Nervous System and Nervous Magic Lantern - Text 5B
Here bricolage is in dialogue with the need to formalize a method making it possible, so that they can be reproduced, to fix the unstable and volatile effects obtained by manipulating equipment live. For this Jacobs had to re-arrange on a graphic medium the elements which were a part of the projection: two images with different data overlapping in the brain, plus the black intervals of flicker. The two images had to be arranged sequentially, with the black interval becoming an image in the true sense of the term. The possible serial combinations between these base units are infinite, as the essential principle lies in the repetition of a simple sequence founded on two images, A and B.
As soon as he began working with digital images, Jacobs was helped by assistants, including his daughter Nisi Jacobs and Erik Nelson. With these collaborators, he explored the various possibilities of the medium for altering images, expanding the range of effects obtained with Eternalism at the same time as he extended his research into 3D. As a result, he discovered new ways to manipulate the material, such as distortion through diagonal “stretching” or the application of effects on only one part of the image, something which can be seen for example in The Surging Sea of Humanity (2006).
Jacobs also extended the application of the principles of the Pulfrich effect, whereby dark optical stimuli are perceived by the brain a little later than light stimuli. Usually obtained by placing a filter over the eyes, and having the function of delaying the delivery of visual information to the brain, its consequence is to provide two distinct images of a single scene; these images are then merged to create the illusion of a third dimension. In many of his digital films, such as Capitalism: Slavery (2006), Jacobs calibrates the photograms so that the difference in luminosity adds to the differences between the adjacent images in order to produce the sustained movement of Eternalism.
