The House of Dust (2021)

The House of Dust (2021) poster

In 1967, Knowles, a Fluxus artist, composed one of the first computerized poems, written in Fortran code, with randomly assembled verses. (An example: “A house of steel / Among high mountains / Using candles / Inhabited by people who sleep almost all the time.”) This significant, jam-packed exhibition revives Knowles’s poem on an old-school dot-matrix printer, and includes related ephemera, including a film by Allan Kaprow. The show also highlights forebears of Knowles’s aleatory composition, with a never-completed book by Mallarmé whose pages could be reordered at will, as well as Marcel Broodthaer’s 1969 homage to it. There are also successors: Nicholas Knight’s intricate paintings of overlapping colored curves were generated by an algorithm, and Katarzyna Krakowiak’s audio piece remixes Knowles’s original poem into skittering musique concrète.

Director: Alison Knowles
Runtime: 88 min
Release Date:

Cast

Editing: Joshua Selman
Production: Emily Harvey Foundation
Language: English
Original Language: en

Keywords

performance art, avant-garde, poetry recitation, live play

More Films by Director: Alison Knowles

Frequently Asked Questions

What is The House of Dust about?
In 1967, Knowles, a Fluxus artist, composed one of the first computerized poems, written in Fortran code, with randomly assembled verses. (An example: “A house of steel / Among high mountains / Using candles / Inhabited by people who sleep almost all the time.”) This significant, jam-packed exhibition revives Knowles’s poem on an old-school dot-matrix printer, and includes related ephemera, including a film by Allan Kaprow. The show also highlights forebears of Knowles’s aleatory composition, with a never-completed book by Mallarmé whose pages could be reordered at will, as well as Marcel Broodthaer’s 1969 homage to it. There are also successors: Nicholas Knight’s intricate paintings of overlapping colored curves were generated by an algorithm, and Katarzyna Krakowiak’s audio piece remixes Knowles’s original poem into skittering musique concrète.
Who directed The House of Dust?
The House of Dust was directed by Alison Knowles.
Who stars in The House of Dust?
The House of Dust stars Alison Knowles, Jessica Higgins, Joshua Selman, Clara Joy, Andrew Hubert.
How long is The House of Dust?
The House of Dust has a runtime of 1h 28m (88 minutes).