Cue-Dot Observatory
The Cue-Dot Observatory represents the monitoring and restoration of a handful of fleeting but critical time signals that regulate the illusionary changeovers between film reels. Since 2005 I have spotted over 1,600 cue-dot pairs, which are recorded as both 7-second clips and still images. From this archaeological sifting of matinee fragments, I attempt to make exploratory works around the mechanical, aesthetic and narrative structures of celluloid. Low-res cue-dot samples can be seen in DotViewer. The Observatory is an obsessional gleaning of film marginalia. These tiny signals mark the transitions between movie reels; the first dot appears on the corners of 4 frames, at 12 feet / 8 seconds from the end of the spool. It prompts an operator to warm up the second projector in a two-reel system. Dot number-two arrives 7 seconds later, at which point the fearful projectionist attempts to perform a seamless changeover and so maintain the cultural and economic flux of moving images. The Observatory only scrutinises the edge of films actually broadcast on TV, recording a snapshot of the contemporary cinematic repertory. Winking cue-marks are witnessed simultaneously by thousands of spectators whilst absorbing their evanescent gaze.
The Cue-Dot Observatory's archive will be accessible online in the near future as a resource for art-historical and creative research. These top-corner phrases of found footage provide fertile audio-visual materials with which to spin stories about the cinematic continuum, and hint at human commotion both onscreen and in the projectionist's booth. Their imminent disappearance, as industrial casualty of digitisation, marks a sea change in cinema history. This depository of near-redundant 'cigarette burns' provides a means of remembering cinema’s outgoing physicality, and a method of enquiry into narrative and perceptual processes. In my first solo exhibition I presented a body of filmworks constructed from the Observatory records. For 'OUTPOST presents British & European Legs' I exhibited recent films - both database-driven and linear - plus interactive film-based works that placed cue-dots into outmoded or ephemeral display devices. Mid-century cinematographic toys were combined with custom 35mm & 16mm loops, alongside brand-new colour microfiche processes. Archaic, dusty machines revived to function as both expanded silent cinema, and resource for the examination of far-flung cinematic remains. Judith Palmer's article 'Don't Look Now' reviews the Cue-Dot Observatory >> Mentions |
|
