Tenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

Over the last decade, my research has been led by practice, film and video installation production. I have used these methods to explore ways of revisioning memories to elicit personal remembering and storytelling. Much of this research has concentrated on the role of found home movies with particular emphasis on the medium of Super 8 film. Such images, my research indicates have lost much of the personal and emotive qualities that they once had and by rescreening and reusing them I hope to regain their emotional value. I aim to create a medium that will provide viewers with an auratic experience that engenders memory recall and sharing. The aura created, I argue, results from a combination of factors. It emanates mainly from the nature of the very personal and authentic subject matter of the home movies, rich with nostalgia. The impact is made more potent when imbued with the physical attributes present in the medium itself, super8 film. In this latest work, “Stilling Memories”, I am exploring the concept of remixing found footage from experimental Super 8 artists, with anonymous home movies shot in the 1970s, to create a new work that offers a greater aura through this remixing. Here I layer selected sequences together, creating evocative images imbued with nostalgia and reverie. Having created the film from this process, “Remixed Memories”, I have produced a series of stills that I argue can be the most effective medium for eliciting memories.