Martin Jay acknowledges in his book The Crisis of the ancient Scopic Regime (1993) that "the stereoscope rather than the single photograph was the key to a liberating visual experience for Proust. Instead of reducing sight to a single but flat image, the stereoscope created depth by combining two images through a meaningful juxtaposition". However, this lack of motion in the stereoscopic memory-image makes me doubt its validity. Isn't movement a fundamental element for the perception of any memory-image? Isn't the body and its movements, whether as a familiar motor reaction or a spontaneous kinesis triggered by sensation, explicitly or implicitly present in the process of recalling a memory-image? And if one cannot discover through a still image, even a stereoscopic one, the cues given by all the senses, would a physical engagement of one's body, whose inherent desire is to move in space, ameliorate this act of remembrance?
This first approach of the memory/movement - image refers to the simple act of recognizing a habitual pattern in the way that my body tends to move and recording it, not as a continuous sequence but as a thread of 34 frames/still images. As sculptor Robert Morris said "memory reads off fragments seen out of context". This fragmentary quality which is visually given by the apposition of still images is something that I am very interested in exploring in order to distort the continuity in the movement sequence I proposed. However, there was an equally important aim in this process: to compare the use of new and outmoded filming techniques while trying to produce a stereoscopic I:M, in order to discover new ways of perceiving motion. To do so, I built my own version of a zoetrope, by placing in concentric circles the same kinetic pattern, captured in 34 frames from the front, the back, the left and the right side. When spun, the otherwise static juxtaposition of photographs is imbued with the impression of motion. The zoetrope, the labor of its construction as well as its visual effect, has given me the opportunity to approach differently the use of multimedia technologies and has inspired me to further elaborate on this medium in order to discover new ways of seeing...
