TECHNES Encyclopedia Database

What is Beyond the Hellraiser? (Guillaume Vallée, 2017, video, 2 min. 38 sec.), by Sam Meech

What is beyond the Panasonic WJ-AVE5? Video feedback practice, given its technologically transgressive raison d’être, should not be confined to the much loved video mixer or the humble composite cable. The unruly video signal can be integrated with (and infiltrated into) other more traditionally “fixed” mediums.

Guillaume Vallée is an experimental filmmaker, video artist and curator based in Montreal, Canada. Vallée applies a recursive, cross-media methodology to create hybrid feedback forms with remarkable chaotic textures. For his film What is Beyond the Hellraiser? (2017), Vallée re-used a two-second paint-on-film (camera-less) loop, which was then transferred to DVD and digitally projected on a rear projection screen. A second projector and VHS video camera were used to create an optical feedback loop over the top of the first image. Thus, the original source material was used both to seed and to agitate the video feedback forms. Finally, Vallée re-captured this final composite image from the other side of the screen using a Super 8 camera and Kodak Ektachrome film.