REVUE !!!
stereoscopic film performance, Germany 2025, 12 mins, no dialogue
Super-8, 1:1.33, 18 fps, colour
two synced Super-8 projectors, polarising filters, silver screen, polarising glasses,
live music by Brain Operating System

this work was created during LaborBerlin's S.P.A.C.E. residency program as part of the project SPECTRAL which was co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Commission and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe

supported by the Special Grants Program from Stiftung Kulturfonds
with funds from Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media - BKM
as part of the programme Neustart Kultur

This is just a digital simulation. In order to enjoy a stereoscopic effect,
you have to watch the video on a smartphone in fullscreen mode, using a VR headset:

synopsis
Two Super-8 film projectors invite us to a stereoscopic 3D projection, a firework of psychedelic patterns and artifacts from the golden age of amateur cinema: it pumps, jumps, slides, and distorts the reference points of our languid brains. A trip!

background
In the 1960-80's, at the peak of the popularity of the Super-8 film format, various brands - Hama, Rowi, Kaiser or Revue - were selling so-called "fading strips" (Trickblenden), short film strips with fancy, colourful and abstract patterns, graphic animations and visual effects, that amateur film makers could physically splice in between the scenes of their home movies to visually separate their summer holidays from last year's Christmas celebration. Central Europe (East and West) was a big market for these fancy add-ons, camera stores often provided numerous folders to browse through and choose from a vast variety of designs.

During the Covid-19 pandemic I began collecting these "fading strips", until I had gathered a sufficient amount of material to assemble them for a performative film work that celebrates these forgotten gems of film history and popular culture.

The performance consist of two Super-8 projectors that are being set-up for a stereoscopic projection, to be watched with polarising glasses that will be handed out to the audience before the show. The two film reels consist entirely of "fading strips" from my collection, assembled to a rhythmic and aesthetic composition. Since these "fading strips" were never meant to be watched in a stereoscopic set-up, a pseudo three-dimensional effect is being achieved through little discrepancies in timing, direction, colour and shapes between the two parallel running reels. The soundtrack by Brain Operating System uses analogue modular synthesisers – either played live or as a recording, depending on the availability of the musicians for the show.

screenings
S.P.A.C.E. Expanded, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany 2025