Tonight and tomorrow the Trylon is proud to host the regional premiere of Micah Bloom’s Codex. In response to a natural disaster, a team of forensic anthropologists recover, identify, and catalog hundreds of flood- ravaged books. Likened to a “filmic tone poem” in the vein of Koyaanisqatsi, Codex provides elegant and haunting visuals while, exploring loss, recovery and closure in the throes of digital migration. Director Bloom will be on hand both nights to discuss the film and answer questions.
Here’s what Trylon programmer and volunteer John Moret had to say about Bloom’s film on All-Star Video:
“Micah Bloom’s Codex is a love letter to books. In fact, it’s basically forty minutes of beautiful images of books devastated by the 2011 flood that hit Minot, North Dakota.
That being said, it’s also deeply thought provoking.
The physical and textile nature of paper books is an art form that, like the movies we review and love at this site, is slowly dying. The bindings, cover-art and paper quality profoundly change your experience as a reader. As all forms of media become more digitally based, the art form of the construction of books dies with it. Bloom explores this with carefully constructed sequences of technicians cataloging and studying books, as if they are already meant for archaeological digs.
When reviewing movies, we always comment on the art on the box of the film, the construction of special features, quality of transfers and different versions of the boxes because we love the idea of owning pieces of art. Books are the same way. With ownership, you have the ability to share and sell that piece as you choose. You can underline passages and dog-ear important pages. You have a visual memory of an idea that was in print. The agency of ownership makes you a part of a cycle, and allows room for the viewer to experience it as he or she wishes. With digital media, there is no displaying the beauty of a bound book. There is no loaning that book to a friend. There is no ownership. It’s completely temporary.
Codex is simple, but it’s implications are complex. The printing press changed the world. The digital age is doing the same.”
Check out the trailer for Codex here. Codex screens at 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00 tonight and tomorrow. Tickets are $5 and are available in advance on the Trylon website or at the door.