Art Language Location are based in Cambridge. Currently working with Anglia Ruskin University they are curating a 21-artist silent film showreel at The Window Project in Silver Street.
Having been part of Art Language Location in the past, I decided that this would be my outlet for experimenting with a poetry film that is silent. My films have used a voiceover to deliver the words (for example here), and I combine this with sound effects to layer further texture and meaning. How would my film feel without any sound?
How would the text interact with the fast moving images when it has become visual and part of the images?
I had been so welded to the voiceover and sound effects that it is difficult to imagine that this could be anything but dissatisfactory. However, I am keeping an open mind. I have worked hard on the typography to try to make it work with the images, and also my imagined pace and reading emphasis. There is much more I could do, but I felt I had to make a start somewhere.
I have not yet made the film widely public, other than its localised showing in Cambridge. I need to digest it further and come back to it after a period of time, and, if possible, get some feedback from those who do see it. Then, if I’m happy, collect some feedback from peers online.
For the kind of work I think I want to make for the future, I can see that there will be site-specific presentations where a silent film might be infinitely more appropriate or practical for the context. Or perhaps where a film needs to work with multiple layers – with sound, but also have value without sound. Is this possible? Could it suit my ‘flicker-film’ technique.
For now – Relationship: scaffolded is on show at The Window Project, Silver Street, Cambridge until mid-January.
