The Silver Record

The Silver Record

Experimental Film Festival and Symposium

8–11th May

Full programme will be published on 30.04.2025

All events are free and in English

As the digital world replaced our analogue one, in our offices, communities and homes, we celebrated the simplification and ‘greening’ of our lives. The removal of the polluting ‘stuff’ we surround ourselves with - the unnecessary files and their cabinets, antiquated books with their paper and ink, and, in the context of image making, the messy tactility of the analogue film: its cumbersome mechanics, its silver emulsion, plastic base and the toxic chemistry involved in developing the image. The future was now and it felt clean, fast and as light as air! We could all consume as much as we wanted.

Decades on, we recognise that we are in a time of undeniable, intersecting environmental crises, hovering on the brink of multiple irreversible tipping points. We are now becoming more aware of the material foundations to this ‘light’ technology, and the politics around its production, ownership and use. Demand for both industrial and consumer technologies keeps rising, where digital images are a massive part—used in every aspect of our lives, produced by every one of us.

In 2024, it is estimated that there were 1.9 trillion images taken, and in the last decade, more images than were taken in the entirety of the 19th and 20th centuries, thanks to the advent of the smartphone.

As the Arctic melts, we are on the cusp of a new gold-rush, as massive geopolitical and industrial forces seek to benefit from opportunities for resource extraction and the opening up of lucrative trade routes. This includes drilling for new fossil fuels to meet our high-tech, high-energy lifestyles, rupturing ecologies in the building of data centres and the laying of fibre optic cables, and the mining of tech minerals and metals, including copper, lithium, graphite and silver.

The analogue artists’ film collective, Polar Film Lab, presents The Silver Record festival, in collaboration with Tromsø Kunstforening. Over 4 days of screenings of moving-image artworks, experimental film, performances, workshops and a symposium, we will reflect on our place within this image-making technology ecology, our role in presenting and advocating for the environment, the resultant geopolitics of it and what the future may hold, for image-making. The artworks, research and conversations act as a record of our changing Arctic and our changing relationship to the image.

Please join us at Tromsø Kunstforening from 8–11th May

Useful Info:

There will be coffee, tea and snacks available. Lunch will be served during the symposium.

Events are open to all ages, unless specified otherwise.

A bar selling beer and wine will operate during the festival.

Workshops (with exception of the children’s drop-in) require signing up (for more info see schedule)

Schedule

Workshops

06.–08.05.2025 10-16:00

Print & perform: a 3-day expanded cinema workshop by Britt Al-Busultan from Filmverkstaden. Sign-up required

08–09.05.20205 10–16:00

Arctic Photographic Garden: A 2-day workshop, collecting, planting and developing with plants selected for their photochemical properties, led by Ricardo Leite. Sign-up required.

Thursday 08.05.2025 16:00 - 18:00

Videokunstarkivet: An Introduction for Artists: Seminar on the use of artists-film archive Videokunstarkivet with Håvard Oppøyen.

Sunday 11.05.2025 10:30–12:30

Draw with the Sun!: A drop-in workshop for ages 7-100 using sunbleaching to create beautiful motifs on paper, led by Anne Lindgaard Møller.

Programme

Thursday 08.05.

16:00 - 23:00: Opening Performance, screening and bar at Tromsø Kunstforening

Friday 09.05.

15:00–20:00: Screenings, Performance and bar at Tromsø Kunstforening

20:30–late: Film quiz with Tromsø Filmklubb at Storgata Camping

Saturday 10.05.

10:00 - 16:30 The Silver Record, an interdisciplinary symposium at Tromsø Kunstforening

19:00–22:00: Screenings at Verdensteatret

Sunday 11.05.

13:00-17:00 - Exhibition tour, closing performance and screening at Tromsø Kunstforening

Venues

Host and organisers festival & symposium: Tromsø Kunstforening and Polar Film Lab

Organisers

Host and organisers festival & symposium: Tromsø Kunstforening and Polar Film Lab

Polar Film Lab is a collective providing space and community around analogue and experimental film in Tromsø, Northern Norway. We supply working facilities, and hold film screenings, master classes and workshops to improve the opportunities for artists working with film in the North, and to expand the knowledge around analogue and experimental film both within and outwith the arts community. It runs with a 'do-it-yourself' focus, aiming to bring more people into direct contact with analogue film. PFL was co-founded in 2016 by the artist Emilija Škarnulytė and curator Sarah Schipschack.

Tromsø Kunstforening / RomssaDáiddasiida / Tromsø Center for Contemporary Art is a free space for contemporary art, exhibiting new, experimental art and artists. Starting in 1924, we continue to present boundary-pushing exhibitions, projects in public space, performances and workshops that are open to all.

Our programme includes internationally recognised artists and new, emerging artists, giving special attention to projects that are rooted in the region. We strive to collaborate with, support and give space to other local independent arts initiatives.

Collaborators

The Silver Record Festival is a collaboration with Filmverkstaden (FI) who hosted the first edition in Vaasa, August, 2024.

Organisations presenting at the festival will be Light Cone, Photo North, Filmverkstaden, LaborBerlin, Videokunstarkivet and Martin Grennberger

Funders

This project has been generously funded by Kultur- og likestillingsdepartement, Nordisk Kulturfond, Kulturrådet, SNN Samfunnsløfte, Troms Fylke & Tromsø Kommune