today we decided to have a shorter session – to concentrate on getting one complete iteration done of 55 seconds, and 6 minutes, from go to whoa. we got it done in under three hours, which is a big improvement. peter was with us, which made it a bit more fun. the very light 16mm strip from yesterday had a surprising amount of visible footage, so we decided to just continue on rather than abandon it and start from a step back. and the video version is getting more and more interesting each time – now the resonant sonic frequencies of the room are beginning to reinforce each other, in the words of alvin lucier, and we’re just getting the start of a beautiful musical sound piece. theres a comic element creeping in too. I’m getting the sense that the video version could really work, with an audience over a period of days, just as raban did in the seventies. it seems to make sense that he would have started the piece anew with each new venue, rather than transporting the previous venue’s product to a new venue to add to. that way, “our†venue would be seen to be making something from the ground up. i dunno, either would probably work, i guess.
the dark room stuff is working out ok. each time we seem to have a small developing problem, like a bit of film sticks to another bit and so doesnt develop and ends up being a blotchy bit on the film strip. we don’t know what we can do about this. it’s a seriously flawed process, which would be ironed out with a budget, essentially: decent camera, xenon projector, 100 foot rolls of film each day, and a lab to develop the film. big budget stuff. Is it really necessary, though, given that the video version is turning out so interestingly?
-Luca