City Speak

experimental video short, DV 13 min
created by V C Ritter, music by Tolcha _ 006

City Speak is an experimental video short exploring the different means of communication in urban spaces. d_ filmische erzählcollage über kommunikation im urbanen raum.

In 2003 i had taken the unexpected chance to enroll in the somewhat eccentric postgraduate diploma course ‘Interdisciplinary Design’ at the Berlin School of Arts, Weissensee. all worries about economic sustainability put aside this time round, studying art as a second degree made my number one dream come true! apart from our seminars and own project work developing my film “City Speak”, we could attend other classes at the school. this was greatly enriching, this was REAL freedom! and i made the most of it.

turning away from the computer and digital imaging after 8 years and exploring new materials and creative techniques, i especially enjoyed those introduction courses with the first year students,
where we were guided to investigate basics of fine art, like colour and materials. in equal shares scientific laboratory, kindergarden and youth madhouse those experiences gave my whole creative destination a new spin, and i later even based my concept of the art film shorts series ‘On Art Elementals’ on them. all the while, with my background in academics and filmmaking as well as one leg in a commercial broadcast design job, it proved at the time pretty hard for both sides in our own dedicated seminars to find common ground. ‘they’ were urging me for some arty type of “personal stace” (impossible in science or on a film set), while i was disconcerted by those ‘strange’ art practitioners´ incompatible takes on filmmaking and their credo of egocentrism.