The film LET THERE BE WHISTLEBLOWERS, which we are presenting in memory of experimental film pioneers Flo and Ken Jacobs, who both passed away last year, was one of the first works in which they transferred their exploration of three-dimensional images from analogue film to digital video. At the time of the film’s making, the patent for the effect that they called “Eternalisms” was still pending.
Eternalisms show stereo photographs, their two close perspectives joined via computer to display as a single ongoing dimensional image that can be seen without glasses.”
Related to another film, Ken wrote in 2016:
“Studying painting with Hans Hofmann had sensitized me to depth phenomena, to strange readings of depth including the most unnatural: flat. In 1964, I learned of the Pulfrich Effect and gained access to wholly illusionistic depth way beyond indication. This led in 1975 to my partner Flo and I beginning to explore the Nervous System, performing with two stop-motion film projectors to superimpose sequential film frames showing different perspectives for extended periods of time. A spinning shutter between projectors activated the compound image onscreen, introducing depths available even to a single eye but strange, uncanny; nuts. In 2000 we switched to digital processes, we patented our discoveries for the new medium and exploration continued, continues. Eternalisms show stereo photographs, their two close perspectives joined via computer to display as a single ongoing dimensional image that can be seen without glasses.”
Click on image to see the effect:
