This short film documents a walk to the Shirakawa canal in Kyoto during the cherry blossom season. The soundtrack was created using an original apparatus called ‘The Octopus’. Voltages from light sensors on the projection screen control an analogue modular synthesizer. The film itself acts as a score. Soundtrack created in collaboration with Palle Dahlstedt.

A Journey to the Shirakawa Sosui

This film documents an aimless walk through one of Kyoto's former outcaste neighbourhoods, which continues to exist below normal Japanese living standards. Despite pro-active legislation, people from families associated with such areas can experience discrimination. The soundtrack was created using a self-built apparatus we call "The Octopus". Voltages from light sensors on the projection screen control an analogue modular synthesizer allowing the film itself to act as a score. Soundtrack created in collaboration with Malte Steiner.

Mototanaka Dérive

An optisonic exploration of a world of primordial shapes created through various chemical treatments of a Super 8 emulsion. The sonic counterpart was made using a generative patch on an analogue synth, with voltage inputs from light sensors on the projection screen – the film itself steering the dynamics of sound synthesis.

Blue Movement

Stop-motion animation made by photographing and rephotographing antique kimono resist-dyeing stencils in positive and negative. Spatial shifts and variations in the repeating pattern elements generate apparent motion.

Katagami

Super 8 film of Ally Mobb's 30th birthday party Sept. 28th, 2014. Shot on a single 50ft roll of Kodak 100D reversal film. Edited in camera. Song "Littlestar" by Ally Mobbs.

Happy Birthday, Ally!

One in a series of works exploring the materiality and texture of hand-processed small gauge film, and the qualities of indeterminacy, and serendipity. The raw materials are long-expired Kodachrome film and film developers made from household ingredients. My tools are old super 8 cameras purchased cheaply in flea markets and an obsolete telecine machine, acquired in exchange for a song.

24/7 Shimogamo

This single reel Super 8 film is my only evidence of a Doppelgänger-filmmaker, whose current whereabouts are completely unknown. Begun in the Tempelhofer Field, Berlin, in August 2013, shooting could finally be completed in August 2015, when the camera and film mysteriously re-surfaced at the Mauerpark Flohmarkt. Sound created optisonically in collaboration with Barcelona-based producer Jon Modular.

Exquisite Interval

A contemporary update on a classic journey – the well-travelled route between Kyoto and Tokyo. Hiroshige meets Ruscha.

Every Building on the Tokaido Line

Sketch of a Spring weekend afternoon in the Demachiyanagi area of Kyoto, exploring literal and figurative time distortions. Filmed on a single reel of 30 year old Kodachrome, it was processed in a home-made soup of instant coffee, vitamin C, and soda.

Out Town Willow

Short film of an infant's first bath based on amateur footage found in an antiques gallery in Japan. The photographer is unknown, but the material is thought to date to the early-to-mid Showa era, a period marked by the disastrous consequences of militarism. Music by Tomoko Sauvage.

First Bath

Dancer Nonoko Sato at Gallery Kaos No Ma in Kyoto. Shot in ambient light on 30 year old Kodachrome and developed in Caffenol, each frame of the film was exposed for up to a second. Nonoko Sato (Japan) is a member of Kiraza Butoh Company and is also active as an independent artist. Special thanks to Matuo Sunamoto of Gallery Kaos No Ma, Kyoto.

Nonoko/Kaos No Ma

Light, time, and landscape in Porto, August 2016. Filmed during the massive forest fires in Northern Portugal, a thick pall of smoke has gathered ominously over the Douro river. Kevin Dong: “As a medium capable of representing time in different ways, cinema is a vital tool which allows us to perceive the Anthropocene differently.

Porto Landscape

Stop motion animation of antique kimono textiles from the Nishijin district in Kyoto. Filmed on super 8 in Kyoto. Soundtrack created in collaboration with Palle Dahlstedt using the Octopus analogue audio-visual interface.