2016, Intermittent animation,11 minutes, Colour, Sound
This Harmony is an Accident is an experimental film employing animation through the use of two layered images tinted in red, green and blue. The colours correspond to musical notes of two individual compositions that were created for the purpose of direction only, with the requirement to be harmonically interdependent. Composition and correspondence were achieved independently by Anja Mahler and Dean Kavanagh.
The idea of the film was formed when joining members of the Experimental Film Society at a residency in Lichtenberg Studios, Berlin, in the summer of 2015. This Harmony is an Accident explores concepts of collaboration such as structure, independency and interdependeny in contrast to concepts of music like homophony, monophony and polyphony. The structure of the film is based on the concept of polyphony, a texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody. The technique is most advanced
in Baroque music. Here the technique of counterpoint, which is the relationship between voices that are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and contour, foster creations through strict rules in composing that thrives on increased complexity. The title of the film is inspired by the term Baroque, which stems from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning misshapen pearl.