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SPECTRAL



︎SPECTRAL WEBSITE︎


SPECTRAL gathers 6 organizations run by artists dedicated to analogue film practices with an experimental and DIY approach. Such practices include research, curation, invention, empirical engeneering and construction in a non-hierarchical way. The labs share a common enthusiasm for experimental cinema (and its history), from the pioneers who invented moving image up to avant-garde and underground film and cross-media practices.


Spectral partners are: 


BALTIC ANALOG LAB / LV

CRATER-LAB / ES

LABORBERLIN / DE

LAIA - TORRE / PT

MIRE / FR

WORM.FILMWERKPLAATS / NL


SPECTRAL stands for Spatial, Performative & Expanded Cinematics - Transnational Research at Artist-run Labs.

SPECTRAL aims to bring this heritage to new places and entangle theses practices with other disciplines. Collectively, this group of labs and structures came up with the term Expanded Cinematic Arts (E.C.A.), a placeholder for the range of practices that SPECTRAL aims to encourage and develop, creating overlapping areas between film labs and a large variety of contexts and aesthetic concerns. SPECTRAL draws inspiration from ancient projection rituals such as Asian shadow theater, magic lanterns and phantasmagorias, to contemporary visual arts.

These multiple references are mobilized to invent new forms of art through photo-mechanical projection, performative practices, hybrid technology and scientific research. E.C.A is meant to promote plurality as a particularly favorable channel for uniquely sensitive experiences with an emphasis on exchange and communication.

SPECTRAL aims to develop new structures and tools for E.C.A. practicioners in order to cultivate a network independent of traditional circuits of moving image creation and distribution.

Each participant-lab offers a programme of residencies supporting artists of this field. Some of the labs work on developing new tools, either by recycling machinery no longer used on an industrial scale, or by building new equipment from scratch. In order to encourage knowledge circulation labs hold multiple workshops, both on the use of newly-developed devices and on broader E.C.A. techniques. SPECTRAL also exhibits new works within festivals, events and touring programmes in each of the lab’s regional network.

Along the whole project, special attention is paid to reaching out to people from other disciplines as well as to artists from under-represented communities.

SPECTRAL also involves the important work of documentation, producing technical information surrounding new devices, video documentation of resulting performances, reports of each workshop, and diverse media, such as text, photography, interviews and sketches, forming a vast E.C.A archive. These elements will be gathered online through a collaborative wiki and in a final print publication.





In Portugal, SPECTRAL is supported by 











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