Thorsten Fleisch: ‘Energie!

German artist Thorsten Fleisch creates films that reveal the shapes and patterns of natural forces and phenomena. Here, he uses both older 'analogue' photographic technologies and digital technologies to reveal what 'energy' in one of its simplest forms looks like in motion.

'Energie!' is a sequence of still images created on light-sensitive photographic paper. The artist exposed dozens of sheets of paper to enormous electrical discharges, each leaving its imprint as a trail of light. Animating these 'images' reveals patterns in their flow of energy, akin to tracing the flow of electricity at each moment of a lightning strike. As the images are photographs created without cameras, they are records of single moments. Accordingly we see dozens of split-second documents animated to reveal the shape and power of 'energy'.

Thorsten Fleisch is an experimental filmmaker whose work crosses the boundaries between analogical and digital technologies. His works have been shown at film festivals from New York and Milan to Melbourne.

Music by Jens Thiele.