Cosmos Obscura

Warning: This video contains flashing images.

 

Score by Irina Escalante-Chernova

 

In Cosmos Obscura, the universe is at once known and unknowable. New patterns, rhythms and metaphors are born from old ones, and familiar celestial bodies are refracted into strange and unusual forms. The visuals were created from photographs taken from the Voyager II spacecraft. Photographs of the planets and their moons were abstracted and animated in order to create various patterns, rhythms and images.

The musical work was originally created for 8 channels and subsequently adapted to the stereo version. The music focuses on the work from different backgrounds with the noises of nature and those which have an electronic source.

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Kate Balsley

Kate Balsley was born into a family of artists and had an interest in cinema from a young age. After graduating with a BFA in film production and studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she lived briefly in New York City and Barcelona before earning an MFA in mass communication and media arts from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 2009. Her narrative, documentary, experimental and animated films have been exhibited throughout the world in venues such as the Museum of the Moving Image, the Anthology Film Archives, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. She is currently an assistant professor of film at Georgia Gwinnett College near Atlanta.

 

Irina Escalante-Chernova is a composer and pianist born in Cuba. In 2000 she received the “Residence” award at the 27th International Competition of Electro Acoustic Music and Sonic Art, in Bourges, France, for her first electronic piece "La Primavera del Angel.”  In 2001, she obtained her Bachelor of Music degree in composition at the Higher Institute of Arts in Havana. She continued her studies at Dartmouth College where she was awarded a Master of Arts degree in electro-acoustic music. She finished her doctoral degree in music theory and music composition at Florida State University in 2009. Since 2012, she works as assistant professor of music at Georgia Gwinnett College.