A week home alone and I start to notice the lights and movements that are there all the time and yet still startle and bother me. This project is an exploration of how our eyes and imagination can play tricks on us in certain situations. When I am in the dark room, I often jump slightly, because in the corner of my eye I see movement. It’s always in the same spot, and only when I move my head slightly. After a while I realized it was the way the safety light was reflecting on the side of my safety glasses, always in my peripheral vision and always when I was facing the same direction. If I wasn’t alone in the dark room, I probably would not notice this movement, and would not be startled by it. It is because I am in the dark by myself and my imagination is taking over (and also because I am easily startled). My imagination fills in the blanks that my senses miss.
And the same thing happens at home, when the soft air from the furnace is blowing the crepe paper ornament hanging from the ceiling, or the digital photo frame in my kitchen changes every five seconds, shining different light into the room. Or my flashing alarm clock that I’ve neglected setting is flashing in the mirror at the end of my bed. And the lights that shine through the cracks in the blinds when a car drives by and the shadows of the trees outside move. The glow of the tv that bounces off of everything and tricks me into seeing movement in the rest of the room. I don’t have night vision or eyes on the back of my head, and my imagination makes up for that. In one way, perhaps my brain is trying to prevent me from being startled by warning me of possible outcomes in the dark, but of course it goes irrationally beyond that.
This series of moving images, was made with an iPhone app called Cinemagram. The app simply takes video and loops it continuously or forwards and backwards. I thought this app was appropriate for this series, because it works to capture subtle movement and repeat it. I am interested in the idea of a moving picture, or an image with movement, and how it is different than a video or a film. This is something I have explored in the past using photoshop and a simple fade transition. I slowly faded from one layer to the next, adding elements to the photo, slow enough that just glancing while walking by you couldn’t notice the movement, but when you would look back the image had changed slightly.
Please note, if the images are not moving on this page, please click them to see them on the cinemagr.am website.
Follow Me!
Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram | Bloglovin’ | Google+ | Etsy
