We Are Approaching the End of Our Journey

"It is the straight line of the future that repeatedly cuts the smallest width of the present,that indefinitely re-cuts its starting from itself" Michel Foucault, Theatrum Philosophicum.

A video experiment with time.

While travelling home on the bus from London with an impressive sunset reflected in the window I started to film on my phone.
In the film the future would soon be the past, frames waiting to arrive. I other words, once recorded a video has a set duration but all moments of time exist in one file, one place and, in a sense, one time.
I wanted to show the future which is just waiting to appear in the off screen space, I thought of the frames queuing up, just off stage and waiting to come on.

Technically, using AfterEffects, the first few lines of pixels were displaced by one frame in time and also moved spatially to the right of the screen. This process was repeated 50 times giving a view 2 seconds into the future. This results in an extended wide screen picture where images arrive for two seconds before joining the current “real time” video frame. Due to the movement of the bus and camera these images oscillate and resonate in a wave like motion. When installed for exhibition the finished 6 minute video is reversed both temporally and spatially to produce an infinitely repeating loop.

The sound track is a mix of camera sound from inside the bus and field recordings of the road and birds in a lay-by on the bus route.

Thanks to Oxford Bus company for the safety warning used on the soundtrack and the title.

“So Please Sit Back and Enjoy Your Journey”

This film was installed in May 2014 at the Resonance show,  Fringe Arts Bath