CONNECTIVITY THROUGH CINEMA PRESENTS:
Immersive Contemplation

A film/video hybrid program with an expanded cinema performance by Lynn Loo * IN PERSON *
SUNDAY APRIL 5TH 2026 @ MONO NO AWARE : CINEMA ARTS NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
33 FLATBUSH AVENUE, BROOKLYN NEW YORK - LIMITED ATTENDANCE TO 40 - MASKS AVAILABLE
DOORS 6 PM – STARTS PROMPTLY AT 7:00PM – FREE OR $5 SUGGESTED DONATION

TRT, 61 minutes. Additional time for discussion / Q & A with Lynn Loo *IN PERSON *

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
A programme of four film works presented in a mixed format: two video pieces and two 16mm multi-projection film performance works.
They can be broadly divided between material-based and impressionistic approaches, engaging with systems and visual perception in moving images. Working across mediums—from motion picture film to digital video— these film works explore connections between representational images and structural ideas. 

PROGRAM:

Unfinished Symphony
Filmed on Super-8,16mm and video. Finished on video | b&w and color | sound | 12 min | 2001 | Singapore/Chicago

I began this film with a strong idea but no script. Carrying a Super 8 or 16mm camera, I recorded images that resonated with my personal story. Slowly, the project evolved into an experimental essay film, shaped through the language of image and sound. It became my graduating film at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Autumn Fog
2 x 16mm film projection performance | color | silent | 12-15min | 2010 | London UK

It was the first time I had my own garden while living in London, and I began to notice and experience the seasonal changes, particularly in autumn. I wanted to capture this and see what might emerge through a film camera. From the outset, I set a few simple rules: shots had to remain stationary; movement from a light breeze had to be present; and the play of light and shadow needed to be evident.
When the camera negative and positive print were returned, I developed the piece further by projecting both films together, overlapping the screens. During live presentations, I introduced different ideas to each shot, performing various manipulations with the film projectors in real time. In 2017, I approached Dr Louise Curham from Teaching Learning Cinema to develop a way to distribute the work. Drawing on TLC’s extensive experience with reenactment as a method of preserving expanded film works, we tested and refined a set of evolving instructions, aiming to separate the work from the artist so that it could continue beyond the original performances.

Washi MM
3 x 16mm film projection performance | color | optical sound | 12-15min | 2017 | London UK

A hand-made film created by adhering selected coloured patterned Washi tape at intermittent intervals onto 16mm clear film. The film is then home-printed and processed using DIY methods to produce additional black-and-white copies for a three 16mm film projection performance. The work explores line, shape, shadow, depth, and light through rhythmic shifts in the patterns that generate the images. These patterns also directly create the films’ optical soundtracks. This work is supported by The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and Arts Council England.

“The Washi films were inspired, according to Loo, by Mary Martin’s drawings for Expanding Permutation (1969), in which a grid pattern composed of black and white squares is exhaustively varied – the squares vary in darkness (depending upon how thickly Martin applied the ink) and are filled in by horizontal, vertical, or diagonal lines. The resulting impression is one of implied movement as the grids vary in tiny increments from one drawing to the next, not unlike individual frames of an abstract film. ... Loo’s methodical approach to live projection parallels the hidden labour behind Martin’s work, making that labor, by necessity time-based, explicitly part of the work.”

– Jonathan Walley from Cinema Expanded. Avant-Garde Film in the Age of Intermedia. Oxford University Press 2020.

Conversations
Filmed on 16mm and smartphone. Finished on digital video | color | sound | 13+min | 2021~ | London UK

A mural of images and sounds assembled from various phases of my life, and an attempt to reconnect with my past narrative films. The search for patterns is both within the materials used and in the ways I have combined them - and it extends to the mind of the viewer. Making the film involved a kind of conversation between these recordings and myself. Working without a  preconceived structure, I approached the material intuitively, in a manner similar to that of a fine artist. It is part of human nature to search for meaning, and I anticipate that the work will be interpreted in many different ways.

Total duration: 60 approx. including change over time.

Bio
Born in Singapore and based in London, Lynn taught music before making her first film in 1997. She explores the interplay of moving image and sound, investigating patterns, rhythms, and the poetry inherent in visual and sonic movement. Her work spans single-screen films, moving-image installations, and multi-projection performances, creating connections between representation and abstraction.
After moving to London, she embraced materialist and structural approaches, producing expanded cinema works and touring extensively. She partnered with Guy Sherwin, a UK artist filmmaker, for several years, presenting their collaborative film performance program internationally and often working with local musicians and live sound artists.
Lynn has curated artist film programs and served on juries for the International Izmir Short Film Festival and the Ann Arbor Film Festival 2021. Her work has been featured at festivals including Performa NYC, EXiS Experimental Film Festival South Korea, Tate Galleries London, and Café Oto London, with retrospectives at (S8) Peripheral Film Festival Spain and Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions Japan. She was a fellow artist at Macdowell Colony in 2004. Her practice has been discussed in publications such as Cinema Expanded: Avant-Garde Film in the Age of Intermedia (Walley) and Experimental and Expanded Animation (Smith & Hamlyn), with essays and interviews in Film Talks: 15 Conversations of Experimental Cinema (Payne and Vallance) and Asia Experimental Media Issue (EXiS, Seoul). She studied film at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and film archiving at the University of East Anglia (2006), and has worked in Time-based Media Conservation at Tate, as well as serving as a Film Conservator at the British Film Institute National Film and Television Archive. 

MONO NO AWARE SCREENING SERIES:
The CONNECTIVITY THROUGH CINEMA series will present the work of artists, film-makers and curators who are traveling or presenting special interactive programs in-person. Our hope is to engage the community by showing work with a focus on post-screening discussion. This series is made possible by support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).