Join us for a celebration of the 8th anniversary of the film & sound group Optipus!
Bradley Eros and other members will be in attendance performing live visuals and sound, as well as sharing documents from previous shows and presentations.
Free admission
Optipus is a nomadic group of chameleon artists, cine-scientists in search of a laboratory, shape-shifting according to site-specific requirements. The group embraces the ephemeral cinema of unfixed forms and open composition. Optipus’s members emerge in myriad collaborations, producing works and events, soundtracks and invented instruments, video edits and film loops, and expanded cinema and immersive installations. Optipus has been previously seen at various venues including The Kitchen, Anthology Film Archives, Participant Inc., New York University, Microscope Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, MANA Contemporary, Bobby Redd Project Space (The Church), Millennium Film Workshop, and others as well as part of "Dreamlands: Expanded" a series of live expanded cinema performances as part of the exhibition "Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema & Art, 1905-2016" in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Members who have performed in various configurations over the years include: Bradley Eros, Lary Seven, Katherine Bauer, Rachael Guma, Genevieve H-K, Kenneth Zoran Curwood, Joel Schlemowitz, Tim Geraghty, Sarah Halpern, Simon Liu, Alison Nguyen, Lily Jue Sheng, Antonia Kuo, Gill Arno, Scott Kiernan, Mia Theodoratus, Michael Evans, Victoria Keddie, Richard Sylvarnes, Gabriel Guma, Rachelle Rahme, Zach Layton, Laura Ortman, and Rachael Guma, among others.
Optipus
A many tentacled optical creature
Or, a many armed visionary beast
A creature of myriad (creative) branches or extensions
Perhaps something resembling an octopus, especially
in having “many centrally directed branches” of optical art
(that is, a group with a central idea with a core that looks outward)
opti-cal, from opti- (Gk., optikos, to see, or ops, eye)
ocular, seeing, visible, eye, vision, sight, visual
related to photography, film, video, or image-making
any of the lenses, prisms, mirrors of an optical instrument.
Relating to the science of optics, using light sensitive devices.
Also: opti, (L., best, optimus)
optimist = dreaming
optimism = enthusiasm, anticipation; a mysticism or philosophy of expectation
opt = to choose or decide
Since we began as 8 (octo-) & grew extra arms, that is,
8 with a vision who walk on their own (DIY), now octo+
so Optipus = eye foot = vision transporters = sight carriers = the multi-armed beast of trans-cinema!
(text by: eros, by any other name)