Experimental filmmaker Zack Sievers places us in a unique situation: to attend Spider Festival, to be immersed in it, but to look at all that is present there while at the same moment looking through different eyes – non-human eyes. Haptic Spider – Non-Human Eye, a film that will be made in-situ at Spider Festival, merges the arts of documentary filmmaking and archival videography with experimental cinematography practices designed to draw attention to the role of touch in image-making processes and the tactile, aesthetic qualities of cinematographic works (haptic cinematography). The documentary/archival dimension of "Haptic Spider" concerns the art of recording events, interviews, and performances during the 2022 Spider Festival. The haptic cinematography dimension concerns the experimental design and use of UV (ultraviolet) and IR (infrared) inspired filters during the recording process, for the purposes of creating and manipulating experimental depth of fields. What we are presented with is an unconventional record of the festival, an opening of a gaze to the performances that are both visible and invisible to the naked human eye. How we see is as relevant as how spiders see.

#haptic cinematography #infrared #ultraviolet #multiple eyes #i spy with my little spider

director, camera, editing: Zack Sievers * production: Zack Sievers and Spider Festival * funded by: Villanova University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of Philosophy

© Zack Sievers