Visual Alchemy - History

General catalog description:

This synaesthetic work is comprised of optical film printed elements and videosynthesis scenes originated on Super-8 one day in 1967 when the filmmaker decided to repeatedly cross the San Francisco Bay Bridge from morning to night as part of his new experimental film.

"The original idea was to play random radio sounds. But after one attempt, it was abandoned. It was a bad idea anyway, a rip off of New York underground and not my culture anyway" (A.R.).

Years later in 1973 Vancouver (at his studio 'Visual Alchemy') Razutis completed a frame by frame optically printed, chemically acid attacked, and 'video ized' by including his current then videosynthetic works transfered to film.   He described the finished product as: "A repeating journey across the San Francisco Bay Bridge becomes a journey into disintegrating visuals, video transformation, with an accompanying sound track taken from "40 years of Radio".  As a film, it anticipated the end of the film medium, and the emergence of the video medium."motion picture (photo-chemical) film subject to a transformation to electronic forms while engaged in chemical self-destruction.

Such synaesthetic and 'structural' films broke new ground in the experimental film 70's but the film-video 'hybrid' violated that 'special insularity' (the separation by media) that both film and video artists of that time enjoyed.   Ever since, this film has been accepted by both film and video experimental media cultures, many of whom now are unaware of the history of all this.

As a single element of AMERIKA, 98.3 KHz: ( Bridge at Electrical Storm has garnered the most festival awards and exposure.

Film Optical Printer & Videosynthezer custom built by Razutis for his films -- photos page

Individually featured in international exhibitions, retrospectives, including current 2020 exhibition at Artexte - Videographe 'Magnetic Sequences'