TECHNES Encyclopedia Database

The resulting film is an intense 2 minutes and 38 seconds of sonic and chromatic oscillation. An unrelenting electronic soundtrack straps us to the rippling inhale and exhale of coloured smoke – a respiration coaxed through careful manipulation of the zoom of the video camera in the feedback system – whilst reaction-diffusion patterns can be glimpsed momentarily through the mist.

The recapturing of video feedback onto film recalls the earliest examples of the technique – the groundbreaking title sequence to Doctor Who (BBC, 1963), or the work of Lutz Becker^[5] (Horizon, 1967). This transduction makes the medium difficult to pin down – we can deduce from the scratches and emulsion that it exists materially at some level as celluloid, but the movement is evolving and complex in a manner consistent with the volatility of video feedback. There is both chemistry and physics at play. We are not watching a film, but a force.