Hahnel Vb-100 V-System Typ Vb 40/69

Whilst in Berlin, I acquired a Hahnel Vb-100 8mm film viewer, as a gift from some friends.

The viewer reads 8mm film which exists in two main versions: the original standard 8mm film (also called regular 8 mm or Double 8 mm) and Super 8. They are both 8mm wide, however Super 8 has a larger image area because of its smaller perforations. I am yet to find out which type of 8mm film the viewer reads.

Image from Bios computers website

'Standard 8mm film is in fact 25 feet of 16mm motion picture film which is run through the camera twice. On each run, pictures are exposed down one edge of the stock and then down the other. When the film is processed, it is then also split right down the middle and joined at the ends to form 50 feet of 8mm film.

Super 8mm film is actually 8mm wide to begin with. Also, it has smaller sprocket holes which allows for a larger image. Finally, it is sealed in a self contained cartridge for easy loading.

You do not have to load Standard 8mm film in darkness, just be sensible and load it in slightly subdued light (i.e under a tree, not out in the sun.) The outer layers of film on the spool protect the inner ones from light whilst the film is being loaded.

A couple of other points worth mentioning. Although the image area on Super 8 is actually larger, this does not necessarily mean you always get a better picture. A Standard 8mm camera has a proper film gate with a pressure plate which keeps the film steady and in position behind the gate. With Super 8, the pressure plate is plastic and is built into the cartridge. This can result in image weave and jiggle (the film is actually moving from side to side a bit whilst being exposed).

Secondly, many Super 8 cameras have such enormous zoom lenses on them (to try and appeal to as wider market as possible) that, due to the number of elements of glass in the lens, you can often get a much worse picture than that achieved with a single prime lens on an old Standard 8 camera.

Also, standard 8mm film can be wound back in the camera and then re-exposed for all kinds of special effects and double exposure tricks.'

- Standard 8 vs. Super 8, Upperfold website

An 8mm Film viewer in action

I intend to research further into the Hahnel viewer I have acquired and try to incorporate it into my project. As I have previously mentioned, I am extremely keen to incorporate actual film into the device at some stage.

Peter Roehr

Filmmontage 1-3, 1965-66

Viewed at Minimalism Germany 1960s Exhibition, Daimler Kunst Sammlung Gallery, Berlin

Text from Exhibition label

Rodney Graham

Torqued Chandelier, 2004

35 mm Film Loop, 5 minutes

Viewed at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, as part of the Rieck Halle, Flick Collection

'A crystal chandelier with 12 electric lights was suspended from the ceiling of a film studio from a wire cable. The cable was twisted a hundred or so times, then released allowing it to unwind as the chandelier spun back and forth, eventually coming to rest. The process was documented by a 35 mm camera, placed on its side and shooting one 1000 foot roll of film at 48 frames per second (twice the normal speed). For playback a special projector was manufactured--one which was not only capable of projecting at 48 frames per second, but which also turned the image around 90 degrees into a vertical orientation (the projector is also on its side)

Initially the work was inspired by a description of Sir Isaac Newton's famous experiment with a bucket full of water (hung from a rope which was wound up, then released. As it spun out, the observed relations between the behavior of the spinning bucket and that of the water within it led to conclusions about absolute and relative motion). Issues pertaining to Newtonian gravity and rest vis a vis large and rapidly moving lighting fixtures were graphically brought to my attention at a young age when I witnessed, while viewing the 1952 film Scaramouche, the near-impalement of Stewart Granger by means of a falling chandelier, but the work also continues themes implicit in my two other short films Coruscating Cinnamon Granules (1996) and Two Generators (1984) both of which are conceived as illustrated 'thought experiments' documenting transitory lighting events within the context of a single roll of film.

For Torqued Chandelier Release I chose to the vertical format as appropriate to the shape and vertical orientation of the chandelier (and thus providing more visual information of the subject itself, which is larger in the frame), and because I thought it was interesting to explore a 'portrait' rather than 'landscape' oriented cinema. The film is shot at and played back at 48 frames a second, again to offer the eye more information than a normal film could provide, and to avoid the strobing that would occur when such a subject matter is shot at a mere 24 frames per second.'

Rodney Graham

April 2005

- Artist Statement, Donald Young website

I found this artwork interesting and relevant to the current device I am working on, for its use of a spinning and unwinding subject matter, whilst also incorporating an interesting use of film loop. I shall research further into Sir Isaac Newtons absolute and relative motion theory, in order to refine my filming device.

Reading further about Rodney Graham's film work, I came across the exhibition HF | RG which brought together the work of Harun Farocki and Rodney Graham, at the Jeu de Paume Gallery in Paris in 2009. The exhibition presented film-based installations categorised under four themes: the archive, the nonverbal, the machine (and devices) and editing. The following films involve descriptions from the curator, Chantal Pontbriand, and both artists.

Chantal Pontbriand, curator : Interview

Harun Farocki | Rodney Graham : Interview

I am particularly interested in the following artwork which featured in the HF | RG exhibition:

Coruscating Cinnamon Granules

16 mm Film Loop, 3 minute

Image from lunettesrouges blog

Nicolas Provost

Haunch of Venison, Berlin

During my recent visit to Berlin, I made a concerted effort to visit the Haunch of Venison’s latest solo exhibition of the video works of Belgian artist and filmmaker Nicolas Provost (b. 1969, Belgium).

The gallery itself sits amongst a hub of old industrial warehouse buildings which have been converted into a number of individual gallery spaces and studios. On entering the Haunch of Venison through a small unpronounced door we were plunged into darkness within this huge open space. Five film projections then illuminated large expanses of wall space within the darkness.

Image from Haunch of Venison website

Personally, the most captivating video work was Storyteller (2010), which involves found stock footage of the cosmopolitan skyline which is mirrored and edited to create a ‘slick artificiality reminiscent of science fiction’. As the footage slowly pans along and over the skyline, with the camera growing and descending in height, the mirrored effect is a spatially mesmerising experience. The viewer gains a three-dimensional interpretation of the skyline, morphing out new spatial geometries from the existing.

Storyteller

‘Provost’s work uses the language of film to manoeuvre and influence the interpretation of images and stories. He manipulates times, codes and form, twisting and shaping new narratives and experimental sensations that tightly bind visual art and cinematography. He taps into our collective filmic memory and reconstructs it to stunning effect. Duality is intrinsic in much of his work, both literally with optical mirroring and conceptually when he toys with the blurred boundaries between fiction and reality, the sublime and the ugly, the utopian and the concrete, the marvellous and the terrible, and finally, between truth and invention. Provost is part scientist and part magician, generating a grotesque visual poetry of hypnotic beauty and macabre consequences.

His work is a reflection on the grammar of cinema and the relationship between visual art and the cinematic experience.’

- Haunch of Venison

On The Move

Estorick collection of Modern Italian Art

'Although the problem of depicting movement in painting and sculpture had concerned artists for many centuries, the birth of the Futurist movement in 1909 signalled a renewed interest in the subject. Taking as its starting point the Estorick's own collection of Futurist masterpieces, On the Move draws on a wide range of material in many different media to provide an in-depth examination of this complex and fascinating theme.

Many of Futurism's pictorial innovations were in fact built on foundations laid during the nineteenth century, when the emerging medium of photography began to reveal previously unseen aspects of reality. The pioneering research of Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey was of particular importance in this respect. While Muybridge's iconic studies of animal and human locomotion represented the successive stages of movement in individual frames, Marey captured them on a single photographic plate, creating trailing images of motion that were not only of great scientific interest, but which have informed almost all subsequent analytical representations of movement, from the rhythmical paintings of Giacomo Balla to the famous ‘stroboscopic’ photography of Harold Edgerton and Gjon Mili in the twentieth century.

Occupying a position on the cusp of the arts and sciences, this subject has long been of fascination to the exhibition's curator, Jonathan Miller. From equestrian paintings of the eighteenth century, to contemporary experiments with longexposure photography and CAD modelling, this personal selection of works illustrates the full range of artists' resourcefulness in tackling this most intriguing and elusive of subjects.'

- Estorick Collection website

Flight Take-off (Long Exposure series), 2008

Geoffrey Mann

Resin & Porcelain

Eva Jiricna

I was recently sent an article about Czech architect Eva Jiricna named A Woman of Steel by David Jenkins, which was published in the March 2006 issue of Saga Magazine. The article had some eye catching images of a spiral staircase Eva Jiricna designed as part of Knightsbridge apartment conversion.

Images from Eva Jiricna Architects website

'...she designs architecture which has truth and beauty embedded within its form and function.The name of Eva Jiricna is synonymous with inspirational staircase design. Her talent is to open up a space through creating highly engineered architectural forms, such as her hallmark staircases in structural glass and filigree stainless steel, which appear light, delicate and transparent.'

- Eva Jiricna, by Holly Porter, Wound Magazine

CarTowers

I just came across this and found it fairly innovative and impressive. As a site location it would be awesome (no chance!)... 60 metres high, it can store up to 400 vehicles and collect a car from its position in 60seconds!

Image from Msn News website

'The CarTowers is a 20-story tall car storage tower in Wolfsburg, Germany. It’s owned & operated by Volkswagen, which explains why all the cars – around 800 at full capacity – are VWs. The CarTowers has often been used to illustrate public parking garages of the future even though it’s a private endeavor that merely allows VW to save space.

Built of steel and glass, the CarTowers is just one part of the Autostadt, a unique, “Car World” style attraction that includes a variety of car-related attractions. Visitors who fork over a few Euros get to enjoy The TurmFahrt (or CarTower Discovery, though I prefer the German name) and embark on the same trip a shiny new VW takes when slated for a slot in the CarTowers.

Certainly the footprint left by the CarTowers is much less than that of a standard car park, even multi-level parking garages such as those at airports. Without the winding ramps a tremendous amount of space can be saved. VW’s system should be workable for public lots though the expense may be prohibitive.'

- WebUrbanist.com

I intend to go and visit the CarTowers when I go to Berlin...

Sites

In addition to improving and trying to get the filming device in working order, I have been looking for a specific site for the device to be situated, so that the device can be tailored to the site. From previous experiments the possibility of the spiral being an expandable and retracting track which could be situated in numerous different height spaces is fairly slim, as the track needs to be sturdy enough to hold the weight of the camera into place as it descends.

I am creating a spiralling device and therefore I believe the site should have an influence on the shaping of the device and a reasoning as to why a space should be filmed through a spiralling, twisting, rotating method.

The idea of filming the descent down a spiral staircase comes immediately to mind. I therefore set about looking for various spiral staircases, however the problem being that many have a central fixed pole which each of the stairs branch off and therefore there is not a continuous void space for the camera to fit through.

The following images are of a spiral staircase in the Art Department of Winchester College:

The image shows a central pole which the stairs branch off meaning that there is no central void. Perhaps a device could span between the central pole and the handrail? So that the architecture controls the movement of the camera.

Within the offices of Architecture plb in Winchester, there is a central spiral staircase within the studios. The staircase has a central pole which only a few of the stairs are actually attached to. The space around the open and with lots of natural lighting.

I then went along to the Design Centre in Chelsea Harbour, as I had been informed of a spiral staircase descending the full height of one of the atriums.

The staircase spans between four floors, leading up to a large glass dome which floods light into the space. Down the centre of the spiral is a void with a pole running through it. The distance from the pole to the stairs is approximately 50-60 cm.

In trying to think of a space where the device should be used, I began to think about buildings which have circular forms and voids and vertically spiralling movement paths within, and hence the device being as intertwined in the architecture of the building as possible.

In my tutorial the suggestion of placing the device down a fireman's pole in a fire station came up. I visited a fire station which had a number of poles descending from holes in the ceiling. On a positive note, there is already vertical poles located in the space which the device could be tailored to, the logistics of being allowed to instal the device is another factor.

I was reminded of a previous visit to Cape Otway Lighthouse whilst on the South Coast of Australia.

Lighthouses are typically circular in plan and therefore many have spiral staircases to reach the height of the structure. Whilst searching on the internet I came across The Old Lighthouse, Dungeness, Kent. The lighthouse has previously been used as a film set and is available for hire (notable when considering the logistics of the task).

Images from The Old Lighthouse website

I shall make a visit to the lighthouse if I deem it to be a suitable and possible site to research further for the filmic installation.

I then began to consider whether I could incorporate the use of a windmill as the siting for the filming device. A windmill is circular in plan with verticality, but also has an extra factor of interest in the moving dynamics of the building's elements through the processes within. I am keen for the filming device I design to move dependent on gravity and not to be controlled and manipulated by a motor. Therefore a windmill is very fitting with this concept, with the workings of the milling processes being powered by the winds of the surrounding natural environment. The movement of the milling elements through the storeys of the building, enhance the reasoning behind the following of movement vertically though the structure. I visited Bursledon Windmill in Hampshire, which is a working mill, to research further into the possibilities of the windmill as a site.

... attach a camera to the sails?

Leaflet I received on visiting Bursledon Windmill

Great Spur Wheel from below

Great Spur Wheel

Governor

(I really like the addition of the sounds of the machines whilst they are moving and processing)

Inside the windmill, the wallower can be seen at the very top

Visiting the windmill was great and I spoke with Jo Lawler who works there about the possibilities of doing some further film work on location. It's a magnificent structure, where the whole building is a machine controlled by the outside environment. The movement of grain from the ground floor up to the very top, to then gradually descend into flour, through a whole series of rotating elements, is pretty impressive. My concern for using a device within the building is that it would be difficult to use the device I have previously designed within the mill as there is not really a continuous void up through the structure, and each of the floors have fairly low ceilings. Although I could see this as something which I tackle and design into my device. My other concern is that my project is primarily concerned with how we comprehend space as we move through it, therefore by taking the windmill as a site am I too much following the process of moving structures and milling, as opposed to a persons movement through space? I do however think that the windmill provides an interesting site, rich with inspiration to draw upon. I like the idea of how the building changes when it is stationary to when it moves and turns into a machine. There is also the aspect of the fact you walk into the mill on the ground floor and see the chutes filling up bags of flour, yet have to progress up though the building to understand the process.

Subsequently, I decided to go to Winchester City Mill to draw upon more inspiration into rotating machinery. It is a working flour mill, powered by the River Itchen which flows beneath the building. The mill was rebuilt in 1743 on a medeival mill site and was in use until the early 20th century. The National Trust have since restored the mill, and resumed grinding in 2004.

Image from leaflet I received on visiting the mill

' The waterwheel is mounted on a heavy, horizontal, wooden axle which turns the 'Pit Wheel' - a large gear wheel with a cast iron frame and wooden teeth. The Pit Wheel engages with the smaller, cast iron 'Wallower' turning the drive through a right angle to rotate the vertical shaft. Mounted above the Wallower is the 'Great Spur Wheel', which also has wooden teeth, and this drives the millstone via the cast iron 'Stonenut'. The purpose of the gearing is to increase the speed of milling so that the millstone turns faster than the waterwheel. The 'Great Spur Wheel' also allowed mills to drive two or more sets of millstones from the same waterwheel.'

- Winchester City Mill leaflet, The National Trust

The lower floor where the River Itchen runs through the building powering the mill

Pit Wheel, Wallower and Great Spur Wheel

Waterwheel

Wallower, Great Spur Wheel and Waterwheel

Waterwheel and River Itchen

On the ground floor above, the grain is flowed through the rotating millstones and turned into flour which is bagged up on the lower floor.

Grain entering into the milling process

Floor production on lower floor

The windmill and watermill have been really interesting working mechanisms to study and I can see the positivity in introducing them into my project some how. I need to make a decision whether they will act as possibly sites for the filming device, or be used as inspiration into the design of the device (rotating wheels, gears etc). My primary concern with using the mills as sites is that I need to consider whether this is deviating from my initial line of inquiry which concerned experiencing spaces in flux and how we comprehend spaces as we advance through them and how this experience can be enhanced. Discussions needed......!

Conrad Shawcross

I was chatting with Charlotte Storrar (another student on the MA ISD course) today about how this impressive installation by Conrad Shawcross could be of relevance to her project to draw inspiration from, considering she is currently looking into weaving techniques.

I also began to find it particularly relevant to my work, as a rotating, moving, spiralling device which moves through space. Driven from the tracks of the tram lines, and thus a mapping and derivative of movement through the space.

Image from This Is Tomorrow website

'British artist Conrad Shawcross has constructed a giant, site specific, mechanical installation in the Kingsway Tram Subway, Holborn in October 2009. This vast underground tunnel is a remarkable and fascinating survivor of London’s tramway heritage which has been closed for public use since 1952.

Chord is Conrad Shawcross most ambitious and complex work to date. Conceived specifically for the long subway, the artist has built two identical rope machines that will weave a thick hawser from 324 spools of coloured string. These vast machines will begin back to back in the centre of the space and then gradually move away from each other slowly down the subway following the old tram tracks. Like two huge spiders, they will slowly weave their rope behind them as they slowly travel through the space over the course of the exhibition.

Returning to the themes of previous rope production works The Nervous Systems, (2003 - Saatchi collection) and Yarn (2001) Chord is concerned with the human perception of time, as both a linear and cyclical notion. The rope becomes a strong structural metaphor, as it is a clear linear entity made up and formed by a cyclical process.

Each point on the rope can be traced back to a certain moment during the show and duration becomes interchangeable with length; time with space, an hour being around 20 cm, a day around six meters.'

- This Is Tomorrow Website