Velocity
“Did you know that this theatre is haunted?”
Image Credits: @fontanesi on instagram
Film. Velocity.
“Did you know that this theatre is haunted?”
The intention to see is too often bound by the idea of the cinema — a theatre of light in which image is projected perfectly, the spectacle of sound and movement as hypnotic as the repetition of arranged seating, all viewers facing the lightwell. This environment certainly provides a utopian ability for film, one that has succeeded throughout the existence of moving image, but as the distribution and conceptual sightlines of film evolve and become disfigured, the presentation of it must adapt. This progression has produced theatrically altered extensions of a utopian viewing, vessels such as museum-grade projections for immersive video in galleries, specific video sculptures popularly made since the 1960s, experiential phenomena such as watching film on an aeroplane, and even common objects like neon signs. Where the theatre does not exist, these examples provide a separation that expands the frame of the moving image to similar states of spectacle, refreshing the beam of light of the projection.
As the experience of airports is inherently weighted in an excess of human emotion — that of farewell, new beginnings, love, loss, etc — it is possible that the only natural response may be to sit back and watch. In-flight entertainment, the luxury of velocity matches the awakening of cinema / cinema for a utopia, ascension and television...the way turbulence builds a barrier to enhance film.
The objects of video sculptures create their own perfect theatrical vessel in which their image is framed. Beyond a timed experience, the viewer is no longer seated and can move freely with the object, allowing themselves and the work to become necessarily grounded. The frame is fixed, akin to that of a lamp. The luminescence of a lightwell that is cornering a bedside table or looming on street posts, bordering the ceilings of office cubicles and illuminating passageways. Objects that distort cinematic viewing, television viewing and audience participation — towards utopia.
A theatre of screens...can I get up out of my seat now!
