Ben Gwilliam is an artist and member of Film Material, whose work explores how the mechanics of sound medias reflect and distort perception.
Oxide (ii)+(iii) is a multiscreen, multiprojector performance & installation work using 16mm & super 8 film and magnetic sound.
For this work Ben has made sound by staining rust on the total film area prior and post film processing. Here, short lengths of unexposed film are laced with magnetically charged iron filings and sprayed with salt-water. What results is visual staining and magnetic charging on both sides of the film surface. Furthering the initial experiment, expired film is used to encourage different results in the unstable state of the film emulsion and other found results.
By considering the total image area as potential sound carrier, the films are subjected to contact copy and print many times over to build the image area and subsequent sound into a multi-layered piece where the relation of sound and image are at first borne of the same process, but eventually they dislocate in the process of re-production. Sound grows in and out, image fades independently. The (rendered) sound is recorded to tape.
It is in the moment of performance where the movement of film and sound can marry: the musicality of both is beyond the physicality of the medium and intent in the moment of experience, perhaps reliant on an improvisational response. Perhaps here listening imbues visuality and vice versa, the work itself is as variable as the moment.
DVD5 | PAL 4:3 | 00:29:02 | 3.05 Gb + 3% rec
Language: none
Subtitles: none
Genre: Experimental, Short
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