Saturday, July 14, 2012

Recent Donation Updates

We want to make note of recent donations from one institution and one individual.
The Hill House Museum and Garden in Washington DC. Has donated a large collection (11,000) slides and slide viewing equipment to the Institute. The collection represents their collection of 19th and 20th century Russian art, furniture, costumes and decorative objects. The collection is housed in 5 slide storage cabinets. A lightbox included in this donation will be great for shooting titles on film. The slides are absolutely fabulous.
Film maker Paul Turano has donated some quite usable Super-8 editing equipment to the institute along with some 35mm film cameras.  The viewers will become part of our Film Camp equipment base. The gear is being inventoried this summer. Thanks Paul.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

View of the shooting space in the 301 Gallery.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Shooting film "Velocity" in the 301 Cabot Street Gallery space


The story is an examination of the movement and activities of a man and a woman in the late 19th century. Although they are not acquainted their paths cross over a photographic portrait. This film is essentially a follow up to the Super-8 film called After All which I shot last summer. I was inspired by the work of Rosalind Krauss and Jonathan Crary primarily. They both present a narrative of the late 19th century which acknowledges the importance of psychology, optics,  and phenomenology and the emerging cognitive sciences of the mid to late 1800's. This narrative exists in parallel to the more common story of the linear development of technology and modernity. The characters of Him and Her are constructed to represent two distinct and different experiences of the culture of this time. One is grounded in a Cartesian and measurable universe.  He is an artist who uses his skills and his eyes to render and capture the landscape around him. by contrast, her character is more comfortable with her inner mind and the subjectiveness of her experience. She is also connected to the realm of time, technology and speed.

The actors are playing out their roles more as emblems rather than specific individuals. They are graphically accurate rather than being historically "correct". The film is in 16 mm black and white and will present it's own atmosphere and artifacts to the imagery.