From: Klaus W. Eisenlohr (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Mar 06 2006 - 07:51:58 PST
>In any event, setting up a dark room for a "VIDEO" screening: one does this
>for the same reason you set up a dark room for a "FILM" screening, because it
>looks better that way. There's nothing magical about a video projector that
>changes the fact that you want to project in a darkened room ... ?
>
>M
I am not talking about magic, I am talking about
common use in Art. We have become so used to bad
projections of video in exhibtions, in museums,
on "events", on parties that it has become very
hard to work out good conditions if you want to
show your own work or if you set up screenings in
a network of art people. Also, we are so used
(and have learned) to have a different viewing
attitudes towards digital work - as through its
accessibility.
New projection technique is feeding to that: you
do not have to set up a complete dark space in
order to have a good projection, and the party is
"much more fun": we just had the Directors Lounge
running in Berlin, a ten day event with the idea
of having a very different and relaxed space
during the rush of Berlinale. We had planned to
divide the large space with black curtains to
have a seperate screening space. Somehow it did
not happen. One reason was coordination and
technical problems we still had to solve, but I
think the main reason was, that the big,
non-divided space was so beautiful and welcoming!
It was great that you could sit in front and have
a close look or sit in the back, talking with
peers while being able to still see what was
going on on the big screen. And it worked!
I was showing some work on film with my own 16mm
projector, I then had to switch off many of the
little lights in the space and still was not
reeaally happy with the projection.
That is what I am talking about, with video you
do not NEED a dark space and the common sense of
viewing experience with video has somehow shifted
towards that. The cinema experience has become
old-fashíoned. In certain funny ways though,
setting up a 16mm projector did not have that
old-fashioned idea to it as it used to have some
time ago.
Setting up a dark space is a totally different
social experience. Thus, what you are doing with
setting up screenings is exactly what I am
talking about. - This "new idea" of microcinema.
The "magic" might still be there: in my
experience, even when I was setting up screenings
in a complete dark space in the past, the
audience often showed a different behavior with
film or with video. (I do believe it is a learned
social behavior)
Best wishes,
Klaus
-- Klaus W. Eisenlohr, Osnabrücker Str. 25, D-10589 Berlin, Germany email: email suppressed hannover project: http://www.olgacity.de homepage: http://www.kw-eisenlohr.de and film production: http://www.richfilm.de phone: int.- 49 - 30 - 3409 5343 (BERLIN) __________________________________________________________________ For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.