This film is the result of a collaboration between Julie Perini and the Earth. Julie used an old advertisement by General Electric about a woman alone on a dark street who seems scared but at the end of the ad she looks up to see lights have gone on and she feels safe. Julie cut this film into two-second strips (48 frames) and buried it in the ground. Each day for 20 days, she unearthed a strip of film and she then pieced it all back together. The dirt, water, worms and other earthly forces decayed the film and this final piece shows this gradual deterioration over time.
Collaboration With The Earth – TRT 1:14 mins.
16mm transferred to digital video, 2011
Julie Perini (b. 1977, Poughkeepsie, NY) is an artist working in video, film, audio, installation, and performance, living in Portland, Oregon. Her work has exhibited at the Northwest Film Festival in Portland, Baer Ridgway Exhibitions in San Francisco, Anthology Film Archives in New York City, and other national and international venues. She has had solo exhibitions and screenings in New York City, Ithaca, Buffalo, Rochester, Los Angeles, Portland, Lake Tahoe, and Rome, Italy. She is a recipient of the 2007 New York Foundation for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship in Cross-Disciplinary/Performative work. Julie holds a B.S. from Cornell University and an M.F.A. from the Department of Media Study at the University at Buffalo. Her writing on performance, video, and socially engaged art has been published in books and periodicals including A.K. Press, Afterimage, and INCITE! Journal of Experimental Media & Radical Aesthetics. Julie has been involved with collaborative initiatives that promote independent media, community cultural production, and progressive social change. She is the Assistant Professor of Video Art/Time-based Media at Portland State University.
Julie Perini – Portland OR
17 Days Video Series 
A very interesting way of displaying something that was already pre-made, and then drastically changing the feel of how the commercial is presented. My only critique would be is that I wish that there was more sounds then the walking of foot steps. I don’t know if there was more to it with the commercial, like a spoken slogan for GE, but it would have been interesting to hear it with the decaying video.
Great way to incorporate some sort of natural effect to a digital process. The audio seemed a bit strong a points especially towards the end. Also I find myself asking what makes this more than just some destroyed film re-strung together?
This is so clever! I love it, and that earth got some credit for parts of its beauty. This is awesome.
This video was very unique! The audio really connected with the video! Great Job!
I think there is a interesting dialog going on between the fact that it is an old advertisement about a sense of security but the artists has buried the film in the earth to degrade it almost like a loss of memory or a forgotten sense of what happened.
I love the experimentation with the medium! It’s very original, and the footage chosen was perfect. We live in a world where our lights and houses and sidewalks and cities feel safe, but in the end, the earth always gives and the earth always takes.
I really enjoy the title, because in fact life is just a collaboration with the Earth and everything we do involves some part of the environment. I am not sure if the film itself has to do with the overarching topic, but I don’t think it matters because you can barely see the ending. The play between film that is chemically processed and the earth that somehow chemically breaks the film down is the strongest part of the video.
I like that the Earth gets to participate in this one! Watching this makes me think of the unavoidable return to Earth. The fact is, we all die and decay, along with our objects. It’s worth thinking about what we’re investing ourselves in, and if it’ll be relevant after we’re gone.
Nature is one big interesting thing. Great concept. This is very innovative. I cant really describe my emotions on this video, but I can express my want to get to understand this idea fully. Technically, everything is working in your favor. Excellent video.
This was an innovative concept for exploring the idea of how society has become dependent on technology. Allowing the earth to contribute to the feel of the film helped to strengthen this concept for it is true that the earth will eventually overcome all the unnecessary changes we have tried to make on it.
This is a great concept. I like the experimentation using the earth as part of the medium- altering the film. It is interesting to think of how the earth may alter other materials.
Her collaboration with “the earth” created a great video. The gradual deterioration of the clips create a painting like quality to the film. I question the choice of imagery though. The general electric film doesn’t seem to fit with the deterioration of the actual film itself.
really unique way of editing. I feel like it did what you wanted, decaying the pieces of film until it was unreadable. I almost get a feeling you are trying to say something about the Earth and how we live today with electricity and other things that damage the Earth.
Beautiful. Before I watched this video, I imagined what it may look like in my head, with all of the earths editing. It ended up looking way better than I imagined.
I really like the distortion and abstractness to the things at the end. I also like how as the women was speeding up and looking more scared the things popping up started to take over the screen.
Very cool idea and visual effect, this really shows how there will always be certain things that can only be done with film rather than digitally.
I love this video ! The effects created by the earth are really stunning and I think they go very well with the vintage film used. I think this is a cool concept, collaborating with the earth, and the final product turned out great!