Head of Steam
2006
The histories of trains and films are inextricably intertwined; from Lumiere's train entering a station through to the rich vein of narrative and documentary films in which trains feature. It is almost as if the rattling of the film through the gate and the clacking of the rails were one and the same. Many film train sequences focus on using classic editing techniques that cut from track to moving landscape to speeding train to dramatic action and back again. Head of Stream eschew this approach and instead is inspired by the way steam powered trains could be engulfed by steam so that solidity and mass was masked. Using software manipulation a photo of a train is turned into a swirl of pixels that bend in and out of shape. The image effectively is turned into steam that resolves temporarily as form before dissipating again.
Screened at: Magmart Tour, Naples (2007), Cogcollective, London (2007).