Taken from the moment the films were viewed and placed into a new context in order to reveal new possibilities of the text. This is what came before the published articles and what remained after viewing the films
Words are the smallest unit of writing
(One down middle.) Is the word the smallest unit of writing? If not then is there something else? The letter. The mark of the pen. The mark of the author. Slow Glass John disappeared X204 Smith. (Three quarters of the way through and a green scratch appears.) Asserting its presence in the centre of the screen, the bar tender pulls a pint and the green line interrupts his action, taking centre screen: I am a part of this film, Look at me. (The green scratch still there, some pronounced tramlines down centre and scratches. Reappears. Appears 3-5mins in remains for 3mins. Reappears on two more occasions. Disappears.) Does not return.
Liberty is the absence of idea
(A few black scratches for 30-60secs. Thicker tramlines towards end or is it a scratch? Intense dirt and scratches towards end.) AH LIBERTY! (Slight fading in parts: but is this intentional?) “Liberty is the absence of ideas…” (Fading in parts.) The context of the artist film has changed; initial context is now absent and with this absence comes the questions: what is my position; where is the “I” in the film? How does “I” write this: with fictive truths and real truths torn between the subjective and objective, what the artist says and does, fiction and truth, context and its removal? Between watching and looking lies tension. Tension is the film being pulled along by sprockets. In the absence of original context a new set of rules are in place: what can be said based on this new criteria? Dog star man X301 (4) previously (3). Stan Brakhage. (Green TLs beginning heavy left and right, throughout, some dirt.)
Men excite me all over the place
(Warping film; sound is warped. Dirt and TLs. A lot of dirt and scratches. Warping; occasionally the film jumps.) It is all balloons and double masking and rating the film based on damage as opposed to content and can you ever accurately rate a film/art? There is a man on a hammock being held and kissed by a gypsy girl, his subconscious is dancing much like the warped film. The changes are seen coming before they are on screen as the strip is pulled past the left of the screen. An untarnished centre, damaged at either end. (Material and the mark are the new content: the things which bring the thing of the film into being, subjectile.)
Electric Seizure Comparison contains instructions alluding to the use of two screens “Top screen electrically induced seizure, bottom… photically” Voices are electric: sound, colours and flashing. (Warping, reduction of screen size, single screen. Heavy TLs and dirt and volume: affect vanishes.) Inner and Outer Space. 1969. (There is a burnt frame less than a quarter through distorting the entirety of a woman’s face – the background remains in tact. Wait to see if it happens again.) She is the assistant manager appearing in Phase A, Part 3 – The Staff. (Splice.) Gallery. London. No. Moon: “Men excite me all over the place whether on the moon or not”. (Slight warping. Damaged frame final quarter with the 60’s hipsters.)
Phase A, Part 3 – The Staff
What does that mean? Projector jams: bulb burns frame – only takes a second.
Look at it! Do you see what I see?
Sound has been taken away from the image; blank shots are there to indicate nothing to see and instead serve as an awareness of sound and then a cut. Silence is the memory of sound. (Faint TLs: the memory of previous environment: good print memory.) Sometimes the image is missing and there is just a description. Political and radical stillness, mouths are open: void, no sound escapes. Should the 4th post be an appropriated text based on all notes written? Nostalgia.
(Warping – big time.) The images burn away as the artist talks about absence. (TLs towards centre). The damage is adding integrity to the film. It is supposed to become damaged. It is supposed to fade away. (Dirt TLs scratches ¼ through. White line centre right of picture stays. 1min. Distortion of sound.) It is supposed to form a memory of itself. It is a nostalgia for and of the future. (First watched with A. Rifkin. He thought it was ace – took him completely but he admitted it absolutely confounded him, what is going on here? (which is reassuring.) Halfway through, thick white TL towards centre. Interrupts twice. Briefly.) More tension. It is between watching and listening and further, looking and watching. “Look at it! Do you see what I see?!”
Oh Christ!
Surface Noise (Green in places). Always seeing what comes next to the left of screen. Scene change. Scenes From the Life of George Mancunas. (Green TLS. These TLs are not appearing as a mark upon the material film, rather they are a product of appropriation. Such appropriation applies a new purpose to their presence: showing authority, a nod towards the genuine.) It’s weird looking at images of John and Yoko while he’s going on about George. And there’s Andy W. Andy and John, Andy and George: “Oh Christ!” Straight and Narrow! (Dirt and TL L+R.) When does the line become a narrative? When they are razor blades? When they are marks? When they are damage? DON’T FORGET TO MENTION REPETITION.
She had her gun already (her gun she already had it all). She had her gun ALL ready.
The importance of holes
It seems the more it is played the more it is destined to fall apart. Perforations of repetition: the mark of each handler of all the eyes watching each adding their own impact. Meaning and condition are both subject to time and therefore deterioration.
On the Marriage Broker Joke… “There is no motion picture, only the projector moves the strip pulled along by wheels called sprockets with protruding teeth to get a grip […] The importance of holes is no delusion, to them we’ll always be the thrall for providing us with the illusion of movement, presented of a flat white wall.”
Mandi Goodier is an artist and writer currently checking the films at LUX, as well as writing somewhere between fiction, theory and biography; about repetition, memory, the mark and otherness. Twitter:@mandigoodier
