Len had my laughter
Flash film lens camera axiom action location difference description words and conversation. An autobiographical fiction…
I remember then match sticks making a composition of a house and a lane and a tree in the background and then Len laughs at the revelation of his creation. In the Crux of Sheffield, there’s a hill so steep that your bike would have to be pushed, not ridden, on the return home.
Len held the can of my laughter. Len’s brother was Jack. I wear Jack’s jumper and laugh. And talk in to the camera with the affect of conversation.
What happened?
Sat in this place we face one another with teacups and sauces and crumpets in the middle, and a shiny Mongolian teapot reflecting our convex torsos noses knees and shoulders – knees and toes. We begin to write down every detail of the character in front of us, drawing out physicality on the surface using words that describe our knowledge of one another. At first a tip of the head the brow the cheekbone and mouth and ears connecting the odd smile. Then eyes come with a flash of further description.
Then comes laughter how do you describe this in words without alluding to your history?
The crux of this is the edited character that comes after, the muffled voice and the sound of exultation in between. There’s a place called Crux too. This is important in terms of location, so take note…
“After the written description I take it upon myself to speak directly in to the camera. Little do I know that this camera focuses on my mouth alone: whilst brandishing my characterisation in to the lens, Len’s laughter escapes. A willowing dip in sensibility, a slight whine and then a realisation that gobbles up the sound and swallows only to let it go again – to exasperate – again: such an incantation this is! I let it go again, knowing it’s exacting affect, its altitude in decibels – the intensity of two sources – a logarithm of gut throat and rhyme.”
A climbing hill ends with the next horizon revealing itself – it cackles at you and makes you more aware. So, when speaking in to the camera I will be aware of myself. I will laugh. But then what is the difference between giving you this laughter and describing it? What is fiction thereof and what is empirical evidence of something that has sound?
To edit text you first have to edit film. So – edit the film, re-play the film and decipher the words spoken. Then use these words as a final draft.
Then comes an installation.
First a photograph that’s relevant
Then the full description written by the other
Then the film that is mixed between an edit and the full version
Then the edited text at the other end
Perhaps unrelated sound
