This installation addresses--both formally and conceptually--the embodiment of time in visual form. Edweard Muybridge, working in the late 1870s, was one of the first to experiment with photographsinseries in order to isolate the individual components of continuous motion. Muybridge, however, did not have the technology to project his photographs as "moving pictures," a possibility that emerged only with the development of the motion picture camera two decades later.
The images for this installation derive from previously shot 16 millimeter film footage, rephotographed frame by frame as 35 millimeter slides, and then projected as movement sequences in four different time frames. Film creates the illusion of continuous movement by projecting still frames at the rate of 24 frames per second. The projecting of these "rephotographed" frames at different rates through the employment of slide projectors and dissolve units allows the relationship between movement and passage of time to be re-negotiated.
The "choreography" in my installation involves the rhythmic as well as perceptual interplay between arrested and continuous motion, between single compositions and sequences in time. Having originated as a film frame, each individual image represents 1/24 second of projected time. Each pair of slide projectors (with a total capacity of 160 slides) thus projects the equivalent of 6.666 ... seconds, explaining the "six unending seconds" of the installation's title.
I think of my work as a composition in time, juxtaposing the different rhythms of simultaneously projected image sequences much like the intertwining of melodic lines in polyphonic music. By altering and expanding the time frame in which everyday movements occur, familiar contexts are both evoked and confounded.
I find myself fascinated with the small moments of everyday life which often pass by unnoticed. Which of these moments are selected for the making of a photograph? And what happens to such moments once they are transformed into images? Camera operation in both film and photography relies on a mechanical definition of time in terms of shutter speed, or frames per second. But to what degree is our perception of time governed by familiar markers and quantifiers? Having worked for more than 15 years as a filmmaker to create multi-layered film structures through optical printing and matte photography, I am intrigued by the movement which eludes recording by the camera, or which transpires between consecutive frames of film footage. In this installation I chose not to focus on any single frame, but rather to emphasize the transition between one image and the next in a continuous flow of time.
In conjunction with the exhibition Choreography for Six Unending Seconds , there will be a performance event on the opening night, Saturday, November 16 from 7:009:00 pm. I draw from the same motifs that inspired the photographic imagery. The performers will project moving silhouettes out into the public space of Riverside's downtown pedestrian mall from the balconies of UCR/CMP's outer facade. Thus the "choreography" implied by sequences of still images reemerges as actual movement, and the time frame for performance of this movement returns to its original context.
Special thanks to Michael Callahan for his generous loan of equipment, to the Riverside Arts Foundation for a Community Arts Partnership grant in support of the opening nights performance, and to the students from the University/Eastside Community Collaborative who participated in creating the performance.
