Starting from Scratch VII: Guy Sherwin Live Projections
Guy Sherwin studied painting at Chelsea School of Art in the 1960s. His subsequent film works, which often include live elements and serial forms, are characterised by an enduring concern with light and time as the fundamentals of cinema. Sherwin taught printing and processing at the London Filmmakers’ Co-op (now LUX) during the mid-1970s. Recent works include multi-screen projections and gallery installations. Starting from Scratch commissioned Guy Sherwin to hold a workshop at Rotterdam-based alternative film lab de Filmwerkplaats. In this programme, he will present film works closely linked to the subjects of the workshop: optical sound and live projections. The first part of the programme explores unusual methods of making optical sound-tracks and includes films and live projector performances taken from different periods of Sherwin’s work. The very idea of sound being ‘optical’ is intriguing. Until recently, all sounds that accompany a film were carried in optical form along the edge of the film strip, as a moving path of light. Transfers were made from magnetic sound using purpose-built laboratory machines. But optical sounds can be generated in many other ways, for example by drawing directly onto the filmstrip, or by using the camera to record images as sounds. Such films invite you to hear what you are seeing, and to see what you are hearing. The second part of the programme comprises two films which use the ‘amateur’ gauge of super-8 film in very different ways: one uses time-lapse photography that has been re-worked digitally, the second is a restaging of a performance that Guy Sherwin first made in 1976, in which film is projected onto a hand-held screen.
In this combined programme
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Man with Mirror
Spectacular in its simplicity, this Super-8 performance screened at the 30th anniversary edition of the festival. -
Views from Home
Changing sunlight filmed in the maker’s apartment, with saxophone sounds from the neighbours as a soundtrack. -
Soundtrack
Shot taken from the window of a moving train, used as a basis for a fascinating optical soundtrack. -
Vowels & Consonants
A 16mm performance with six projectors, in which letters that are printed straight onto the film are present in both sound and image. -
Time Spirals
Film material is rolled up like a spiral and dipped sideways in developer so only half is developed. -
Cycles #3
A performance with two 16mm projectors in which spots stuck on the film function as basic material for hypnotic images and sound. -
Night Train
Time-lapse shortens train journey to two minutes, while the image also creates the optical soundtrack.