At the cross over between cinema and arts, experimental film since its very first introduction in the late 1920s has been attempting to investigate and undermine the concrete illusion of the dominant narrative film. Structural/Materialist filmmaking that emerged in the late 60s has been at the forefront of the modes of experimentation. In the same fashion, since experimental film and artists' moving image burst into the scene as a significant medium and device of art in the merely past 20 years, some contemporary Thai artists and filmmakers also employ Structural/Materialist film to negate the representative in narrative cinema. For example, moving image works by Pathompon Tesprateep, Taiki Sakpisit, Chulayarnnon Siriphol and Arnont Nongyao, to name a few, draw upon the process of looking through media by experimenting and exploring the characteristics of the medium and apparatus of cinema and electronic devices, the relation of the code and its interface, as well as the properties of the photo-chemical process. As of nowadays, it seems impossible to deny the influence of technology, media and material culture. Ways of understanding ourselves in the world of material culture may somehow be to apprehend the physical process-matter, energy dimension, and form of media and materials, in which human communications take place.

About curator

Pathompong Manakitsomboon (b. 1983, Chiang Mai) is an independent curator and researcher based in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. He works primarily in the areas of artists’ moving image, experimental film, and media art, with experiences across the fields of curatorial practice and filmmaking. He was previously a programmer/curator at Bangkok World Film Festival, Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, and Alliance Francaise Bangkok. He also produces and distributes several renowned Thai artists’ moving images. Pathompong holds a Master’s in Film Curating from Birkbeck, University of London where he graduated with Distinction. His research area concerns the emerging discipline of material culture, technology and consciousness and their influences on image-making and spectacles in relation to curatorial knowledge. Pathompong is currently forming ‘Latent Images,’ a moving image collective that aims to bridge the interstices between the curating world and the academy.