Description
"Smoke and hot air" animates my response to the relentless threats against Iran by a myriad of more fortunate countries in recent years. Sentences that include "attack Iran" are scavenged from Google News and spoken using a text-to-speech synthesizer. The voice is then picked up by a microphone, analyzed, and translated into rhythmically corresponding smoke rings from a quartet of smoke ring makers. This work is a collaboration with Robin Mandel. We are also grateful to Matthew Brackett whose initial desire to paint smoke inspired us and his hands aided us in building the first prototype. The video documentation (hi-res version here) was made at the Almost Cinema Festival at Vooruit in Gent, Belgium. Update: A kind stranger, 'yhancik', posted some very nice pictures on flickr.
Smoke and Hot Air from Ali Momeni on Vimeo.