Film Series #1 is a performance for two dancers and two re-engineered interactive 16mm projectors. The dancers control the speed of the film projectors, which allows them to progress the story through their movements. Both film and sound are manipulated in real-time, accompanied by a rich sound track and the vivid mechanic utterings of the film projectors.

What has been abandoned in the wake of progress?

Controlling hybrid sense-machines two performers experiment with recovering and playing film scenes. In the era of the ceaseless upgrade, their nostalgic longings lead them to discover a new sense of purpose in the abandoned practice of the projectionist as they replay, unwind and sound its ‘magic’.
Fragments of lost film culture emerge from archives, ancient myths, cultural and historical facts are squeezed into a digital fiction. In this film-space the flickering light and humming sound of the projector forms an environment of intrigue and magic. Playing radically diverse films about reptiles, 1960s New Zealand, a love story and the evolution of species they remix and reimagine.

What matters for us in this work is the creation of a performance environment where the textures, weight, rhythms and sounds of the celluloid era are remixed with the extended potentials of the digital through wearable technology, to create a resonant, poetic and magical experience for audiences.