Super8 Experiments

Ste and I have been experimenting with Super8 video. I purchased films from flea markets and began chopping them up and pasting them back together digitally. This method relies heavily on chance, as with the slide work, as there is no guarantee that what I actually purchase will be of any creative value. This element of chance and the found imagery is a direct link to my more familiar montage work. This method is all about responding to what I come across, nothing in my work is directly sourced, what I create relies on what I find.

Influenced by the work I created in response to the Perec story, I used videos that focused on families, experimenting with subverting the context of what are, happy family memories, making them into something far more unsettling and hint at underlying issues. One moral issue I encountered when using this material, was that they are somebody’s memories. I didn’t feel comfortable to physically cut the film into pieces, so instead opted to digitally splice it so as not to harm it. I don’t see it like cutting up a magazine, which would be widely reproduced. As far as I know I’m in possession of the only existing copy and would feel a considerable guilt if I destroyed it. The idea of someone wanting to escape these memories by selling them echoes the atmosphere I have sought to create in my montages. That someone has sold their family memories makes the video far more emotionally charged and adds further depth.

Super 8 Montage Experiment #3 from SAPB on Vimeo.