Primary Stimulus: Installation #2 — A Film Installation Proposal and Prototype

The idea for Primary Stimulus: Installation #2 developed out of an earlier installation proposal I made in 1980 and is designed to use, in a different spatial configuration, the same abstract animated film. Instead of the wall-like image-structure proposed for the first installation, this second piece would locate multiple film projections in a three-dimensional architectural setting by employing a formation of free-standing forms. Specifically, Primary Stimulus: Installation #2 would consist of five sets of two monolithic black columns that are modular in size and shape.

The dimensions of an individual column would be 80” tall, 26" wide and 26” deep. The back column in each set would contain a 16mm projector (five projectors in all) and the front column would contain a multiplex projection chamber viewed through a 16.5” by 22" image- window. These multiplex projection chambers would consist of a layered system of static graphic patterns (all different), mirrored walls and a rear projection screen. Except for their mirrored walls and smaller size they would be similar in construction to the matrices of the earlier Primary Stimulus installation that I proposed in 1980. When the installation is operating, the film that is projected from the back column onto the rear- projection screen of the front column is optically altered and amplified by the various elements contained in the chamber’s matrix. By arranging these specially designed columns into a spatial organization, the viewer would be able to move through the piece and observe the imagery in various sequences and combinations.

The installation, then, would function as a formation of cinematic-light objects which have an architectural dimension as well as sculptural presence.

The sound (as well as the kinetic imagery) for this installation would be produced by loop-projecting five identical prints of my abstract animated film, Primary Stimulus. A polyphonic delay would be created by projecting the films sequentially, that is, by turning on at the beginning of the piece the installation's five projectors one after the other, at ten-second intervals. This staggered combination of looped sounds would produce a composition of overlapping and repeated rhythms — in effect a close-textured and complicated canonic structure.

Prototype of multiplex projection chamber fabricated by Glenn Mouton. Notes taken from Robert Russett: A retrospective survey, University Art Museum, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1989.

Author: 

Year: 

1982

Country: 

United States
Technical data

Original format: 

Installation

Colour: 

B&W

Sound: 

Sound

Other info: 

16mm five-loop projection, indefinite duration

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