Axis

Axis is an experimental film made through entirely photomechanical and photochemical means. The film fits into the experimental sub-genre of “optical printer film.” Some practitioners who have inspired me include Jordan Belson, John Whitney, David Rimmer, Pat O’Neill, Al Razutis, Gary Popovich, Bruce Elder and Norman McLaren. Axis takes as its subject matter the mundane, faceless urban landscape with its gleaming towers and factories. The workaday humdrum… drones to the hive. So I take to the streets, with my homemade Bolex robot, affectionately known as “BOLBOT.” It is a time-lapse motion control machine capable of smoothly spinning through X-Y-Z axes continuously or in a stop/go pattern. The resulting footage is a transformed view of the city; urban scenes are in a continual state of exaggerated movement. A main idea of this film is to take mediated views of everyday city scenery and to elevate the city to a frenzied cosmic rendering with orb-like symmetries abounding. The city, and nature are transformed into a seething and pulsing mandala. The hope is that the spectator experiences meditative, trancelike states. The message of the film is to open one’s eyes and see the world in different ways. It is also an affirmation; to look at the world as a system of possibilities as opposed to a corporate, faceless façade. Even within the constructed façade artistic possibilities and invention abound. Revolutions!