The Visible Compendium

1990
Country: USA
Duration: 17 mins
Colour,
Sound: Sound
Ratio: 4:3
Available Format/s: 16mm / DVD
Original Format: 16mm film

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The Visible Compendium constructs bits of unnamed meanings, fragments of light. Photography is, to me, not about things, but about light. Light is our primary reality when we are at the movies – light which suggests things, the secondary reality, a construct of the mind. The Visible Compendium attempts to engage the mind, and particularly what is unknown in the mind, rather than what has been seen and known a thousand times over.
The Visible Compendium reaches farther than any of my other animations. It goes off in many directions, held together, hopefully, by the soundtrack, which itself goes off in a number of directions: strange sounds, some recognisable, others not. Some music. No voices, no silence. This is intentional. The film is a compendium, as indicated in the title – a catalogue of visible possible experiences, some at normal time, some speeded up or slowed down, some continuous, others broken up. – L.J.

More works by Lawrence Jordan

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