Music: Jon Gibson

A (re)collection, a (re)ordering of the elements of our external world, filmed during travels in California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. A sort of "topological revue." Salt flats, deserts, mountains, forests, cityscapes, plus meditation on Christo's Running Fence and Duane Hanson's figurative sculptures. Fantastic landscapes transmuted/reduced to their distinctive aesthetic qualities. Patterns of symmetry, of pure form emerge. Here shape and texture, color and light overcome meaning to affect perception on a primary, visceral level. Sensations evoked by certain (sometimes archetypal) images: a profound feeling of peace, a disturbing sense of unease, a tug of nostalgia ....

"Michael Wallin's MONITORING THE UNSTABLE EARTH ... proceeds from the filmmaker's intention of modeling a piece whose terms elude narrative fixations .... The eye of the camera embraces the essential surprise of the familiar - in landscapes, recurring human figures, art objects in natural and museum settings - paring away dross and fixing together a moving panorama of perceptual dares. The visuals are bonded together with an intriguing soundtrack." - Calvin Ahlgren, San Francisco Chronicle (SFAI Film Festival Judge)

Award: SF Art Institute Film Festival, 1980 Exhibition: Bay Area Filmmakers Showcase, SF Int'l Film Festival