing on this intersection where there is a tension between human made structures and nature, the project looked at abandoned buildings and structures for artist residencies.

Unnatural Disasters is an immersive environment engaging with environmental and contemporary anxieties. Isolated and abandoned architecture is captured at a moment of change that responds to the proximity of the “player.” Each structure is located on different planes that are navigated through the use of portals. By turning over the control of the events to the viewer, the work attempts to reclaim narratives of trauma, disaster, and examines the inherent tension in balancing the anthropocene with the natural.

As part of the Unnatural Disasters, this video took inspiration from the Packard Plant in Detroit that has been abandoned. These colossal abandoned structures are familiar fixtures of American landscapes built during economic booms and then abandoned and left standing as they are too expensive to destroy. This video digitally detonates the building but the real structure remains.

Video piece looking at rituals of play, violence, and gender.

Intimate spaces reenacted as virtual rooms.