Lines & Spaces

Lines & Spaces, is a very short piece lasting three minutes and thirty seconds. This is the length of time it takes to slowly turn a venetian blind from the closed position to fully open, then closed again. The film was shot in colour, although it appears black and white. It was made in a single take with no editing, no effects and no colour correction. Sunlight becomes a shape-shifter, enticing, playful and elusive. The work might be thought of as a very short drama in three acts.
Electronic processes were used to generate the sound material, working with percussion samples from a live player. The focus was particularly on metal instruments which yielded sounds that are at times expansive, mysterious, dry, metallic, measured and playful. The final work is a small moment of everyday life isolated and interpreted sonically. Its title, Lines & Spaces, both describes the visual imagery and references a music stave. Visual content is a single action with three parts, closed, open, closed, giving the work a formal coherence in which vertical movement is counterbalanced by strong horizontality.

Music – Rhona Clarke
Duration: 03.30 mins, 2012