Following the optical excitements of our last Kick-About—inspired by Victor Vasarely—this week’s collection of new works made in a short time dims the lights and invites us to marvel at the illuminations of the magic lantern. For all previous editions of The Kick-About, click here.
Kerfe Roig
“I immediately focused on the Freemason slide “All-Seeing Eye of Diety”, and I was also, of course, attracted to the astronomical slides. Both slides I used as inspiration had watercolor-like grounds perfect for painting mandalas. Then I collaged motifs on top, doing three versions of each. I replaced the sword of the Freemasons with an ankh, a cross, and a bird, but otherwise did variations of the symbols they used. For the astronomical one, I kept the clock motif but just used things that seemed to follow the feeling it gave me.”
magic lantern
can we travel
on the fire
of the spirit?
or is the way
always too cold
for the light to survive?
how tiny we are,
both inside and outside
of our dreams
we hold onto
all the mysteries
spoken through the heart
and wait to see
if our bones and minds
are listening
kblog.blog / methodtwomadness.wordpress.com
Phil Gomm
“For the record, no actual light sources were used to produce these images; what you’re looking at here are 2D layers moving around on top of each other. The original image is a circle cut from a photograph of grasses—because I had a feeling they’d give me the speckle and noise I was after. By rotating them in different directions (and cutting sections of them away), I was slowly able to build up the illusion of this rotating, illuminated disc. Then, in the video-editing software, I was able to take this pretend lightsource, and further pretend it was rotating in three-dimensional space. Agreed, that’s a lot of smoke and mirrors—which I thought was only appropriate, given the prompt.”
Marion Raper
“The Magic Lantern title had me thinking along the lines of changing scenery with maybe a slight mystical theme. I collected various materials such as chiffon and net and also a few objects and shells and attempted to arrange them in different ways, as if looking through a lens into a magical landscape.”
Lewis Punton
“The Magic Lantern turned out to be somewhat of a muse within a muse for me. Once I’d stumbled upon the gothic projections of Phantasmagoria I was hooked. I quickly found myself obsessed with the idea of 18th century horror outings and the faces of freaked out audience members… resulting in an attempt to immortalise a petrified portrait in modelling clay.”
James Randall
“The magic lantern theme felt like a mood to begin with, and as I’d just ventured into the city late one afternoon and photographed some blurry figures heading home they felt right to use, and in a Monument Valley kind of lonely backdrop – so ghostly vessels and then a red pic trying to explain myself – looks like I discovered religion a bit!”
And from one form of animation to another…
12 responses to “The Kick-About #113 ‘Magic Lantern’”
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Hello James – ta very much! ‘All so much smoke and mirrors!’
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[…] For the record, no actual light sources were used to produce these images; what you’re looking at here are 2D layers moving around on top of each other. The original image is a circle cut from a photograph of grasses—because I had a feeling they’d give me the speckle and noise I was after. By rotating them in different directions (and cutting sections of them away), I was slowly able to build up the illusion of this rotating, illuminated disc. Then, in the video-editing software, I was able to take this pretend light source, and further pretend it was rotating in three-dimensional space. Agreed, that’s a lot of smoke and mirrors—which I thought was only appropriate, given The Kick-About’s ‘magic lantern’ prompt. […]
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This is such an interesting post! I really enjoyed it, I love all the different elements, and I love the video! What a fascinating invention. 😀
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[…] Our last Kick-About together explored the simple proto-cinematic delights of the magic lantern. This week we’re sticking with fantastical sights—the ambulatory beach-bound sculptures of Theo Jansen. Enjoy this latest selection of ‘new works made in a short time’ and for all previous editions of The Kick-About go here. […]
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You’re welcome, Phil!
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