Plasma sculpture—blown glass forms filled with electrified inert gases—is a medium that produces objects of curiosity and wonder, with kinetic light that moves throughout glowing vessels and interacts with touch. But there is much more to plasma sculpture than the finished artwork. Many people wonder: how was it actually made?
A video project, “Creating with the Fourth State of Matter: Plasma Artists in the Studio”, will be shown as part of a film festival at the Glass Art Society 2023 Conference. The film will illuminate the complex process of plasma art by providing an exclusive look into the studio practice of plasma artists from the international community. We will present a compilation of short videos (5 minutes) filmed by each artist in their own studio, to showcase a range of techniques, creative processes, and studio setups. With a focus on the making process, rather than the finished artwork, these videos will each bring a different perspective to various aspects of the plasma art process, including flame-working, gas filling, high voltage power supplies, artistic inspiration, and the unique challenges of combining art with science and technology.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE/ GUIDELINES/ IMPORTANT DATES:
Who can participate?
Members of the Plasma Art Alliance who create plasma-based artwork.
Do participants have to plan to attend the GAS Conference in Detroit, Michigan, in June 2023?
No. The aim of this project is to include a wider range of content by presenting in a video format, and to include a wider range of participants who may not be able to attend in person. In the past, the PAA has faced logistical challenges in organizing physical plasma exhibitions at the GAS conference (prohibitive shipping and travel costs, limited space, etc.) so this video project is a way to eliminate those issues and at the same time, to present our work in a new way.
Video content:
The content of the video is open to your own creative ideas, but the focus should be on the plasma art process. Although finished work can be included in the video, this should not be the main focus. This is also not meant to be a “studio tour”. Focus on some aspect of you working on making your art. Examples of this could be: a project you’re currently working on … glassworking … kiln process … gas filling process … power supplies … phosphors … technical aspects … how you plan a project … experimentation … or you may film a few minutes of several different parts of the process. This could be filmed from your point of view or someone else could film you working. No one video needs to attempt to cover a complete overview of the process—just pick one or two aspects to focus on, and the whole compilation of everyone’s videos will provide a variety to give a more complete sense of the process.
Video requirements:
- 5 minutes maximum length
- You can film on a phone, or with a video camera, but either way, the video must be filmed horizontally: in landscape mode. (Not portrait!! The reason for this is that if you film in portrait mode on your phone, it will not look good on a large screen because it will either have black space on the sides or part of it will need to be cropped.)
- As much as possible, make sure that your camera is not shaky!
- Videos can either be one continuous 5 minute clip, OR a few shorter clips spliced together. (If you don’t have the video editing software to splice clips, please send the clips separately and I will splice them together when I edit the compilation.)
- Sound in videos is optional. Please specify if sound or speaking is essential to the video, and we will leave it in; otherwise don’t worry about background noise, we can remove the sound and add background music in the final compilation.
- Please do not add your own captions or titles to your video clip; we will be adding these later.
- Resolution: 1080p HD (just make sure the resolution looks decent or we may not be able to accept it!)
Important Dates:
NOVEMBER 20th
- Respond by November 20th to let me know that you plan to participate, and a general idea of what your video will be focused on.
FEBRUARY 28th
- SUBMIT FINISHED VIDEO BY FEBRUARY 28TH. Send file(s) to: cary.rapaport@gmail.com. Since the file size may be large, there are various free cloud share services you can use (Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, WeTransfer). Along with video, you will need to send all of the following information:
- *Your name and email contact
- *website or social media
- *specify if the sound needs to be included in your video or if you want us to add a music overlay
- *and any information that you want to include to clarify or explain what is being shown in the video. (We may edit this information into video captions, or it may be used as part of a Q&A session at the video screening.)
- *do you plan to attend the conference in person?
JUNE 7TH-10TH, 2023: GAS Conference dates. More specific information to come about the GAS film festival scheduling.