Caffenol

This short film was shot with a Super 8 camera during a photo session with butoh dancer Riko Murakami, and part of the film was developed by Caffenol. The soundtrack was created by Michael Lyons and Paule Dahlstedt using the optoelectronic device Octopus. Riko dances. It was just a daydream. The white-painted skin stands out in the vague twilight.

Having wavered in her thoughts a young girl establishes in her new self, a chrysalis. The girl, who has now hatched and transformed herself into a butterfly, dances wildly. This silent short was filmed in 8mm in Kyoto during the summer of 2012, and hand-developed using Caffenol, a home-made vitamin C and instant coffee-based developer. Selected for screening and nominated for an award at the 27th Image Forum Festival Japan.

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.

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.

Insects in their final moments chatter noisily, displaying extravagant colors and patterns – it is their great feast of love. The work celebrates the 100th anniversary of Norman McLaren’s birth. The film was made by scratching and painting directly on overexposed 8mm film. The soundtrack was created using ‘The Octopus’, which allows the film itself acts as a score.

This short film features several people who stay successively in a typical room in a Japanese business hotel. The film exhibits a fascination with patterns of human movement and behaviour in an unremarkable situation from everyday life.

This silent 8mm short was filmed in 2012 and hand-developed using Caffenol, a home-made developer based on instant coffee and vitamin C.