Two Points of Failure

​

In 1976, filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard commissioned the design and realisation of a 35mm motion picture camera that would be as compact as an 8mm camera and as self-contained as the video portapak (which had been developed and released for professional use in 1971). The arrival of the portapak signaled the beginning of the slow demise of analogue film recording techniques, a cycle whose finality can be marked most recently by the wholesale transition to digital technologies. Two Points of Failure (2013) is a conceptual experimental 35mm film that frames this demise (1976-2013) and takes as its primary subject matter Godard's failed prototype for the compact 35mm camera – a camera which suffered from myopia and was simply too loud. The film as you see it was constituted by dissolving negative emulsion in a chemical solution while recording the sounds of its own making. It functions both as an index of a disappearance and the trace of the objects, techniques and analogue medium which has been all but lost to us.