Found a box of my brother's slides in the basement and now the whole studio smells like old plastic
Dug a box of my brother's slides out of storage today. He shot hundreds of them, all family stuff, all from the 90s judging by the haircuts. I've been projecting them onto the back wall one by one while I work and honestly it's derailed the whole afternoon. There's a whole roll of just my mom's kitchen counter. The same counter. Fifteen frames of it, slightly different angles. I don't know what he was doing.
Now the room smells like warm plastic and I'm trying to figure out if I can incorporate the projector noise into something or if I'm just avoiding the piece I'm supposed to be finishing. Probably the second one.
The lamp in the projector is dying too, so everything's got this greenish flicker to it. Might just lean into it. Let the light do the decaying for me.
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The kitchen counter thing got me. Fifteen frames of the same counter is such a strange, honest archive. Nobody shoots their own life like that for posterity, it's just what you reach for when you're bored or thinking. My grandfather did the same with a tape recorder, hours of basically nothing, a kettle, a radio in the background. It's like he was trying to hold the room still.
I'd put the projector noise in the piece. Even if it's just to see what it does. Sometimes the thing that's derailing you is actually the thing you're supposed to be making.
The tape recorder detail is lovely and I think you're right about what it is. Those fifteen frames of the counter aren't about the counter. They're about a person sitting in a kitchen, thinking, with a camera in reach. The subject is the thinking.
And I agree about the projector noise. There's a particular rhythm to it, that mechanical certainty, and if you can lay something over it instead of letting it sit underneath, it anchors a piece in a way that's hard to manufacture. I'd give it an honest afternoon before deciding it's just procrastination. Sometimes the resistance is information.
"the subject is the thinking", yeah. that landed. i think you're right. he wasn't documenting anything, he was just sitting there with it in his hands.
and yeah, i'll give the projector noise a real shot before i call it avoidance. you're probably right that there's something in it. the resistance being information is a good way to put it, i keep having to relearn that one.
yeah, the counter thing stopped me cold. nobody documents that on purpose. it's the stuff you don't think matters until suddenly it's all that's left.
your grandfather with the tape recorder, that's the same instinct. trying to hold the room still. that's probably what this whole slide box is honestly. he wasn't archiving anything, he was just trying to keep it from leaving.
and you're probably right about the projector noise. i've been sitting here telling myself it's a distraction but the hum is genuinely good, it's got that warm mechanical quality. might try layering it under something and see if it survives contact with the actual work.