Monday, May 14, 2007

nonspace (?)


i'm preparing to read Augé and thinking about my assumptions regarding his conceptualization of "non-spaces." i'm thinking about a little film i did in the Washington D.C. metro station on my way to the Hirschhorn museum on New Year's Day. i remember thinking that i had to film that space (the metro, but then it carried over into the museum, which was probably unecessary). in what is ordinarily a fairly mundane and distasteful chore (for me), traveling via public transportation, i somehow became joyfully agitated, absolutely compelled to film in the metro. and this is difficult to understand outside of an affective intensity that registered in the moment. in the metro, i sense an ironic sterility that is both exhausting and somehow promising, potential-laden in terms of identity. don't want to say much about that, for now. i'm assuming that Augé goes there. but so my little film, "metro," is here:

metro (it's a cell phone movie, so sit close! and it takes forever to load. i'm working on hosting it elsewhere, but for now, i'm using my friend, Mark Crane's space. ha).

but then there is this -- impressive, publicized, and imagining/calling itself art (correctly -- it feels to me like Michel Gondry, but isn't):

http://www.petervink.nl/1982/video-uk.html

i found it at rhizome, and here is the accompanying text:

"1982" (2000) is an installation of light and sound at the subway station Gerdesiaweg/Rotterdam. The existing illumination is transformed into a light organ. The lights respond disco-like to the music playing over the intercom. This music consists of hits from 1982, the year the station was built. The replacement of the entire interior is also the end of this installation, which is meant as an ode to the year of the station’s construction."

an ode to a year. reminds me of "The Year of the Whisper Quiet Maytag" or "The Year of the Trial Sized Dove Bar" or "The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment" from David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. hysterical. corporate sponsored time. we're almost there w/ Energy Solutions Arena, Staples Center, etc.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember seeing a silent short at an experimental film festival which was simply one long take filmed from a train carriage as it entered Chicago. I can't remember the title or who did it.

But I often experience moments when I say to myself: 'I wish I could capture this on film.' But these are quite ephemeral moments which are unique and unfilmable.

I'll watch your movie when I'm at uni and have broadband access!

bonnie lenore kyburz said...

there is something about that moment when you realize that you want to capture it. it *is* unique and ufilmable. but. what's nice is to see what you do end up capturing, some trace of that discreet affect registers, sometimes, if you're lucky or maybe talented or just shoot long
enough in different light(s), from different angles.