CHEMICAL SOMNIA
Synopsis:
A cross-continental collaboration between filmmaker Scott Portingale and composer Gorkem Sen. The film transports the viewer into chemical dimensions, exploring phase transition, fluid dynamics, and chemical reactions. Timelapse and high-speed photography were used on a macro scale to capture these elemental relationships in less than a square inch area on a petri dish. Uniquely resounding original music preformed by Gorkem Sen on an instrument he invented, the yaybahar.
Artist Statement:
I'm deeply inspired and motivated by nature. Not only by the misty, mossy, waterfall in the forest kind of nature. I'm inspired by how nature organizes itself in all of it's manifestations. When you observe it long enough nature becomes as present in a chunk of carbon floating through the vacuum of space as it is in the Amazon basin. Nature expresses itself as information, energetic patterns, influenced by physical laws. I see the expansion of the universe in the same light as a blossoming flower - an event unfolding into form. This analogist point of view can plug & play into any event at any scale. It is more than likely that biology emerged from a set of chemical reactions. A very different kind of missing link I suppose. In chemistry a rich invisible landscape exists beyond our senses.
Project Stills
the music of CHEMICAL SOMNIA
Turkish musician Gorkem Sen, inventor of “spring family instruments”, recorded an enchanting sound-scape for the film from his studio in Cypress. The video below is a glimpse into Gorkem’s studio where he recorded the century old Turkish folk song on the yaybahar, live off the floor. It is hard to believe the amount of sound that comes from this one instrument. (photo of Gorkem by Kerim Belet)
Gorkem’s Website
Composer: Hüseyin Sadeddin Arel
Song Title: Mini Mini Nihavent Peşrev
Thank you to the following for the support of this project:
THE ALBERTA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS