EP.23 - Karel Doing

Karel Doing is an independent artist, filmmaker and researcher, his films, performances and installations have been shown widely. In 2017, he received his PhD from the University of the Arts London in Animation, Interactive, Film & Sound. In his thesis he proposed “new forms of humility, doubt and listening to be advanced in today’s over-confident and exploitative human culture.”

In recent years his work has revolved around experimenting with a new organic process he calls Phytography - a technique that uses the internal chemistry of plants for the creation of images on photographic emulsion. He has delivered numerous workshops on this, sharing the technique and supporting people to use the process. He has developed a website dedicated to this work and has just released online workshops that people can access during the lockdown. 

His website in rich with information, research, stills, recipes with instructions and some photographs and videos showing work produced during the various workshops Karel has delivered to share the technique.

The works we focussed on during our chat are available on Vimeo and include The Mulch Spider’s Dream (2018), Liquidator (2010) and Meni (1994)

We also discuss his 2019 project 'Bog Myrtle and Flamethrowers', created during an artists residency with Alchemy Film and Arts. You can see images from his workshop and read more about the exhibition on the Alchemy website here. During the interview Karel also makes reference to:

Derek Jarman’s film Angelic Conversation (1985) 
AVE Festival (Audio Visueel Experimenteel) 
The film director, editor and producer Jürgen Reble 
The expanded cinema group Metamkine
Film director Joost Rekveld
EMAF - the long established German based European Media Festival
The Sound Artist Michal Osowski

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into the mothlight podcast · EP.23 - Karel Doing