stills from STRING THEORY

don't adjust your mind, there is a fault in reality

Still image from an animation in progress called ‘string theory’. Constructed of altered photographs, (incl. some timelapse) of telephone lines in & around Pittsburgh, Pa.

The narrative accompanying the imagery involves deconstruction of myth-structures that disempower particularly vulnerable members of the community by stripping them of voice.

Language and its use, the acts of speaking and listening, are the strings that hold us together.

Language, words, what is created with language, social permissions, can tear us apart.

Ellsworth St. Telephone Poles

Since the content of the animation dwells on communication, I made the photographs (and did the first round of edits to the photos) using a telephone.

Narrative moments from the film include a meditation on the Arc of the Covenant symbol from the film Raiders of the Lost Arc and the power of taboo-laden words; the mutilated image of Mary Magdalen and how healthy, socially-active roles for women were deleted from the Bible via translation by King James, and the social consequences of that act; and more.

orange spiro animation frame 95

Animations created for the film were inserted against the urban landscape backdrop of the piece. Three of these smaller animations were created frame by frame in a small spirograph-creating program. Frames were bundled together as loops in Quicktime 7 Pro, becoming movies. More animation details were added in Motion before being inserted into the central narrative built in a Final Cut timeline, using alpha channels to key out the backgrounds.

String Theory (2009) : Still - Ellsworth St. with Sun