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Press Kit

Synopsis

Combining science and art, Reading the Landscape is a magical voyage around the world following the migratory patterns of humankind. We follow five forms identified in nature that are present in alphabets universally, ancient to modern, and show that these forms were chosen ubiquitously as they mirror neurons and neural processes of perception and cognition.

Director’s Statement

As a result of solo sojourns in wilderness ranging in duration up to sixteen months over a period of twenty years, I isolated five patterns in nature that I found to be intrinsic to all alphabets ancient to modern. Augmented by global travels to study and photograph alphabets of the world, I conjectured that these forms were recognized universally because they mirror the shapes of neurons and neural processes engaged in perception and cognition.

I named my hypothesis Cosmography: The Writing of the Universe, and was first invited to present it in scientific conferences in 1982.

The theory was universally accepted and I realized Cosmography had a life of its own. At the time I was using four Kodak Carousel slide projectors programmed to create a movie-like experience, but as invitations to present the theory steadily grew it became clear I needed to up my game.

I invited prize-winning filmmaker and editor, Eric Marin, to collaborate with me in an hour-long film using images from the slide show. After five years of innovative filmmaking, Cosmography: The Writing of the Universe (DVD 60 minutes) was released in 1995. The film visually and theoretically follows my discovery process toward the origin of all alphabets and implies the power of these primal forms in healing. Cosmography gained recognition globally and continues to enjoy a healthy profusion worldwide.

By the year 2000 educators of various disciplines were encouraging me to make a film for “kids of all ages” demonstrating the nugget of the theory. I re-envisioned the concept and again invited Eric Marin to collaborate with me in creating a magical, educational journey where the five forms become the protagonists and carry the viewer with them in their alphabetic adventures through fifteen countries and languages round the world.

After twenty years of film work characterized by global travels, frequent changes in technology requiring development of innovative techniques to reify original images Reading the Landscape was released in 2019 and has been enthusiastically received in world venues.

Credits

Gilah Yelin Hirsch: Writer, Director, Producer

Hirsch is a multidisciplinary artist, whose art, films and papers have been exhibited and published internationally. She holds the position of Professor of Art, Emerita, California State University Dominguez Hills, Los Angeles and resides in Venice, California.

Eric Marin: Editor

Marin is director/editor at Earmarkfilms and lecturer at UCLA. In addition to editing documentary and feature films, Eric has directed and edited his own prize-winning documentaries, including Lou Harrison, Cherish, Conserve, Consider, Create.

Full Credits – Click to download a PDF document

Screen Shots

The images below are Copyright © Gilah Yelin Hirsch 2021 Some Rights Reserved and may be used for promotional purposes. Additional images are available upon request.

Compliments and Reviews

Bravissima! …May this fine film spread throughout our needy culture and transform not just children —
•  Kathryn Jacobi • Artist

I really enjoyed the film – such fascinating visual/intellectual deliciousness!
•  Elaine Brandt • Professor of Art and Art History

Reading the Landscape is quite extraordinary – fascinating, provocative, and entertaining. Interesting conversations continued long after we left the theatre. And for those who believed that they had an understanding of the interconnectedness that exists all around us, Reading the Landscape sparked a new realization of the significance of these universal connections.
•  Jim Morphesis • Artist, Professor of Art

Ellen and I have just watched your amazing film. We both took it in with ouus and ahhhs as your visual landscapes conjoined with the signature lines, arcs, x’s, circles referencing the alphabet in hills, forests, palaces, houses, trails, ponds, rivers, the oceanic sphere turning and tuning it all together with movement and music, not to mention the beautiful faces of adults and children so quiet in speaking their primal words – Mama, Papa, Brother, Sister, Grandma, etc. And, of course, the animals…** Together with your singularly conscious visuals, you suggest so much unconscious resonance regarding who we are, where we come from and what we imagine we see. Ellen and I are in awe of the insight and patience with which you made it all happen…
•  Martin Epstein • Playwright, Assoc. Arts Prof., NYU Tisch School of the Arts
•  Ellen Jouret Epstein • Artist

Watched your outstanding video several times to learn more from it each screening. It is a timeless work of art that brings us all together through the origin of language, writing, culture and nature. We are truly one big family.
•  David Herschler • Artist, World Culture Scholar

Screenings

Reading the Landscape was first shown at transdisciplinary conferences in Europe and the US in 2018-19.

The movie was premiered in 2019 at Edgemar Center for the Arts, Santa Monica, CA, and California State University Dominguez Hills to celebrate over a hundred adults and children from twenty-eight countries who participated in the film, as well as the numerous individuals, foundations and cultural agencies whose generosity made this film possible.

Technical Specifications:

Reading the Landscape is standard format video: 720 x 480 px.

Calm Pond Productions is a banner entity that includes under its aegis the different media created and produced by Artist/Professor Hirsch. Located in Venice, CA, it is currently operating as a Sole Proprietorship.

Cosmography: the Writing of the Universe, the precursor to Reading the Landscape, explores the relationship of form to emotion – how images are stimulated and how they affect the physiology of the viewer; the nature of perception and cognition – how the human mind makes sense of what it perceives and why; how all alphabets may have stemmed from five patterns in nature which mirror the neurons and neural processes of the perceptual apparatus; and how indigenous cultures utilize these forms in healing techniques because of their power to catalyze a sense of physical and emotional harmony.

Through the vehicles of painting, photography and innovative experimental video effects, the discovery process is brought to life so that the viewer participates experientially in the creative journey of the artist.

The unusual visual qualities of Cosmography and Reading the Landscape were developed in collaboration with editor Eric Marin.

Cosmography: the Writing of the Universe is available for viewing on Vimeo.