The Marey Reel
May 27, 2020, 01:50 PM
Piece based on "Marey Reel photographs of unidentified model" by Paul Collins.
"I was initially made aware of chronophotography while at studying art school: Marcel Duchamp used Marey’s and Muybridges’ work as a direct reference for his painting, “Nu descendant l’escalier, N°2.” The chronophotograph from the Smithsonian Collection is by Thomas Eakins, who is generally recognized as having introduced photography as a tool for art students and painters in America. He used Etienne-Jules Marey’s system of a rotating cylinder mounted on a rifle-like apparatus. This “Marey Wheel” consisted of 25 views. 25 then, is the number of steps that I used to compose the sequence that structures my piece. We hear the steps of the model running, leaping through the air, landing with a thud.
"This is translated as a motif, or ostinato, that repeats itself, over and over, like multiple prints reproduced from the same negative.
Besides the filmic connotation of a reel, I am referencing here the folk dance.
"All sounds in “The Marey Reel” were made using a Moog synthesizer."
Part of the Smithsonian Treasures project, a collection of new sound works inspired by items from the Smithsonian Museums’ collections - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/smithsonian
"I was initially made aware of chronophotography while at studying art school: Marcel Duchamp used Marey’s and Muybridges’ work as a direct reference for his painting, “Nu descendant l’escalier, N°2.” The chronophotograph from the Smithsonian Collection is by Thomas Eakins, who is generally recognized as having introduced photography as a tool for art students and painters in America. He used Etienne-Jules Marey’s system of a rotating cylinder mounted on a rifle-like apparatus. This “Marey Wheel” consisted of 25 views. 25 then, is the number of steps that I used to compose the sequence that structures my piece. We hear the steps of the model running, leaping through the air, landing with a thud.
"This is translated as a motif, or ostinato, that repeats itself, over and over, like multiple prints reproduced from the same negative.
Besides the filmic connotation of a reel, I am referencing here the folk dance.
"All sounds in “The Marey Reel” were made using a Moog synthesizer."
Part of the Smithsonian Treasures project, a collection of new sound works inspired by items from the Smithsonian Museums’ collections - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/smithsonian