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Design: g:k, graf
& kölmel
The installation was realized with the support of the artist Janka
Reh, the technological support of IAP Jena, and with the finacial
support of the Institute for Algorithms and Cognitive Systems at Karlsruhe
University.
As a prototype of pioneering image technology,
Laserfilm extends the possibilities of conventional film
not only in terms of technology but also subject matter. The installation
is based on the idea of applying a new technological advance from
the field of optics [diffractive elements] to film as a medium.
In order to produce moving images, the conventional reproductive
method using celluloid film involves running a long sequence of
individual images past a light source. Without recourse to further
technical devices, such as a shutter in combination with a so-called
Maltese cross, the projected image will simply remain diffuse, blurred
or unfocused.
The simple optical construction of Laserfilm, on the other
hand, involving nothing more than a data carrier and a laser as
its light source, makes it possible to directly project a film without
needing to resort to further technical. The film is mounted on a
glass disc held in the centre of a freely swinging pendulum suspended
from the ceiling. It consists of a so-called diffractive element,
minuscule squares each just one thousandth millimetre across that
have been etched into the glass disc by means of the most up-to-date
industrial production technology from Jena. Whether the viewer 'plays'
the film in fast or slow motion depending on the speed in which
he moves the pendulum to and fro the succession of frames in the
film flows seamlessly [or shutterlessly] on, since the image projected
by diffracted light does not slip even if the image carrier is moved.
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