UNSEEN MOTION PICTURE (2024)
Unseen Motion Picture premiered at the Mono No Aware Cinema Arts Festival in New York City in 2024. This piece is a collection film, shown on a slide projector, from my years as a film projectionist, collecting discarded scraps from the head and tail leader of films. These small bits of ephemera give a window into the structure of this often impenetrable trade, and allows the audience a chance to see ‘behind the curtain’ into the world of motion picture projection. In the words of Carolyn Funk, veretan NYC projectionist, “The big obstacle to learning film projection now is that the medium —
film — has gone from ubiquitous to basically obsolete in the last
decade. At the same time, or I suppose due to celluloid’s sudden rarity,
there has been a move away from automation and platter systems to
archival systems of reel-to-reel changeovers, and therefore a return to
the traditional labor-intensive, skilled-trade aspects of projecting
film.” (Interview witha Projectionist, Ben Fama in Conversation with Carolyn Funk, Newest York)This project was intended to encourage interest in the medium of analog film and highlight the work of projectionists still dedicated to keeping it alive.
Images courtesy of Mono No Aware.
VISION IS A SURFACE (2021)
a dimension through data conversion. Is she
still recognizable? She I mean me, it makes
me dizzy, watching myself from the outside.
I was built to be inside myself looking out.
Form implies function. If I keep staring at
my own reflection, I'll drown.
Cyborg Manifesto, the Bitch Mutant Manifesto
of VNS Matrix, and countless girl bloggers.