Steven McInerney
Steven McInerney (b. Melbourne, 1983) is an interdisciplinary artist living in London. Working across temporal mediums, he combines 16mm, digital projection and sound spatialisation to create expanded forms of cinema, live audio/visual performances, and installations. McInerney's work draws upon dichotomous energies, meditating between the sacred and profane. His cinematic work explores psychospiritual tropes and altered perception, often blurring the lines between science and fiction. His live performances utilise multi-channel projection and real-time feedback systems to exploit the audience's awareness of time within the moving image, pushing the boundaries of perception and the medium itself. McInerney is the founder of Psyché Tropes, a label exploring the synesthetic intersections between sound and its visual counterpart. He performs and releases as Merkaba Macabre, while other collaborative projects include IOME, Post Coma, and Flying Disks.
McInerney's work has been exhibited at the British Film Institute, ICA, Curzon, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, Festival Internacional de Cine de Gijón, Punto y Raya, Fabra I Coats, Llum BCN, Fiber Festival, Fest Anča International Animation Festival, Mostra Internacional de Cinema Etnográfico, Proceso de Error, ULTRAcinema Mexico, Analogica, A.P.T Gallery, Dutch Design Week, Rebellious Bodies, Istanbul International Experimental Film Festival, Family Film Project, Aguilar International Film Festival, Cork French Film Festival, Sines and Squares, Portico Gallery, Bideodromo Experimental Film and Video Festival, London Short Film Festival, Flatpack Film Festival, East End Film Festival, Supernormal, Project DIVFUSE, Cafe OTO, and KLECTIK. His films have received international recognition with awards, and he has received funding and support from Arts Council England, Lux Moving Image, Film London, and British Film Council. He co-founded and directed the Hackney Film Festival from 2010 to 2012, has been featured on BBC Radio, Ina GRM’s L'Expérimentale on France Musique, and hosts a monthly radio programme on Resonance 104.4fm. Reviews in print and online include Wire Magazine, Wallpaper, Elephant, Ableton, and Electronic Sound among others.
Iterations & Afterimages
Live AV performance, 30m
2024
Iterations & Afterimages is an ongoing wave function research project that utilises high resolution scanned 16mm negatives for digital processing within a live audiovisual setting.
This experiment involves the manipulation of phase-modulated sound, transformed into real-time vector synthesis. Repetitive patterns of light and shifting sequences of color are generated by a high-wattage laser device operating at 1000mW.
A tightly focused, intense beam of electromagnetic energy, when captured on motion picture celluloid, forms abstract light sculptures as the light passes through the shutter. The radiation, in conjunction with the film's chemical reaction, unveils details imperceptible to the human eye.
These recurring patterns are mapped to pitch and color, interwoven, and manipulated to create a live composition. The outcome is a meditative yet ominously sensorial experience.
Live Performances
Noisemas III. December 17, 2023. IKLECTIK, London (UK)
This experiment involves the manipulation of phase-modulated sound, transformed into real-time vector synthesis. Repetitive patterns of light and shifting sequences of color are generated by a high-wattage laser device operating at 1000mW.
A tightly focused, intense beam of electromagnetic energy, when captured on motion picture celluloid, forms abstract light sculptures as the light passes through the shutter. The radiation, in conjunction with the film's chemical reaction, unveils details imperceptible to the human eye.
These recurring patterns are mapped to pitch and color, interwoven, and manipulated to create a live composition. The outcome is a meditative yet ominously sensorial experience.
Live Performances
Noisemas III. December 17, 2023. IKLECTIK, London (UK)
Bodies of Light ensue from Darkness
16mm, 20m
2024
Bodies of Light ensue from Darkness is an expanded 16mm film inspired by the profound insights of Yoshito Ohno. The film is an interpretation on the metamorphic states of Butoh, born out of the chaotic post-war climate of Japan, radiating from monochromatic intensity to multihued abstraction. Howlround and Merkaba Macabre have composed a soundtrack that resonates with the haunting soundscapes of early 1960s Butoh.
A film by Steven McInerney
Original soundtrack by Howlround & Merkaba Macabre
Screenings, In Concert
Rebelious Bodies. International Butoh Dance Festival. IKLECTIK, London. 2 Nov, 2023. (UK)
A film by Steven McInerney
Original soundtrack by Howlround & Merkaba Macabre
Screenings, In Concert
Rebelious Bodies. International Butoh Dance Festival. IKLECTIK, London. 2 Nov, 2023. (UK)
Codicies
Live AV performance, 30m
2023
Codicies is a live audiovisual project by Howlround, Merkaba Macabre & Pascal Savy, originally commissioned for the BONE x IKLECTIK Festival in July 2023 at Fabra I Coats, Barcelona. This collaboration incorporates error fragments of scanned 16mm and sound are intricately woven together and manipulated live. These analogue echoes by Merkaba Macabre are the natural dialectic in a parsed generative response, transmuted thru Pascal Savy’s ritual noise and processed by Howlround’s analogue tape loops to form a haunting and hallucinatory narrative that is both delicate and extreme.
> Video
Live Performances
12 January, 2024. Howlround + Merkaba Macabre + Pascal Savy Takeover. IKLECTIK, London (UK)
Fabra I Coats, Barcelona. 14 July, 2023. (Spain)
> Video
Live Performances
12 January, 2024. Howlround + Merkaba Macabre + Pascal Savy Takeover. IKLECTIK, London (UK)
Fabra I Coats, Barcelona. 14 July, 2023. (Spain)
Simulated Diegesis
Installation, Durational
2023
Simulated Diegesis is a site-specific installation created for the ‘Rising to Float’ exhibition at Greatorex Street gallery in London. The installation consisted of seven independent audio channels and light projection that spanned a 40-meter-long corridor. The piece was designed to explore the theme of transient spaces whereby synthetic and pre-recorded sounds from the site were concealed with hidden speakers to playfully interact with visitors as they moved through the space.
The intention was to challenge the public’s perception by creating a simulated diegetic experience for each visitor. Diegesis refers to the narrative elements of a film that are presented to the audience, such as sounds made by the characters or from the natural environment around them. A simulation of these elements created an artificial diegetic experience by design, blending seamlessly with the natural sounds of the space to create a disorienting, immersive experience.
Installation by Steven McInerney
> Video
Exhibitions
Greatorex Street Gallery, 12-14 May, 2023. London (UK)
The intention was to challenge the public’s perception by creating a simulated diegetic experience for each visitor. Diegesis refers to the narrative elements of a film that are presented to the audience, such as sounds made by the characters or from the natural environment around them. A simulation of these elements created an artificial diegetic experience by design, blending seamlessly with the natural sounds of the space to create a disorienting, immersive experience.
Installation by Steven McInerney
> Video
Exhibitions
Greatorex Street Gallery, 12-14 May, 2023. London (UK)