Watch films here |  Uncomputables: On Alien Intelligences and Cybernetics Films

This video utilizes footage from the Arecibo telescope collapse that occurred in Arecibo, Puerto Rico in December of 2020. The Arecibo telescope was the world’s largest single aperture telescope and has produced the strongest and farthest-reaching messages ever transmitted off-planet. The text excerpts featured in this video work are derived from several years of research by the artist surrounding an archive of letters written between science-fiction writer James Tiptree Jr., who was really a woman named Alice Sheldon, and famed author Ursula Le Guin. Sheldon used the male pen name of James Tiptree to get published in the 1970s, and to freely write about her closeted sexuality and desires using alien encounters as metaphors. Tiptree, while in hiding, wrote flirtatious letters to Le Guin, with more than 500 pieces of correspondence exchanged between the two authors in the 1970s before Tiptree was outed as Alice Sheldon. In this work, Nelson has conflated sentences and sentiments spanning the eight years of correspondence from Tiptree into a single poem that appears as an outgoing and unanswered transmission.

I can hardly bear it when it is over, I can hardly bear it when it starts was originally created for and with support from Le CAP, Centre d’art Saint Fons, France in 2022. The footage of Arecibo Observatory telescope collapse is courtesy of the National Science Foundation. The James Tiptree Jr. archive is copyright 2022, Jeffrey D. Smith. Sound design by Stephen Vitiello. Kepler Star sound recording courtesy of NASA/JPL-CalTech. Typography and type animation by Lauren Thorson. Special thanks to Alessandra Prandin and Le CAP, Centre d’art Saint Fons.

I can hardly bear it when it is over, I can hardly bear it when it starts is the fourth installment of Uncomputables: On Cybernetics and Alien Intelligences, an online program of films and accompanying texts convened by Agnieszka Kurant as the thirteenth cycle of Artist Cinemas, a long-term, online series of film programs curated by artists for e-flux Film
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e-flux is very pleased to present Uncomputables: On Alien Intelligences and Cybernetics, an online film program put together by Agnieszka Kurant as the thirteenth edition of Artist Cinemas, a long-term series curated by artists for e-flux Film.

Uncomputables runs in six episodes from January 15 through February 26, 2024, streaming a new film each week accompanied by a commissioned interview or response published in text form.

It features films by Neil Beloufa, Liu Chuang, Tim Graham and Jasper Sharp, Brittany Nelson, Trevor Paglen, and Jenna Sutela; interviews and responses by Shumon Basar, Stefanie Hessler, Tom McCarthy, Lucia Pietroiusti, Noam Segal; and a short story by Ted Chiang.

The program opens its first week with Liu Chuang’s Lithium Lake and Island of Polyphony (2023), with a response by Stefanie Hessler.

Episodes
#1: Monday, January 15–Sunday, January 21 
Liu Chuang, Lithium Lake and Island of Polyphony (2023, 54 minutes), with a response by Stefanie Hessler

#2: Monday, January 22–Sunday, January 28 
Jenna Sutela, nimiia cétiï (2018, 12 minutes), with an interview with Sutela by Shumon Basar

#3: Monday, January 29–Sunday, February 4 
Neil Beloufa, Kempinski (2007, 14 minutes), with a response by Noam Segal

#4: Monday, February 5–Sunday, February 11 
Brittany Nelson, I can hardly bear it when it is over, I can hardly bear it when it starts (2022, 8 minutes), with a short story by Ted Chiang

#5: Monday, February 12–Sunday, February 18 
Trevor Paglen, Doty (2023, 65 minutes), with an interview with Paglen by Tom McCarthy

#6: Monday, February 19–Sunday, February 25 
Tim Graham and Jasper Sharp, The Creeping Garden (2014, minutes), with a response by Lucia Pietroiusti