This may not be a movie

Conventional movies and videos are formed from a succession of frames (still images), but in this work a “moving image” is created using a “video camera/cine projector without frames”. This is a work that requestions the fundamental concept of movies/videos until today through an unprecedented groundbreaking system. The camera/cine projector of this work consists of a boxshaped structure containing an object lens from a twin-lens reflex camera, a bundle of optical cables, film exposed to the light passing through the cables, and a film folder set to slide by a manual handle. At the time of shooting, 324 optical fibers embedded within a grid are responsible for 324 pixel dots. By sliding the film in the film folder with a turn of the handle, the mechanism exposes the film to the light passing through the fibers. By then sliding the film in the same manner than it was at the time of exposure, it becomes possible to reproduce the moving image as lines of light.

On a subconscious level, our daily lives are overflowing with “moving images”, from the experience of making flip books in adolescence to the habit of taking videos with our smartphone and sharing them on SNS, yet it would be rare for us to question their definition. “Moving images” and “films” are brought about through the continuity of still images, but the theme of this work is a re-examination of this relationship and the provision of possibilities for a moving image without reliance on still images. Artist GOSHIMA Kazuhiro has utilized a twin-reflex camera, recording on film as information a pixel image brought about by optical fibers attached to an imaging unit. The brightness or nuances of light in a single fiber is exposed as a single line, and that film is then played back. Needless to say, the definition of a captured “moving image” is shaken by this “video camera/cine projector without frames”, and what we have been taking for granted is confronted by GOSHIMA’s humorous spirit in the title, “This may not be a movie”. (UEMATSU Yuka)