6x 16mm film projection b/w optical sound 12-15min. London/Singapore 2005
Letters are printed onto raw film, and their shapes make sounds as they passed the projectors optical sound heads. Letters “O” and “E” are initially printed on transparency papers, which is later brought into a dark room. Strips of unexposed film are laid under the transparency and exposed to light, thus optically printed the letters onto the film.
Derived from Lynn Loo’s “Vowels” and “O”. This performance version is made in collaboration with Guy Sherwin. Films of vowels made by Lynn Loo, film of consonants made by Guy Sherwin. Joint collaboration on choreography of the performance work. The video excerpt above is a video documentation of its first performance at the Bullion Theatre in London with sound artists Sarah Washington and Knut Aufermann.
“Vowels and Consonants was a piece for six projectors that screened variations on a simple, flickering font printed from computer onto acetate and then transferred to film. O’s and N’s fly into frame like amoeba under a microscope, vibrating and oscillating in response, seemingly, to the treated voices that announce their arrival; I’m sure the letters were triggering sound somehow. Sherwin and Loo manipulate the projectors to introduce fades, cuts and cross-fades matching the overlapping effect of the voice. The letters fold and bounce off each other. The overall effect is synaesthetic, like you’re actually watching sound take shape (and in fact the sound design was really something too—an ominous, post-industrial hum).”
– RealTime Arts – Magazine – issue 87 – MIFF 2008_ lo-tech brilliance Oct-Nov 2008
“The night’s most inventive film, Lynn Loo and Guy Sherwin’s Vowels and Consonants, sets dozens of monochrome letters in mesmerizing motion across the screen. As they spill onto the floor and ceiling, the characters burn into your retina as if written in the air with a sparkler. Sarah Washington and Knut Aufermann’s accompanying electronics, field recordings and mixing desk wizardry generate a smouldering undercurrent of micro feedback and turbulent shortwave radio.”
– The wire issue 259 sept 2005