Variations

preliminary movements in a work of algorithmic cinema

Video source: nine 15-minute pre-shows for lectures on technology and culture, assembled from public domain materials or copyrighted materials used under fair-use exemption.
Audio source: Bach's Goldberg Variations, as performed by Glenn Gould (1981 version).
Process: Each variation's BPM was converted into an average shot length (in seconds). A program (written in Python) algorithmically edited the source footage thirty-one times, operating on rules derived from each variation. The resulting work is a product of three human sign-systems: the footage, informed by the curriculum of a course and the individual editors of the preshows; Goldberg Variations, doubly informed by Bach's formal structures and Gould's "constant rhythmic reference"; the algorithm, written by me, informed by algebra and early Soviet montage theory.