light is the first bodily form

By Clint Enns


... all that sense can comprehend, is Light: because it partaktes of that which it is. To comprehend dark, or a shape, it must withdraw from its own nature – it must withdraw or turn against its own electrical illuminating nature in order to comprehend a shape.[1]

 


Light is the first bodily form
pays homage to the philosopher of light, Robert Grosseteste. The title is intended to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek since this video was made entirely in the dark, using only a circuit bent Webcam. No additional computer effects were added to the video. The music is the song “Rain Serenade” by Natural Snow Buildings.

Circuit bending is the creative short-circuiting of low voltage electronics. I believe that I am the first person to circuit bend a Webcam. However, circuit bending of other video equipment, such as the Fisher Price PXL 2000, is common.



      

View light is the first bodily form on Vimeo

 


Notes

1. “Stan Brakhage – The Text of Light,” Cantrills Filmnotes 21/22, (April 1975). This text is a transcription of the introduction and the question and answer session after a screening of Brakhage’s film, The Text of Light (1974). Brakhage was paraphrasing from Robert Grosseteste’s work, On Light, or the Ingression of Forms.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Clint Enns resides in Winnipeg and is currently a Masters student in mathematics at the University of Manitoba. His interests include cinema, model theory of rings and modules, natural language as a biological phenomenon, and the logical vocabulary of natural language. Enns has been an avid cinephile for many years, and has only recently started making films. He is currently a member of the Winnipeg Film Group and Video Pool.


 


INCITE Journal of Experimental Media
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