“The Library, The Archive, The Collection”: Research as Studio Practice in the Art of the Moving Image

Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Time: 12:30 PM
Location: Rare Book Room
Contact Information: Kirston Johnson, 919-681-7963 or kirston.johnson(at)duke.edu

A still from “The Great Art of Knowing” showing Byrd’s bookplate.

Award-winning filmmaker and Guggenheim Fellow David Gatten will present his 2004 film, “The Great Art of Knowing.”

The film belongs to a series exploring the extensive library of William Byrd II, a prominent 17th-century Virginian landowner and author. Taking as a point of departure Athanasius Kircher‘s Ars Magna Sciendi (often translated as The Great Art of Knowing), the film attempts a reconstruction of the lives of William Byrd and his daughter Evelyn, and underlines the centuries-old desire to build systems of total knowledge and complete understanding.

Gatten is the 2010 Distinguished Visiting Filmmaker for Duke’s Program in the Arts of the Moving Image. His residency is funded by the Provost’s Council for the Arts Visiting Artist Residency grant.

In addition to his 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship, Gatten has shown his films at the Whitney Biennial, the Toronto International Film Festival, the London Film Festival, and several other international film festivals. His work belongs to the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Whitney Museum of American Art, as well as those of numerous university and private collections.