Over the last few months I have discovered the lyrical filmmaker Paul Clipson and his visceral improvisatory super 8 collages. I’ve been down a rabbit hole, tracing over his videos that span a sizeable and prolific library. These visual poems, particularly the likes of ‘Black Field’, ‘Phantom Ghost’ and ‘Made of Air’, have been major sources of inspiration for me. This medium expresses something I can’t quite put into words. “Through masterful use of superimposition and visual abstraction to reimagine landscapes” (Mubi) we are taken through a passage of time, that muddles the temporality of lived experience, casting image over image in what starts to feel like a fever dream of memory and colour. Perception is all encompassing, yet we too easily only focus on the tangible, concrete forms that appear to us as known objects. Clipson’s work on the other hand, I find, explores the invisible happenings – patterns of obscurity that surround us in every moment, washing over our subconscious without our knowhow. Thinking back to Jackdaws, I cant help but wonder which colours I imbue them with. As I move through the world, my lifeworld supposedly determines how I receive and interact with the external world. But this is not fixed. Life-worlds are fluid. The way I interact with the world changes based on my perception of it. But my perception of it only changes if there is some internal shift, that is perhaps catalysed by, say, Jackdaws (external). In this case, a mutual transformation is the result of a never-ending conversation between the perceiver and their life-world; a conversation that transforms both parties, one after the other. But in our paradoxical emotional and mental complexities (Jung?), we sometimes stand in the way of this endless dance of ‘becoming’ (Deleuzian?). And this, while not always, can be a product of mass-industrial, consumption based society, that alienates us from the very life-world that allows us to perceive it in the first place. This disconnection could be seen too as a mutual transformation, though one that is more reminiscent of a positive feedback system, as opposed to the features of cylical, negative feedback systems, with equilibrium as its anchor point, ubiquitous in the natural world. Clipson’s work reminds me of all those aspects of a lifeworld that people in their day to day might stroll past without a thought to their (tiny) magnificence. And yet, when collated on a reel of film in quick, lyrical succession, these aspects of experience feel so moving and captivating. An ode to the overlooked. It reminds me of a chapter in Abram’s ‘The Spell of the Sensuous
Theres a common thread in my work that is beginning to become a little clear.
jackdaws as the recipient, catalyst of a philosophical conversation into mutual transformation…
the way we receive the world around us affects something internal … mutual transformation
These
Drawing on my writings into phenomenology in my dissertation
Both Clipson and Watkins design new ways to experience the familiar. Clipson through masterful use of superimposition and visual abstraction to reimagine landscapes, and Watkins in explorations of tones and resonance often designed for the space he’s performing in.
The more likeable cousin of its better known cousin the carrion crow…
Mics and mic techniques used so far/ experiential mic techs/ dolby atmos course earlier/ 5.1 in headphones instead of multichannel/ soundscape composition – Hildegard Westerkamp – experiential filmmaking Paul Clipson/ super 8/ koyaanisqatsi/ bruce?/ brakhage/ making a timeline
I looked up and saw the sky glimmering in th reflection of the highrise windows on the other side of the street – the sun illuminated this mirage, hidden itself though behind the concrete bearings between the window frames, hidden in form, but present in its illumination – man made structures that allow me to even glimpse the sky, hidden away from it – second hand experience – or first hand? whats going on there? it slowly moves across the building, the small cross section of illumination passing slowly across these synthetic surfaces. would i have noticed this if not my the research im doing now? – sun spots in my eyes – the world is coloured by our experience – our life world – we never see the world as it is – for what is the world? if not something we cannot grasp in its entirety – we are but one component of it – its intersubjectivity. we move through the world wearing tinted glasses – with enough practice or knowledge of it, we catch moments in which we become more aware, even fully aware of this phenomenon – though we can never fully escape it – how do i get this across through sound and image ?