Name Jay Wright | ||
Jay T. Wright (born 1972) is an American filmmaker best known for showing in European video spaces and independent film festivals. His work synergizes theoretical math, science and art. The argument in much of his work is about the generic quality of all mechanically or digitally manufactured images and ability or lack of ability to communicate content. This tension acts, in many of his films, as a competing motive and sometimes in direct conflict with any idea of narrative.
His first feature film, 'Assembling the World' (16 mm, 1995), made when he was only 20 years old, follows cultures under the pressures of colonialism after the fall out of war in Taos Pueblo and Belfast and features the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico.
His second feature, 'The Color of Fish' (HD/DV 2001) examines string theory and the relationships of 'theories of everything' to the deep coded needs of the human mind. Made using simple desktop tools, the film can be seen as a precursor to shows like those on Toon's Adult Swim. It was nominated for a Guggenhiem Fellowship in 1999 and showed at MUNAL: Museo Nacional del Arte in Mexico City in the Biennial of Art and Poetry.
His long form film 'Dreamtime' (Digital, 2007, Tous le Court) is an inner journey using 'throw away' digital technology to probe the environment and time and connections to meaning when images are deprived of any physical form. The film restates and questions the ideas embedded in Italian Neo-Realism and Cinema Verite. It was also his first performance in a number of years after a long re-evaluative break; something he has become known for.
Other short films have pushed back on notions about urban revitalization – Voyage in Blue (35mm, 2005, Cannes Short Film Corner); and examined forms of Japanese haiku and zen – FireStatic (16mm, 1998, Calcutta Film Festival). His film Purity (Digital, 2009) contains no images, and has been his most militant stance on image meaning and image production.