INSTRUMENT FOR FILM, FILM FOR PLACE (ITER. 01)
RELEASED: (May, 2025)
Instrument for Film, Film for Place (iter.01) is a focus on additive, subtractive, and disruptive qualities in abstract visual and sonic media. Using analogue media, the work itself is a film, made using a sculpture to compose music for a scratched reel of Super 8mm film displaying the sunrise over the San Gabriel Valley horizon, in Los Angeles, California, in turn, composing a work of visual music inspired by abstract filmmakers from the early 20th century.
The film itself explores the effects that kinetic energy and interaction between material and form have on perception and the psyche. It relies on abstract imagery and rhythm to form an environment that allows for mind wandering to form a canvas, allowing the audience to perceive their reflection in the work. Formed from the idea that music is temporal, the instrument created for this work was intended to be transient; limited to the composition for this film and then discarded.
Super 8mm film is an analogue medium. Limited to a single copy of the shot of the horizon, I distorted and scratched the exposed filmstrip to subtract from the material, altering the kinetic movement and imagery viewed in the final rendering.
Instrument for Film, Film for Place (iter.01) emphasises the relationship between visual and sonic form, and how it affects an audience’s perception of visual music and abstract film.Inspired by post-World War II works of visual music under the umbrella of abstract expressionism, this work is intended to evoke emotional expression through non-image and non-representational visual form and movement.
My portfolio focuses on ideas surrounding how experimentation and distortion with sonic and visual material can progress the scope of expression through visual and experimental music. While the work intends to act as an emotive device, I also utilise composition in both abstract film and music as a tool for contemplation. Instrument for Film, Film for Place (iter.01) provides unique movement and imagery to navigate both emotions within the psyche through cognitive processes, however, it also acts as a tool to highlight the hidden forms within more commercial works associated with my practice.
The theoretical context of Instrument for Film, Film for Place (iter.01) lies within both sound art practice-based research and art theory associated with visual music of the early to mid-20th century. Free Radicals (1958) is an abstract piece of experimental film that explores the use of direct animation, where Len Lye etches onto a reel of 16mm film using dental tools, hobby knives, and a variety of arrowheads. The work is inspired by the direct animation methods ofearly abstract filmmakers such as Len Lye, Viking Eggeling, and Hans Richter, who would typically use the larger format 16mm film. Super 8mm film stock is less expensive and more accessible. Free Radicals (1958) was pivotal in influencing the realisation of my work, as I wanted to explore the transference of static imagery to rapid movement by etching onto each frame of the film.
Separating the ideas of materiality and interaction between material, the short I have composed for my portfolio also presents a take on the role of film and place, presenting a distorted and modulated view of a specific location that is important to my growth and practice. The San Gabriel Mountain Range suspends itself above my childhood home in Sierra Madre, California. Over the years, many wildfires have impacted the area of the mountain range near my parents’ house, and in 2020, a wildfire destroyed the majority of the publicly accessible area, shutting down access to the various campsites, rivers, views, and forest area I grew up experiencing. In November of 2024, access to this area reopened, and I had considered it for the site I wanted to shoot an 8mm roll of film for the piece of visual music I planned. On January 2nd, 2025, I shot the sunrise at one of my favourite overlooks, and five days later, January 7th, 2025, that same site had been burned due to the Eaton Fire. The intention to distort the captured 8mm images was initially a means of reflecting on the visual music practices that have inspired previous compositions and animations I have made and shared. However, there was a darkness that overtook the film I had from the days leading up to some of the worst wildfires in California’s history. The manipulation of the film separated itself from being an experiment and turned into a reflection of imagery associated with the additive and subtractive qualities of this location. I hold many memories of the site, however, now it feels very transient, only available for a short period. I held this in mind for the instrument I constructed in parallel to the film, building something for only one use.
Through additional research, I came across Michael Snow’s La Région Centrale (1971), which is an experimental film that is a hundred and eighty minutes long, utilising a preprogrammed robotic camera to expose separate sections of one whole mountainscape. It is far from commercial cinema and dissects a massive environment employing narrow perception. This idea, building a scene for the audience piece by piece, provided insight into the tailored perception of specific environments that film can provide. My film work was suddenly limited to myperception, memory, and new discomfort associated with the San Gabriel Mountain Range, and the imagery, sounds, and animation needed to reflect this personality. Combining these motifs with the ideas surrounding visual music and experimental film, the use of direct animation and distorting the original scene allows me to work outside the boundaries of traditional cinema and create a work of visual and sonic media that requires active participation in the compositional and viewing processes of Instrument for Film, Film for Place (iter.01).
The instrument itself was initially intended to be a design challenge; however, I shifted my perspective on the construction of the instrument towards a sculptural context. Sculpture traditionally associated with abstract expressionism rejects traditional form and leans into the mistakes and abstract form in structure. Inspired by Mark Korven’s Apprehension Engine, I wanted to create an instrument by hand that created dissonant harmonies using a rosined wheel that could be rotated along the underside of fixed violin, cello, and guitar strings. I focused on the interaction of material between the instrument and the film reel itself, however, the aesthetic direction of the final work was very limited to the colour range of the film’s negative exposure and the sonic range of the five-stringed music box that I constructed. The result, which was exported into Premiere Pro, feels as if it is subject to the material itself, highlighting the emphasis on materiality in the work and the almost symbiotic relationship between the image and the soundtrack. Direct animation and the memory of a place that no longer exists, merged with a handmade instrument recorded only for use within this film, is my effort to bridge the gap between sound and image.
The theoretical context of Instrument for Film, Film for Place (iter.01) lies within both sound art practice-based research and art theory associated with visual music of the early to mid-20th century. Free Radicals (1958) is an abstract piece of experimental film that explores the use of direct animation, where Len Lye etches onto a reel of 16mm film using dental tools, hobby knives, and a variety of arrowheads. The work is inspired by the direct animation methods ofearly abstract filmmakers such as Len Lye, Viking Eggeling, and Hans Richter, who would typically use the larger format 16mm film. Super 8mm film stock is less expensive and more accessible. Free Radicals (1958) was pivotal in influencing the realisation of my work, as I wanted to explore the transference of static imagery to rapid movement by etching onto each frame of the film.
Separating the ideas of materiality and interaction between material, the short I have composed for my portfolio also presents a take on the role of film and place, presenting a distorted and modulated view of a specific location that is important to my growth and practice. The San Gabriel Mountain Range suspends itself above my childhood home in Sierra Madre, California. Over the years, many wildfires have impacted the area of the mountain range near my parents’ house, and in 2020, a wildfire destroyed the majority of the publicly accessible area, shutting down access to the various campsites, rivers, views, and forest area I grew up experiencing. In November of 2024, access to this area reopened, and I had considered it for the site I wanted to shoot an 8mm roll of film for the piece of visual music I planned. On January 2nd, 2025, I shot the sunrise at one of my favourite overlooks, and five days later, January 7th, 2025, that same site had been burned due to the Eaton Fire. The intention to distort the captured 8mm images was initially a means of reflecting on the visual music practices that have inspired previous compositions and animations I have made and shared. However, there was a darkness that overtook the film I had from the days leading up to some of the worst wildfires in California’s history. The manipulation of the film separated itself from being an experiment and turned into a reflection of imagery associated with the additive and subtractive qualities of this location. I hold many memories of the site, however, now it feels very transient, only available for a short period. I held this in mind for the instrument I constructed in parallel to the film, building something for only one use.
Through additional research, I came across Michael Snow’s La Région Centrale (1971), which is an experimental film that is a hundred and eighty minutes long, utilising a preprogrammed robotic camera to expose separate sections of one whole mountainscape. It is far from commercial cinema and dissects a massive environment employing narrow perception. This idea, building a scene for the audience piece by piece, provided insight into the tailored perception of specific environments that film can provide. My film work was suddenly limited to myperception, memory, and new discomfort associated with the San Gabriel Mountain Range, and the imagery, sounds, and animation needed to reflect this personality. Combining these motifs with the ideas surrounding visual music and experimental film, the use of direct animation and distorting the original scene allows me to work outside the boundaries of traditional cinema and create a work of visual and sonic media that requires active participation in the compositional and viewing processes of Instrument for Film, Film for Place (iter.01).
The instrument itself was initially intended to be a design challenge; however, I shifted my perspective on the construction of the instrument towards a sculptural context. Sculpture traditionally associated with abstract expressionism rejects traditional form and leans into the mistakes and abstract form in structure. Inspired by Mark Korven’s Apprehension Engine, I wanted to create an instrument by hand that created dissonant harmonies using a rosined wheel that could be rotated along the underside of fixed violin, cello, and guitar strings. I focused on the interaction of material between the instrument and the film reel itself, however, the aesthetic direction of the final work was very limited to the colour range of the film’s negative exposure and the sonic range of the five-stringed music box that I constructed. The result, which was exported into Premiere Pro, feels as if it is subject to the material itself, highlighting the emphasis on materiality in the work and the almost symbiotic relationship between the image and the soundtrack. Direct animation and the memory of a place that no longer exists, merged with a handmade instrument recorded only for use within this film, is my effort to bridge the gap between sound and image.