[Frameworks] 16mm/Super8 Screening & Panel Discussion @ NYPL Jefferson Market Library

[Lady Snowblood]

Matt, this is a fantastic document . . .
This is thought to simultaneously relax the brain and increase active engagement as the mind “fills the gaps” between each shutter interruption. In this way, the brain constructs perception of movement from distinct still frames. 

Its interesting to me that there is no concomitant discussion of codec. The video codec does the interpolation work for the viewer. Different codecs do this following different rules … This may create the viewer’s sense of distance, and the sleepiness Pip referred to earlier. Sensory processing is doing a lot less work to read the imagery on screen.

 * * * 

As someone who has been screening exclusively digital video, and who works with digitized film regularly, I think the slackness with language about “what is film” refers also to whether or not the audience is educated or invested in the physicality of film. How much of this rolls back to human experience of story (or just, visual experience)? People I think have a tendency to identify with “film” being a “storytelling medium”.  At least, those audience members who don’t know how the stuff gets made. 

I refer to myself as a ‘digital media artist’ even when I make work involving emulsion manipulation, scanning, & digital animation. That deliverable can contain images resonant with those produced by “analog media”, but its still bound together and presented in the digital.

Jessica

* * * * *

Jessica Fenlon

artist : poet : experimental ~
http://www.drawclose.com



On Nov 11, 2014, at 9:02 PM, Matt Whitman <info at mawhitman.com> wrote:

> I absolutely will, and on those points that you just raised, I certainly agree. For others interested, a good article from earlier in the year on precisely this issue can be found on the Film Advocacy Task Force's website (http://www.filmadvocacy.org/2014/05/14/projection-the-politics-of-passivity/) titled Projection: The Politics of Passivity - just as important to look at are references which follow on the distinctions between beta and phi movement. PDF also attached
> <FATF-Print-14-May-2014.pdf>
> On Nov 11, 2014, at 8:47 PM, Pip Chodorov wrote:
> 
>> Thank you for the invitation but I am currently teaching three film courses at Dongguk University in Seoul!
>> 
>> Please do raise the point that films being made on film today are as much about their material as about their content (true obviously for many avant-garde filmmakers such as Brakhage, Sharits, Jacobs etc but now true in general for anyone determined to shoot film material).
>> 
>> If one has kept the same film camera for many years, shoots sparingly, does their own labwork and cuts with scissors and tape, then it is much cheaper to work on film than on new media. Otherwise it is a real choice to make the effort nowadays.
>> 
>> The choice pays off because there is a true physical (as opposed to virtual) connection between the material running through the camera and the shadows projected on the screen: the film image is indexically related to its content, whereas digital projections are mainly symbolical. The mechanical shutter invokes the phi phenomenon which creates the illusion of motion through flicker, rather than beta movement which the digital projector invokes. The phi phenomenon forces the viewer to participate actively in the illusion (during the third of the time spent in the dark). Studies in brain waves will show the difference between film and digital perception: film wakes us up.
>> 
>> Color and texture is a very small part of the important distinctions between the technologies. This is why I think the word analog distracts us into thinking that choosing film is only a stylistic choice.
>> 
>> Thank you for hosting this event.
>> Pip Chodorov
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> At 20:13 -0500 11/11/14, Matt Whitman wrote:
>>> If you feel that you are alone in this strict use, Pip, you should come to the event if you are able to do so. Particularly for the panel/Q&A afterwards. It would indeed be instructive for other members of the public who are not privy to this list to be aware of the distinction that you make and this ongoing discussion. If you are not able to attend, I am happy to raise this point myself during the panel and make it clear that even in the naming of the event, there is debate in how and where these terms are used.
>>> 
>>> Provided that all of the artists showing work and participating in the discussion consent, an audio recording of this will likely be posted online. Will let you know.
>> 
>> 
>> 
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