Difference between revisions of "Zbigniew Rybczyński"

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Born 1949 in [[Lodz]]. Experimental film director, cameraman and lecturer. Having completed his secondary education at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, he worked for a period of time at the Studio Miniatur Filmowych [the Miniature Film Study]. In 1969 he enrolled at the Lodz Film School, where he was active in the [[Workshop of Film Form]], the leading Polish avant-garde group. All his major animated films, including Tango – for which he won an Oscar in 1983, the first ever awarded to a Pole – were produced at the Se-Ma-For Study in Lodz. After moving to the United States, he turned to video and High Definition techniques.
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Born 1949 in [[Lodz]]. Experimental film director, cameraman and lecturer.  
  
He gained great popularity – as well as the nickname “Big Zbig” – thanks to his music videos for artists including Simple Minds, Mick Jagger and John Lennon, and films such as Steps (1986), The Fourth Dimension (1988) and The Orchestra (1990), acclaimed for their striking virtuosity by critics and audiences around the world. From 1987 to 1994 he ran his own studio, which he outfitted with the most advanced HDTV equipment available.
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{{TOC limit|3}}
  
In addition to the Oscar, Zbig has received numerous prestigious awards, including an Emmy, a Golden Gate Award at San Francisco Film Festival, Electronic Cinema Festival Awards in Tokyo and Montreaux, MTV and American Video Awards, Monitor Awards and a Billboard Music Video Award. His Orchestra received a Prix Italia, an award which is granted to TV productions for outstanding artistic value.
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Having completed his secondary education at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, he worked for a period of time at the Studio Miniatur Filmowych [the Miniature Film Study]. In 1969 he enrolled at the Lodz Film School, where he was active in the [[Workshop of Film Form]], the leading Polish avant-garde group. His first films were ''Kwadrat'' and ''Take Five'', both in 1972. In Lodz, he worked as a cinematographer on educational, short and feature films. In 1977, he went to [[Vienna]] where he realised ''Weg Zum Nachbarn'' and ''Mein Fenster''. In Vienna he also set up a trick studio for an Austrian TV. In between, Zbig was involved in the «Solidarity» movement in Poland. When martial law was declared, he received political asylum in Austria. In 1983, he won an Academy Award as Best Animated Short for ''Tango'' (1980) and then moved with his family to the United States. There he founded his own production company, Zbig Vision (1987-1994), where he conceived and realized as a first filmmaker high definition videos, including ''Steps'' (1987), ''The Orchestra'' (1990), and ''Kafka'' (1992).
  
He has taught at numerous universities: the Film School of Lodz, Columbia University New York, the Academy of Media Art (KHM) in Cologne. Presently, he holds a position of a visiting professor at Joshibi University of Art and Design in Tokyo.
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He gained great popularity – as well as the nickname 'Big Zbig' – thanks to his music videos for artists including Simple Minds, Mick Jagger and John Lennon, and films such as ''Steps'' (1986), ''The Fourth Dimension'' (1988) and ''The Orchestra'' (1990), acclaimed for their striking virtuosity by critics and audiences around the world.  
  
Along with pursuing his artistic and academic career, he has been conducting research on the visual image and special effects, which has led him to develop his own solutions in the field of electronic visualization. His applications have been employed in the film and TV industry and received several technical US patents.
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In 1994, Rybczynski moved to Germany: in [[Berlin]] he worked at the CFB Zentrum to design new computer imaging techniques, later in [[Cologne]] he taught experimental film at the Media Arts Academy. In 2001, he returned to the US and currently lives in Los Angeles where he works for the Ultimatte Corporation.
  
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In addition to the Oscar, Rybczynski has received numerous prestigious awards, including an Emmy, a Golden Gate Award at San Francisco Film Festival, Electronic Cinema Festival Awards in Tokyo and Montreaux, MTV and American Video Awards, Monitor Awards and a Billboard Music Video Award. His ''Orchestra'' received a Prix Italia, an award which is granted to TV productions for outstanding artistic value.
  
http://www.culture.pl/web/english/resources-visual-arts-full-page/-/eo_event_asset_publisher/eAN5/content/zbigniew-rybczynski<br>
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==Works==
http://filmjournal.net/kinoblog/category/directors/zbigniew-rybczynski/<br>
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===The Square (Kwadrat)===
[http://www.adk.de/de/aktuell/veranstaltungen/index.htm?we_objectID=30363 Exhibition in Berlin, 2011]
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<center>{{#widget:Html5media|url=http://monoskop.org/images/9/97/Rybczynski_Zbigniew_1972_-_Kwadrat_Square.webm|width=704|height=528|poster=http://monoskop.org/images/8/8e/Rybczynski_Zbigniew_1972_The_Square.jpg}} <br>
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35mm, 3'30", PWSTiF Łódź, 1972. [[Media:Rybczynski_Zbigniew_1972_-_Kwadrat_Square.webm|Download (WEBM)]]</center>
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"It was a mix of photography and animation and it took up my whole vacation - sixteen hours a day. I analysed, through a film camera, a loop of thirty-six squarish black-and-white photographs representing a human being moving in a circle. What was the logic of my analysis? I decided to photograph the loop on film and repeat it thirty-six times. During every new repetition I divided the film window - which I made in the shape of a square - so that in every circle there was an increasing number of subdivisions; today I would say different resolutions. I put a white square of paper in the subdivisions where in the photograph there was a part of a figure; where there was not, I put a black square. I had to rearrange the white and black squares at least a hundred thousand times. On the lens I put a color filter, and then rotated it - but I don't want to bore you. What is most important about this is that not being aware of computer imaging - it was 1970, in Poland - I manufactured my own 'digital' processing on film. Strange that I needed twenty-six years of work - including my work during all my next twenty five vacations - to come back to Kwadrat with full awareness and understanding of why." <br>
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Source: Zbigniew Rybczynski: "Looking to the Future - Imagining the Truth", in Francois Penz, Maureen Thomas (eds.), ''Cinema and Architecture: From Historical to Digital''. British Film Institute, BFI, London, 1997.
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===Media===
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<center>{{#widget:Html5media|url=http://monoskop.org/images/5/5b/Rybczynski_Zbigniew_1980_-_Media.webm|width=720|height=544|poster=http://monoskop.org/images/6/61/Rybczynski_Zbigniew_1980_Media.jpg}} <br>
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35mm, 1'36", SMFF Se-Ma-For Łódź, 1980. [[Media:Rybczynski_Zbigniew_1980_-_Media.webm|Download (WEBM)]]</center>
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== Catalogues==
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* ''Der Stand der Bilder: die Medienpioniere Zbigniew Rybczyński und Gábor Bódy / State of Images: The Media Pioneers Zbigniew Rybczyński and Gábor Bódy'', eds. Siegfried Zielinski und Peter Weibel, Nürnberg: Verl. für Moderne Kunst, 2011, 156 pp. {{de}}/{{en}}
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** ''[[Media:A kepek allasa A mediamuveszet uttoroi Zbigniew Rybczynski es Body Gabor 2012.pdf|A képek állása – A médiaművészet úttörői: Zbigniew Rybczyński és Bódy Gábor]]'', Budapest: C3, 2012, 88 pp. {{hu}}
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==See also==
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* [[Poland#Experimental film, avant-garde film]]
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==Links==
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* http://www.zbigvision.com/
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* [http://www.culture.pl/web/english/resources-visual-arts-full-page/-/eo_event_asset_publisher/eAN5/content/zbigniew-rybczynski Rybczyński on Culture.pl]
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* [http://filmjournal.net/kinoblog/category/directors/zbigniew-rybczynski/ Rybczyński on Kinoblog]
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* [http://stateofimages.c3.hu/index_en.html State of Images--The Media Pioneers Zbigniew Rybczyński and Gábor Bódy] exhibition,[http://www.adk.de/de/aktuell/veranstaltungen/index.htm?we_objectID=30363 Berlin], Karlsruhe, Budapest and Wroclaw, 2011-2013.
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[[Category:Film]] [[Category:Experimental film]] [[Category:Library]] {{featured article}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Rybczynski, Zbigniew}} [[Category:Library]]

Latest revision as of 10:31, 1 November 2019

Born 1949 in Lodz. Experimental film director, cameraman and lecturer.

Having completed his secondary education at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, he worked for a period of time at the Studio Miniatur Filmowych [the Miniature Film Study]. In 1969 he enrolled at the Lodz Film School, where he was active in the Workshop of Film Form, the leading Polish avant-garde group. His first films were Kwadrat and Take Five, both in 1972. In Lodz, he worked as a cinematographer on educational, short and feature films. In 1977, he went to Vienna where he realised Weg Zum Nachbarn and Mein Fenster. In Vienna he also set up a trick studio for an Austrian TV. In between, Zbig was involved in the «Solidarity» movement in Poland. When martial law was declared, he received political asylum in Austria. In 1983, he won an Academy Award as Best Animated Short for Tango (1980) and then moved with his family to the United States. There he founded his own production company, Zbig Vision (1987-1994), where he conceived and realized as a first filmmaker high definition videos, including Steps (1987), The Orchestra (1990), and Kafka (1992).

He gained great popularity – as well as the nickname 'Big Zbig' – thanks to his music videos for artists including Simple Minds, Mick Jagger and John Lennon, and films such as Steps (1986), The Fourth Dimension (1988) and The Orchestra (1990), acclaimed for their striking virtuosity by critics and audiences around the world.

In 1994, Rybczynski moved to Germany: in Berlin he worked at the CFB Zentrum to design new computer imaging techniques, later in Cologne he taught experimental film at the Media Arts Academy. In 2001, he returned to the US and currently lives in Los Angeles where he works for the Ultimatte Corporation.

In addition to the Oscar, Rybczynski has received numerous prestigious awards, including an Emmy, a Golden Gate Award at San Francisco Film Festival, Electronic Cinema Festival Awards in Tokyo and Montreaux, MTV and American Video Awards, Monitor Awards and a Billboard Music Video Award. His Orchestra received a Prix Italia, an award which is granted to TV productions for outstanding artistic value.

Works[edit]

The Square (Kwadrat)[edit]


35mm, 3'30", PWSTiF Łódź, 1972. Download (WEBM)

"It was a mix of photography and animation and it took up my whole vacation - sixteen hours a day. I analysed, through a film camera, a loop of thirty-six squarish black-and-white photographs representing a human being moving in a circle. What was the logic of my analysis? I decided to photograph the loop on film and repeat it thirty-six times. During every new repetition I divided the film window - which I made in the shape of a square - so that in every circle there was an increasing number of subdivisions; today I would say different resolutions. I put a white square of paper in the subdivisions where in the photograph there was a part of a figure; where there was not, I put a black square. I had to rearrange the white and black squares at least a hundred thousand times. On the lens I put a color filter, and then rotated it - but I don't want to bore you. What is most important about this is that not being aware of computer imaging - it was 1970, in Poland - I manufactured my own 'digital' processing on film. Strange that I needed twenty-six years of work - including my work during all my next twenty five vacations - to come back to Kwadrat with full awareness and understanding of why."
Source: Zbigniew Rybczynski: "Looking to the Future - Imagining the Truth", in Francois Penz, Maureen Thomas (eds.), Cinema and Architecture: From Historical to Digital. British Film Institute, BFI, London, 1997.

Media[edit]


35mm, 1'36", SMFF Se-Ma-For Łódź, 1980. Download (WEBM)

Catalogues[edit]

See also[edit]

Links[edit]