Optical De-dramatization Engine (O.D.E.) applied in 15-hour cycles to Ma-Xu Weibang's ‘Yeban gesheng’ (Song at Midnight), 1937

Overview

This video presents an algorithmic, generative, and software-driven dataset of images that runs in 15-hour cycles. The sequenced, glitched imagery derives from the brilliant and melodramatic Shanghai version of "Phantom of the Opera" made in 1937. For this video, the launching time of my original software occurs 23:55 (Sept. 20, 2015) just prior to midnight. At precisely midnight, an algorithm is designed to trigger the start of the central song of "Yeban gesheng" - the politically convoluted and emotionally intense "Song at Midnight".