My scientific background encourages exploration of motion media through experimental films, while my philosophy on witness photography adds a natural tendency towards documentary filmmaking. These films have been screened internationally at over 60 venues.
Selected Art Films:
Welcome to Mathare
(Digital Video, 40:15, January 2009)
Welcome to Mathare is not available for viewing online.
Mathare
In 10 days with only $10,000, Adam Costanza and Matt
Costanza went to the most brutal slum in Africa to make a
documentary. The relentless hope within a community
contrasts with the brutality of a city built on garbage.
With no sanitation, only a handful of public water spigots
for nearly a million people, this film shows how the people
of Mathare live, and how they bleed.
Official Movie Website: WelcometoMathare.com, Production
Company Website: LivingandBleeding.com
AUX films
The AUX movies are collaboratively made by video artists Matt Costanza and Jack Beck.
AUX 2
(Digitized Video Signals, 4:00, April 2008)
AUX 2 [codename: spacejunk] is
the next in a series. AUX works are sometimes meditational,
other times chaotic, all through video feedback
manipulation. The electronic image, looped upon itself,
exposes the circuitry, and becomes its own texture, color
and motion. This is the culmination of many days of
experimentation with multiple cameras and monitors.
Image/Edit: Jack Beck & Matt Costanza, Music: Rick
Scott
AUX 1
(Digitized Video Signals, 6:00, April 2007)
The electronic image, doubled,
crossed, combined, and looped upon itself, exposes the
circuitry matrix, and becomes its own surface texture,
color, and motion; pulsing to its own governing shutter
speed or frame rate. It becomes a mediated self-destruction
and/or a new art medium. Most intriguing are the elements
obscured, bent, broken, washed, twisted, bled, and immersed
in a vibrant, brute energy. Created in collaboration with
RIT Professor and video artist Jack Beck. AUX 1 is the
first in a planned series of six pieces, all of which use
video generated imagery.
Awen
(MFA Thesis: HD video, 9:30, November 2007)
Awen is not available for viewing online.
Awen is an ancient word meaning
breath of inspiration or flow of energy. In this piece, two
paintings and a sculpture of the cubist aesthetic come to
life – shimmering, pulsing, vibrating, and transforming the
image – scattering perspective, time, and form. Conceived,
directed, animated, and edited by Matt Costanza. Composed
by Ph.D. Candidate Michaela Eremiasova from The Eastman
School of Music, and choreographed by MFA Candidate Kelly
Ferris from SUNY Brockport’s School of Dance.
[tides]
(Digital Video, 5:55, January, 2007)
A video meditation on human
movement, on water, and on our bodies. If surf were people,
how would it move? The image was modified using a
time-based effect programmed by Matt Costanza, choreography
and dance by SUNY Brockport Professor Missy Pfohl Smith,
and music by Eastman Composer Abby Aresty.
Perdurance
(Digital Video, 14:00, February, 2006)
Exploring the motion of our
minds, through observations of the persistence and
endurance of daily living. Inspired from metaphysical
notions of perdurance through time. The image in this study
was modified using a time-based effect programmed by Matt
Costanza.
Dissolution
(HD video, 6:00, May, 2005)
Dissolution attempts to
dissolve the notions of personal boundaries through
elemental transformations. It portrays life and human
action as fluid, elegant, and ever changing: through
slit-scan, stroboscopic, and rotoscoped animation
techniques. Images were shot on 35mm SLR film with
stroboscopic or slit scan techniques, or scanned directly
from ink paintings.
Shadows
(Digital Video and Live Dance Performance, 6:00, April, 2005)
This collaborative piece is a
playful experimental cine-dance film with a unique score. A
giant custom light-box was created for shooting the
choreographers, creating a different sort of stage for them
to create on. Originally performed with live dance in front
of projected video, a cinematic version was also made.
Created in collaboration with SUNY Brockport choreographer
Kelsey Lumpkin, and Eastman composer Ethan Borshansky.
Limits
(Digital Video, 6:30, April, 2006)
This film is an assemblage of
short animations, each portraying a boundary or
transitional zone within our bodies: breath, blood, flesh,
and thought or desire. Images were shot and reanimated via
digital video and macro video cameras. Created in
collaboration with SUNY Geneseo Professor Leah Garland.
Reflecting Pool
(Digital Video, 9:00, April, 2004)
Sometimes the smallest event
can have the most profound repercussions. Reflecting Pool
creates a contemplative but highly charged visual and
musical expedition through a cycle of chaos and recovery.
Reflecting Pool was created in collaboration with RIT
Professor Stephanie Maxwell and composer Randall Hall. Made
with direct on film animation, macroscopic and microscopic
digital video recording, as well as live action footage.
Tathata
(Digital Video, 12:00, May, 2003)
A Mahayana Buddhist word for
such-ness or that-ness, meant to express the quality and
fullness of the universe in every instant, this film
follows the path of a young man lost in his own mind on a
journey towards acceptance and growth.
REVERBERATIONS
(Digital Video, 9:00, April, 2002)
Using video rotoscoping
techniques, the abstract imagery seen within this piece is
all based on human movement. Inspired from martial artists
and dancers, their motions are further animated and
ultimately abstracted. Created in collaboration with
Eastman School of Music composer-musician Kozue Jinnouchi.
BLUE
(Digital Video, 5:00, May, 2001)
Set to the classical piece
Hungarian Rhapsody, “BLUE” is a playful experimentation of
dancing light and visual music. The image is live action
footage of dancers and martial artists.