1997
super 8
6:00 minutes
silent
i have to admit that had i seen terry fox’s the children tapes i probably never would’ve made this film, and so i like to think this film was an homage to terry’s work before i knew it… these notes were written in 1997:
“the universe was inspired by a 1958 child’s book of astronomy experiments, and the poem ‘when i heard the learn’d astronomer’, by walt whitman. i used a series of science experiments as a ‘script’ for actions. most of the experiments seemed silly at first – especially as their only true purpose was to present an astronomy lesson to a 10 year old – but while doing these experiments, i became drawn into the nature of the experiences themselves, which i felt were much more interesting as an exploration of experience, rather than as models of astronomical facts. the science ‘learning’ was the least interesting part – and it was the activity, and the intuitive tangents that the activities suggested, that became the most profound. within these simple activities, i discovered many of the same things i try to find when i am painting; situations that are open to, and suggestive of, a variety of interpretations. the film also moves away from the notion of film as narrative. during the experiments, nothing really happens. the sequences, as well as the entire film, do not present themselves as shifts from beginning to end, rather they are a kind of ‘ambient’ moving picture. the film advocates experience, not as a means to an informational end, but as an access to poetic suggestion and quiet acts of observation.”