Film of Dust: Marks of History

K Parker, S Moore

Research output: Contribution to journalConference proceedings published in a journalpeer-review

Abstract

This paper is a critical reflection on the creative potential of accepting the inevitable presence of dust in moving image production. It calls for a revolt against the seductive cult of the pristine screen image. Can we embrace the materiality of the dusty frame and its hidden histories? Our collaborative film-making has evolved through a range of video and audio tape formats and gauges of photochemical film, with an archive of physical and virtual media stored in boxes, decaying hard drives, and obsolete optical media – dusted with environmental dirt, the detritus/data of the past. Dust infiltrates throughout the process of production, postproduction and archiving. Should dust be an integral part of film-making practice? If we accept the presence of dust in the world, what is the creative potential of dust as data? Can dust and deterioration be read as a parallel narrative, as well as the metadata of a film’s life? In our joint presentation, we report on our recent forensic investigative work with the Plymouth Microscopy Centre, and explore Carolyn Steedman’s proposition in her 2002 work, Dust: The Archive and Cultural History, that the “matter of history” - dust - can never go away or be erased. When dust ruptures the sensorial membrane of the screen and becomes the subject, rather than the object of extermination, what potential new ways of thinking about film may be afforded by a ‘material turn to dust’? Panel 3a: Revolution in Practice: Activism, Materiality and Aesthetics BAFTSS Practice Research Special Interest Group
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages0
JournalDefault journal
Volume0
Issue number0
Publication statusPublished - 2018
EventBritish Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies 6th Annual Conference 2018 Revolution: Politics, Technology, Aesthetics - University of Kent, Canterbury
Duration: 12 Apr 201813 Apr 2018

Keywords

  • dust
  • film
  • materiality
  • microscopy

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Film of Dust: Marks of History'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this