The live electronic performance of Flying Lotus over Harry Smith's 1962 experimental film classic, Heaven & Earth Magic marked both a literal and symbolic integration of past and future. Harry Smith's five-year long film project, titled by Jonas Mekas in 1962 as Heaven & Earth Magic after its final re-edit, is a collage of animated photographs known for its overtly mythological connotations and its frequent Jungian interpretations as an exploration of the archetypical origins of humankind. Over the sensory-visual bombardment of these images from the past loaded with primordial signification, the live sounds of Flying Lotus accompanied by Dr. StrangeLoop created a fascinating simultaneity of the past-obsessed nature of Harry Smith's work, rooted in archeology and ancient myth, and the future-oriented nature of Flying Lotus, pushing the advancement of signal processing technologies toward progressive and new forms of creative expression. And the immaculate interior of the historic Michigan theater provided perfect space for the amalgamation of these two worlds -- carrying a technological Avant-garde into the future, while ensuring its and linkage to the classical avant-garde of the past.

Despite the 48 years that exist between two works, the shared interest in universal origins and the construction of universes created a profound linkage between Harry Smith's film and Flying Lotus' performance that seemed to transcend the awareness of their temporal and historical separation. During the Q&A following his performance, Flying Lotus suggested that a purpose of artistic expression is to leave behind a sort of residual universe for later generations to explore and excavate meaning from. And perhaps, at a later date, the event of this screening and performance itself will serve as an allegorical point of reference for the Ann Arbor Film Festival itself -- facilitating the coexistence of an archival preservation and celebration of the classic Avant-garde of the past while keeping up with the exponentially progressive technological trends of creative expression as they open toward an unknown future.