Suggestion of Least Resistance

“Riot: by definition a violent disruption of the existing order.”

A dazzling, poetic and political audiovisual trip on the notion of the individual vs. the historic.
This earnest, impressionistic project presents iconic images that simultaneously celebrate beauty and warn of the violence facing us in this volatile time.

A performance commissioned by Klangforum Wien, the Vienna Contemporary Music Orchestra the film is a looping audio visual installation as well. The work appears in the anthology feature film the Happiness Machine.

The project is based on archive materials which depict The July Revolt of 1927 (Wiener Justizpalastbrand): Socialist workers from the outskirts of Vienna assemble in front of the Palace of Justice to voice their anger over the corrupt justice system. 89 people are killed by armed police on horseback. More than 600 people are seriously injured. The angry crowd storms the Palace of Justice: files are set on fire and soon flames blaze from the windows of the Palace. The 15th July uprising will prove to be a fateful day: a prelude of what will eventually lead to civil war.

Music by Iris ter Schiphorst: Iris is awarded composer and musician, based in Berlin and in Vienna. Her list of works covers all genres, including major orchestral works premiered by renowned orchestras internationally. The animation film is a rhythmic, poetic surge, comparing us, our lives, and our very humanness to burning papers in the breeze. Images of papers flying through the broken windows of the burning palace are juxtaposed with images of the crowds as they convene and disperse. The music charges these powerful images with vividness and color. We are driven by the idea of documentation and “truth” and experiment with the artistic form and its uncanny distortion using the repetitive, stylized abstractions of events unfolding.

The project was initiated by Klangforum Wien (The Vienna contemporary music orchestra), in the context of ‘Economy for the Common Good’ and is created to be a live audio-visual performance and presented as a film projection, video installation and short film. The film is a part of the ANIDOX:YOUTH Project, in collaboration with Animated Learning Lab, engaging young people in the production of the animation.