Inkjet music, 2015
Hand-manipulated 8mm film, programming, video, sound, giclée prints
Inkjet Music is a video score created by drawing individual frames in Photoshop and printing them onto strips of paper with a household inkjet printer. By feeding these strips of paper through an 8mm film projector the imagery becomes an analog/digital hybrid, drawing attention to the relatively low resolution of inkjet printing. The paper film is fragile and easily jams the projector, making the conflation of 8mm film and inkjet printing technology cumbersome. This fusion reveals both the limitations and possibilities inherent in each type of imaging and pays homage to the impractical allure in outmoded systems. The resulting movie is then used as a score, with audio elements such as clicks, noise, and tones corresponding to changing visuals. This constructed audio becomes an extension of the process of mediation; as multiple formats translate the original information, a new composition emerges from the noise.
Documentation of this project was included in the Signal Culture Cookbook vol. 2.
The images pictured below are two versions of the piece that are made to be displayed as giclée prints. Video versions of the project were exhibited at the MANTIS Festival in Manchester, England and the Look to the Future-Past online exhibition through isthisit?.
A. P. Vague 