Friday, 21 March 2008
Protein
Protein, 9:35, 1994
Moving forward one year for some systematic sampled randomness, images of waveforms, binary code and trains, repetitive audio samples of TV documentaries, modems and dial tones, a dubby data melange, all very current in 1994, on sound stripe super 8.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
goodness!
what a superb piece of video... great soundtrack, and mesmerising dance scenes.. ( mirror view? overlay? reflection(s)?) and what a genuine longing /anticipation for/of the digital... and of course the fascination for train spotting that survived the 90's.
(s)train out of station... ahead of the time(s), again.
Thanks! Like the previous post though, this was shot and edited on super 8 film, not video, but the apparently strange thing about that, at this distance of retrospect, is how much of it is shot off a video screen; the question would be "why not shoot it on video?", especially as it was partly about electronic and digital textures. But super 8 was 'my medium' at the time, it was the context I worked in and also I liked the idea of using an 'old' media to look at 'new' media which is both an extension and the converse of the observation that new media is as much, if not more, of an extension of old media as it is a revolutionary break.
The 'dancers' were in fact an exercise class in the building opposite the Melbourne Film Festival office, where the Melbourne Super 8 Group had an office at the time.
The opening shot is of course a reference to the cover of Snatch 2?
which is completely black?
Ooops of course I meant Snatch 1--- which has the eye....
Well I have to say that it must have been an unconscious influence as by the time I made this I would have forgotten the Snatch 2 cover completely, it's equally unlikely to be the F&V Umbrella's Electric Eyes package, before you start trawling for other references! Often these sorts of things spring from the most mundane things like trying out the macro lens setting on a TV screen, which could easily be what this was, I don't remember. One thing about revisiting these and other works, has made me realise how 'atmospheric' they are (and sometimes, as you say, perhaps sinister, perhaps threatening), which is odd when often I was usually playing with a certain amount of indeterminacy, or so I thought.
Well my comment was in any case slightly tongue in cheek. The process you describe sounds very accurate indeed the picture of the eye on the TV screen on Snatch 2 was taken by (then flatmate) Sally Francis in a similar experiment with new camera lens vein. Talking of Melbourne in a curious co-incidence I got an email today saying that Landfill will get its first screening in the Melbourne Animation Festival. I'll be moving out there yet.....!
This is my policy of taking tongue in cheek comments seriously and vice versa. For a moment I read that as the Landfill Film Festival, which would be interesting. Post-Punk trivia: Nag, ex The Door and the Window, used to be involved with that festival, I wonder if he still is.
Landfill film festival does have a ring to it.....
Post a Comment