Preserving an Obsolete Technology: Contemporary Artists and 35mm Slide Projection

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Preserving an Obsolete Technology:

Contemporary Artists and 35mm Slide

Projection

MA Thesis Heritage Studies: Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image Amsterdam, 7 July 2015 Faculty of Humanities Department of Media Studies University of Amsterdam

Mila van der Weide 0467030 milavdw@gmail.com

Supervisor: Mrs. Dr. E.L. Masson

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Introduction

1. Subject

The object of research in this study is the use of 35mm slide projection as an artistic medium. Its aim is to explore possible preservation strategies for artworks that incorporate slide

technology, considered from the perspective of the artist’s motivations to employ this technique.

As part of the MA program Heritage Studies: Preservation and Presentation of the

Moving Image, I carried out a five-month internship at the Collection department of the

Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.) in Ghent, Belgium in 2014. During this period, I executed a project that focused on two slide-based installations by Dutch artist Mark Manders: Two Interconnected Houses (2010) and Coloured Room with Black and White

Scene (1999). Throughout this research, I noticed how little information is available on the

preservation of slide-based art. While the amount of literature on exhibiting and preserving film, photography and video art is extensive, research on the preservation of the slide medium is still in its infancy.1 Nevertheless, the issue of preserving artworks that include 35mm slide projection will become more and more prevalent since many modern and contemporary art museums hold slide-based works in their collection.

2. Observation

On 22 October 2004, Kodak ceased the production of its slide projectors.2 The manufacturing came to a halt following the disappointing sales of recent years, as Kodak announced in 2003: “in recent years, slide projectors have declined in usage, replaced by alternative projection technologies."3 For decades, Kodak had been the leading manufacturer for slide projectors

1_{Written sources on the issue of 35mm slide conservation include Henry Wilhelm, The Permanence and Care of}

Color Photographs. Traditional and Digital Color Prints, Color Negatives, Slides, and Motion Pictures. (Grinnell: Preservation Publishing Company, 1993); Heike Koenitz “Slide Duplication Project Summary,” in Inside-Installations: Preservation and presentation of installation art (Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage, 2007) and Tina Weidner “Dying Technologies: The End of 35mm Slide Transparencies,” Online published research project, (Londen: Tate, June 2011 - December 2012)

http://www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/dying-technologies-end-35-mm-slide-transparencies.

2_{http://globalevents.com/audio-visual-consulting/kodak-projector-67-slides-into-history. (Accessed 5 June,}

2015).

3_{“The Kodak products included in this event are Carousel, Ektagraphic, Ektalite and Ektapro slide projectors}

and all Kodak Slide Projector accessories.” The Edward Tufte website; entry by Dan Meatte.

httptthttpp://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0000n8 (accessed 5 June, 2015). The production stop of the slide projector was followed by the discontinuation of Kodak’s famous slide film,

Kodachrome K64 in 2009, followed by Ektachrome and Elite Chrome in 2012. Moreover, in 2010 Kodak’s slide duplication film (Kodak Edupe) was discontinued. Currently, Fuji is the only worldwide manufacturer for colour

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and had been defining the industries’ standards. Having been ‘built like a tank’, Kodak’s projectors were famous for their reliability and endurance, and have been used worldwide in entertainment, educational, business and museum contexts.

Today, a ‘slide show’ is generally understood as a computer-controlled presentation of digital images. However, during roughly the second half of the twentieth century, a slide show was perceived as the projection of film transparencies by means of a slide projector. These ‘slides’ are commonly printed on a 35mm cellulose transparent film base; they are mounted into plastic (or cardboard and even metal) frames with or without glass or plexiglass windows. The images are positive and often, but not always, photographic. They also comprise in some instances hand-painted or hand-drawn images.

2.1 Digital vs analogue slide technology

The transformation of what we consider to be a ‘slide show’ has arisen principally with the advent of PowerPoint and other presentation software, that facilitate the projection of digital images for lectures and meetings. Furthermore, digital projectors (beamers) have by far replaced the slide projector in both the domestic and the public sphere. Both digital- and analogue techniques come with their own advantages and disadvantages, and it is meaningless to consider that one may be on the whole better than the other. Differences lay primarily in aesthetic quality and user-friendliness, both of which can be considered subjective issues.

What’s more, these two technologies are not easily compatible. As Howard Besser points out, “(…) almost all slide duplication involves digital intermediates, which introduce artefacts into the duplicates - artefacts that may be acceptable for consumer slides, but are unacceptable for works of art”.4

Digital images are often referred to as being ‘immaterial’, ‘intangible’ or even ‘disembodied’, because of their virtual nature, while an analogue photographic slide is a physical object. Strictly speaking, digital slides are thus not ‘slides’, as their immaterial nature restricts them from sliding through a projector in order to display. The terminology comes from an inheritance of the widespread use of analogue slides in the past.

slide film Eastman Kodak Company. “Kodak Confirms Plans To Stop Making Slide Projectors.” Kodak.com. https://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/pressReleases/pr20030926-01.shtml (accessed 5 June, 2015).

4_{Howard Besser, “Contemporary Art that does not last without being changed: Issues for Librarians,” (paper}

presented at the 2012 IFLA Satellite Conference: Art Now! Contemporary Art Resources in a Library Context, 9 – 11 August, 2012): 4, accessed 5 June, 2015, http://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/howard/Papers/12art-now-paper.pdf

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For the twentieth century user, analogue slide projection offered a beautiful way to

accompany narratives with images, especially by means of a carousel projector. “A 35 mm slide can be magnified by a factor of 100 (from 35 mm to 3,500 mm) and still maintain a crisp and detailed projected image.”5 Furthermore, analogue photography offers a continuous colour scheme. These qualities are not always achievable with digital images, as the binary character of pixels does not provide a perpetual colour gradient. All in all, 35mm slides offer high image quality, and as American engineer and historian Henry Petroski notes, “Were it not for the fact that 35mm slides –like lantern slides before them- were so inconvenient to create, store, carry and arrange, they might have remained the medium of choice for presentations of all kinds.”6 (Petroski, 402).

The image quality of digital photographs, on the other hand, is easier to correct and manipulate, by means of computer software. Besides, digital images can be infinitely copied without loss of information, whereas a loss of quality always occurs in photochemical duplication processes.

2.3 Projection

The bulky carousel projector, which needs to be manually filled, is not always the most practical device. Indeed, digital projection offers an apt solution to the weaknesses of the analogue slide projection mentioned by Petroski, by displaying images that do not require the arrangement of sticking slides upside-down and mirrored into the slide tray.

Furthermore digital projection comes with other inconveniences, including its dependence on a computer and presentation software. Many who have experienced a digital projection lecture will recognize the problems that arise when a computer refuses to connect to a network, or when the operating system freezes and stops working altogether. In addition, as software manufacturers are competing for a dominant position in the market, they ensure that devices and software are incompatible with one another – exemplary is the technological rivalry between Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft has on one hand developed PowerPoint – a slide show presentation program first presented in 1990 - while Apple Inc. has introduced its

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Tina Weidner, “Dying Technologies: The End of 35mm Slide Transparencies,” Online research project, (London: Tate, 2011), accessed on 5 June, 2015, http://www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/dying-technologies-end-35-mm-slide-transparencies/35-mm-slide-medium.

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Henry Petroski, “Engineering: Next Slide, Please,” American Scientist 93 (September – October 2005): 402, accessed 5 June, 2015, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27858634.

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presentation program Keynote in 2003. It took six years (until 2009) for the companies to release an update that addressed compatibility issues between the two.

However, what is inconvenient for one (large) group of people, might be an advantage for another (smaller) group of people. The possibility for manual intervention allows a certain ‘freedom’ on the user’s part. He or she can adjust the time interval between the slides,

independent of a mediating computer.

2.4 Dependency on the manufacturers

The availability of analogue slide technology relies on an industry that is nourished by

commercial interest. Since the production by the leading manufacturer for slide appliances has ceased and digital technology is omnipresent today, analogue slide projection has become an obsolete technology. Whether they like it or not, consumers - including artists - that make use of 35mm slide projection, are relying on an obsolete industry.

2.5 Artist’s use of 35mm slides

Since the 1960s, artists such as James Coleman, Nan Goldin, Marcel Broodthaers and Robert Smithson began to experiment with slide projection. But even today, there are artists who work with ‘outdated’ slide technology. British artist Tris Vonna-Michell (1982) for instance, was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2014 with his exhibition project Postscript II (Berlin) (2014), which featured various 35mm slide installations.

Works that consist of audiovisual technologies are referred to as “media art” -or in the Anglo-Saxon world as “time-based media”.7 A definition of time-based media is provided by conservator Pip Laurenson (Tate) as follows:

“The term time-based media refers to works that incorporate a video, slide, film, audio or computer based element. Time-based media installations involve a media element that is rendered within a defined space and in a way that has been

specified by the artist. Part of what it means to experience these works is to experience their unfolding over time according to the temporal logic of the medium as it is played back.”8

Media art greatly relies on technologies that are always at a risk of dying out, and these artworks, therefore age relatively quickly. The rapid development and succession of new technological formats, that are not guaranteed to be backward compatible, cause great

7_{Gaby Wijers “Decision Making.” Class lecture, University of Amsterdam/LIMA, Amsterdam, 7 January 2014.} 8_{Pip Laurenson. “Authenticity, Change and Loss in the Conservation of Time-Based Media}

Installations,” Tate Papers (Autumn 2006):1, accessed 5 June, 2015,

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challenges for conservators. In order to make media artworks accessible for future generations, adequate strategies must be stipulated that address these challenges, thereby respecting the individual identity of these works.

3. Disciplinary context

In recent years, numerous theories have been proposed by scholars to establish a conservation theory that corresponds with the ephemeral nature of media artworks. Annet Dekker notes that “Despite the recognized fact that media art will not survive or endure over time due to its often ephemeral and obsolescent nature, many conservators attempt to fix the processual and fluid nature of these works”.9

Since electronic media can render artworks reproducible, the idea of an artwork as a ‘unique’ and ‘fixed’ material object and the notion of an ‘original’ - concepts that were central in traditional conservation theory which largely focused on the materiality of the art object - are challenged.10 Furthermore, as conservators Gert Hoogeveen and Simona Monizza note, “while a painting maintains its integrity independent from the place where it is since its conceptual and material characteristics are united in one object, a media art installation only exists when it is on display.”11

As opposed to traditional conservation theory, contemporary arts conservation pays particular attention to the ‘artist’s intent’ and to preserving the ‘intangible’ object: the experience that the work produces.

As Rebecca Gordon and Erma Hermens note, the artist’s intent is a concept in flux, as

interpretations have shifted over time.12 A broad definition is given by Vivian van Saaze, who notes that artist’s intent is often synonymous with “what the artist means with the work” in conservation literature.13 In recent years, literature and tools for identifying and documenting artist’s intent have been established, such as The Artist Interview (2012)14

or The Variable

9_{Annet Dekker, “Enjoying the Gap: Comparing Contemporary Documentation Strategies,” in Preserving and}

Exhibiting Media Art, ed. Julia Noordegraaf et al., (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2013): 149.

10

Traditional versus contemporary conservation theory has been extensively described by Salvador Muñoz Viñas in his book Contemporary Theory of Conservation (Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann, 2005).

11_{Gert Hoogeveen and Simona Monizza, “When Visual Art Meets Cinema: The Reconstruction of ‘Projekt}

I-’90’ by Peter Struycken”, The Moving Image 12 (Spring 2012): 120.

12_{Rebecca Gordon and Erma Hermens, “The Artist’s Intent in Flux”, CeROArt (online), 2013, accessed 5 June,}

2015, http://ceroart.revues.org/.

13_{Vivian van Saaze, Installation Art and the Museum. Preservation and Conservation of Changing Artworks}

(Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2013), 54.

14

Lydia Beerkens et al., The Artist Interview. For Conservation and Presentation of Contemporary Art. Guidelines and Practice. (Heijningen: Jap Sam Books, 2012).

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Media Questionnaire (2004).15 Understanding what attracts artist’s to a particular technology

adds to the apprehension of the significance of the artwork’s materials. These motivations are embedded in the artist’s intent.

As the role that technology plays in media artworks varies, there are no “ready-made answers for preserving and re-exhibiting these works”.16 Considering artist’s intent, as well as taking into account technological change over time – what is acceptable loss? - therefore form the fundament for establishing a preservation strategy for a work of art that cover electronic media. ‘Managing change’ means anticipating on the inevitable modifications that will be implemented in the artwork over time. These can include the change of technical components due to obsolescence or restoration of components due to degradation processes in the chemical composition of certain elements. These interventions influence the lifecycle of media artworks, by prolonging or reducing it. In order to grasp a better understanding of this issue, extensive research into the material and conceptual status of the artwork is crucial.

This thesis investigates the appeal that 35mm slide projection offers to contemporary artists. The point of departure is slide technology and the various ways it has been applied by users over history, the inclination that contemporary artists have towards working with 35mm slide projection and finally exploring the possible ways of preserving and presenting artworks that rely on this obsolete technology. Thereby, the preservation possibilities are discussed on the basis of the motivations of the artists for using analogue slide projection.

4. Structure

The main objective in this study is how 35mm slide projection is used as an artistic medium. The aim of the research is to investigate possible preservation strategies for artworks that incorporate slide technology, varying in relation to the kinds of incentives makers had for using slides. The goal is to contribute to the small portion of already existing literature on the topic, in order to establish a foundation for preservationists who work or will be working with slide-based artworks. It may be an aid in setting case research in motion.

As the focus of this thesis is specifically dealing with 35mm slide technology, Chapter 1 provides a cultural-historical context of ‘slide projection’. In order to explore what

motivations modern and contemporary artists might have for using 35mm slides in their work, it is key to specify what this ‘medium’ implies.

15_{See ‘The Variable Media Questionnaire” at http://variablemediaquestionnaire.net/. (Accessed 5 June, 2015).} 16

Gaby Wijers, “Obsolete Equipment: Ethics and Practices of Media Art Conservation,” in Preserving and Exhibiting Media Art, ed. Julia Noordegraaf et al. (Amsterdam: Amsterdam Univeristy Press, 2013), 235.

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Chapter 2 presents an overview of what makes the use of slide projection an attractive option to a number of artists. The main question in this chapter is: why do artists incorporate slides in their artworks? In order to answer this question, I collected statements, of artists and of professionals in the field, from various interviews and texts. These statements refer to contemporary artist’s use of 35mm slide projection. As Rebecca Gordon and Erma Hermens note, “An artist’s statement, (…), communicates something of the concepts and ideology that underpin the artist’s practice.”17

Considering underlying motives for choices of a particular technology may give insight into the significance of the technology in the artwork as a whole, which is valuable for determining adequate preservation strategies for these works.

I have also consulted texts by conservators, critics and scholars that refer to the use of 35mm slides by contemporary artists.

Chapter 3, finally, will interpret focuses on possible strategies for preserving and exhibiting slide-based art, based on the overview of motivations given in the previous chapter. It sketches a broad overview of potential approaches, thereby focusing deeper on a few cases.

5. Literature

The research refers to both primary sources - such as case study reports, artist interviews, conferences and presentations that deal with the topic of slide preservation – as well as secondary literature. In my search for relevant literature, I soon came across the book Slide

Show (2005) edited by Darsie Alexander. This book was produced after an exhibition at the

Baltimore Museum of Art in 2005 that specifically featured slide-based art. As the cover text states, it is “the first in-depth examination of how slides evolved into one of the most exciting art forms of our time”.18

It furthermore focuses on the fascination and appeal of the slide medium, but mainly from an historical art perspective. “What makes a slide qualify as art?” constitutes the fundamental element of this book.19 Slide Show offers valuable insights into 35mm slide as an artistic medium.

Amongst others, Slide Show presents 19 slide-based artworks, which were predominantly created by highly established contemporary artists. The majority of these works were produced in the 1970s, which can indeed can be considered to be the ‘heyday’ of slide art. I have attempted to search for some variation in to this ‘canonical’ overview, by also

17_{Gordon and Hermens, “The Artist’s Intent in Flux.”}

18_{Darsie Alexander, Slide Show. Projected Images in Contemporary Art, (University Park: Penn State}

University Press, 2005), back side.

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focusing on artists who chose to work with 35mm slides at a moment in time when this technology was either on the verge of obsolescence, or already obsolete.

Another important source is a research project by Tina Weidner (conservator for time-based media works of art at Tate, London) on the future and conservation of 35mm slide-based artworks. This extensive study offers highly valuable information regarding many aspects of 35mm slides. Duplication, digitization, Tate’s collection of slide works and maintaining carousel projectors are some of the topics that are addressed. Artistic intent and the motivations of artists to use analogue slides as an artistic medium are issues that are on the other hand only briefly discussed.

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Chapter 1. Slide Projection: A Visual Tradition

Introduction

This chapter focuses on the potential benefits that slide technology offered to various types of users, and the ways in which these were exploited by successive generations. Even though the various applications of slide projection have not necessarily succeeded each other in a ‘strict’ linear order –rather, different uses of slide projection were implemented at the same time - I choose here to successively focus on the ways that slide projection is predominantly

understood during a particular period, which is often linked to technological circumstances. The chapter is divided into two parts. The first section runs from roughly the

eighteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century. During this period, slide production and projection are largely the domain of a limited group. The second section focuses on the second half of the twentieth century until the present. This period follows a social shift that includes the production and projection of slides into domestic environments (including contemporary artist’s usage), as an outcome of technological and commercial changes.

Scope

The scope of this study is slides and their projection and does not include cinematic

projection. In addition, I will ignore contemporary, digital versions of slide projection (and the use of such programs as PowerPoint20 or Prezi), and focus on the use of analogue slides, in accordance with the artworks I will discuss later. For even though digital slide projection may be considered part of a visual tradition that links devices like the magic lantern to the automated 35mm slide projector, the digital slide show relies on ‘intangible’ images and therefore it has physical characteristics that are quite different. Preservation strategies would therefore differ radically.

Neither does the scope include the application of the slide projector for creating so-called

Ombres Chinoises, shadow-puppet shows that were imported from Asia and became popular

20_{“PowerPoint was not the natural digitized version of the slide or the overhead projector. It was not the Mr.}

Coffee to the plastic funnel coffee filter holder. PowerPoint comes with a culture of organizing information—in bulletproof points, using a series of templates, and with AutoContent complete into the program.” Perhaps the core of this is something for the main text?

Orit Gat, “Projected Projects: Slides, PowerPoints, Nostalgia, and a sense of belonging,” Rhizome.org. http://rhizome.org/editorial/2011/nov/28/projected-projects-slides-powerpoints-nostalgia-an/ (accessed 5 June, 2015).

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in 18th century Western Europe, or the ‘overhead projector’, which also depends on the projection of transparent images.21

1.1 A ‘Prehistory’ of 35mm Slide Projection (Late Seventeenth

Century - 1950)

1.1.1 Characterizing the Slide Medium and Approach to its History

What is a slide projection? Three elements give rise to this phenomenon: a transparent image, a slide projector and a projection surface. Projection surfaces – usually a wall or a screen - will be omitted in this study.

Slide and projector

The Dutch terminology for ‘slide’ may offer more clarity as the word diapositief is derived from the Greek Dia (through, throughout) + Positief (positive). A slide is an image on a transparent base that is intended for projection by means of a slide projector.

This is a device that operates by combining a lens with an artificial light source. By placing the slide into a slide holder between the light and lens, the image can be reproduced in magnified form onto a surface, usually a wall or projection screen.

Over time, a broad spectrum of projectors and accessories, slide stock, developing processes and emulsions for the production of slide transparencies have been developed. Throughout history, slide projection has been employed in various realms, ranging from entertainment to science, education, sales and art. Most slide applications are combined with a verbal and/or musical component of some form.22

Description of the approach

Where and when did slide projection originate? As Tom Gunning mentions, in accordance with a media archaeological point of view, “origins are slippery things”.23 The ‘winners’ of history are the ones (nations, inventors, owners) who are listed and credited for historical

21_{However, these transparent images – overheadsheets- are different in form and size from 35mm slides, and}

they are projected in a non-reversed manner by placing the transparency on top of the light source, instead of in front, as a 35mm slide projector or magic lantern.

22_{Richard Crangle, “’Next Slide Please’: The Lantern Lecture in Britain, 1890 – 1910,” in The Sounds of Early}

Cinema, eds. Richard Abel and Rick Altman (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 39.

23

Tom Gunning, introduction to The Great Art of Light and Shadow, by Laurent Mannoni, (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000), xix.

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milestones. However, as Gunning points out, this often proves to be a simplification of history, for reality is usually more organic and ‘inventions’ are often stemming from a long chain of overlapping, coinciding and interfering inventions, ideas and applications. In other words, there is a broad cultural history at stake, and this history does not necessarily follow a linear order.

Furthermore, for a critical understanding it wouldn’t make much sense to place an object in a teleological tradition, which depends on ideas of progress and causality. This would for instance imply an evolutionary process of technological development in which technology is considered to become increasingly refined. In the case of describing a history of slide projection, this view could encompass the magic lantern as the ‘most primitive’ and the twentieth century carousel slide projector as the ‘most advanced’ slide projection device. The current chapter wishes to avoid such an attitude, but it does present a history in chronological order.

Point of departure

Researching a history of slide projection could become an infinite undertaking. Choosing a point of departure could range from Plato’s ‘allegory of the cave’ or the camera obscura to the carousel projector itself. However, as this thesis focuses specifically on a technique that illuminates and magnifies transparent ‘still’ images24 on a tangible base by means of a lens and an artificial light source, I propose to start at the magic lantern – a device that functions according to this same projection principle. The magic lantern’s history spans over three centuries which compared to the carousel slide projector, which was effective roughly for over fifty years, is a relatively long period.

Perspective

The magic lantern is often considered from the perspective of ‘cinematic history’, with the emphasis often on its connection to the film projector.25 Cinema, according to some the ‘great

24

Nevertheless, ‘still’ is a somewhat tricky notion here, for the magic lantern did project ‘moving’ slides as well. Moving slides relied on special mechanisms that could stir up multiple overlapping slides which suggested a moving image, or other tricks: or by using multiple lanterns, or by adding wheels to the projector. (Laurent Mannoni, The Great Art of Light and Shadow, trans. Richard Crangle (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000), 154). A motion picture ultimately consists of still images that are projected in high speed which creates the suggestion of movement. It is thus difficult to determine where the demarcation lies between moving image and still image projection.

25_{For instance in Laurent Mannoni, The Great Art of Light and Shadow, trans. Richard Crangle (Exeter:}

University of Exeter Press, 2000), Charles Musser, The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907 (History of the American Cinema, Vol. 1). (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1990).

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art’ of the twentieth century, has been studied extensively. Slide projection as a medium in its own right -and independent of cinematic applications- has gained less attention. In this chapter, the history of slide projection is considered on the basis of its own merits, for the preservation of slides – even though there are many parallels with film and photography – is a process in its own right too.

Identity

Laurent Mannoni,26observes that the magic lantern has a “dual nature”: “it was an interesting optical instrument, but the grotesque and devilish scenes which it projected made it less serious, less scientific.”27 This hybrid character of the magic lantern, being tied to both “magical amusement” and “scientific research”,28

proves to be a persistent issue that makes it difficult to position and define this device. As will be seen from what follows, hybridity continues to stalk slide projection throughout its entire history. Tom Gunning however, notes that this seemingly opposing usage can both be traced down to the human drive for visual curiosity.29 It is this visual curiosity which has made slide projection popular up until today for both a broad public and specific users like scientists or artists.

1.1.2 Magic and the Fantastical

In his book The great art of light and shadow, Laurent Mannoni positions the birth of cinema in the ‘awakening’ of modern sciences, during the European Renaissance.30

It was during this period that the illustrious optical instrument laterna magica was - most likely - invented by the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens in 1656.31 “It was an optical box made of wood, sheet metal, copper, or cardboard; it was cubic, spherical, or cylindrical in shape; and in a darkened

26

Laurent Mannoni is the director of Cultural Heritage and Conservation of Cinematographic Technologies at the Cinémathèque Française (Paris).

27_{Laurent Mannoni, The Great Art, 41.} 28_{Gunning, introduction, xxii.}

29

Ibid.

30_{Ibid., xxi.}

31_{The invention of the magic lantern is also often attributed to German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680).}

However, the very first reference to a magic lantern is to be found in a manuscript of Huygens of 1659.

Nonetheless, as historian and philosopher Koen Vermeir notes, determining who was ‘the’ inventor of the magic lantern, or even going back to ‘the’ original device, is hardly possible. “From a present-day standpoint, hybrids were created, combinations of camerae obscurae, lanterns, magic lanterns, solar microscopes, projection

microscopes, projection mirrors and projection clocks; and making distinctions was not so easy.” (Vermeir, “The Magic of the Magic Lantern (1660 – 1700),” The British Journal for the History of Science 38, no. 2 (2005): 128, accessed 5 June, 2015, doi: http://dx.doi.org.proxy.uba.uva.nl:2048/10.1017/S0007087405006709 ).

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room it projected images painted on glass slide onto a white screen.”32 The light source was a candle or oil lamp, sometimes directed by a concave mirror.

Soon after its invention, the power of the magic lantern was acknowledged for its capacity to communicate narratives to audiences, which could be reinforced by the lanterns illustrative ability. This instrumental force was put in to use within various domains, by visualizing stories that ranged in content from religion to politics, satire, children’s fairytales, and even eroticism. The images ranged in subject matters from “diabolic, grotesque, erotic, scatological, religious, historical, scientific, political and satirical”.33 The effect of the lantern depended on the individual who controlled the device.

Historian and Philosopher Koen Vermeir interprets the magic lantern and its early applications from a socio-historical perspective, claiming that its use by the end of the 17th century was inextricably linked to the cultural turbulences of that time. Social, political and religious instability lead to feelings of insecurity and anxiety, which were vented through the art and thought of the Baroque era in the form of a fascination with illusion.34 Vermeir writes that the magic lantern was utilised by Jesuits in the seventeenth and eighteenth century as a means “to make the invisible visible”,35

thereby propagating an “absolute truth”.36 In the seventeenth century, the magic lantern was largely reserved for a social-economic elite, as the device was too expensive for the average consumer.37 In aristocratic circles, the lantern was used as an instrument for the creation of optical illusions. Soon enough, in the eighteenth century the lantern was adopted by travelling lanternists, who entertained, educated or frightened a wide public by means of magic lanterns. These

‘showpeople’ often came from poor backgrounds and travelled by foot, while carrying heavy equipment with them.

“An intellectual delight for the aristocrat, the optical instrument could also become a weapon in the hands of the people.”38 Mannoni describes a “lanternist revolution” at the beginning of the French Revolution: the lantern shows became an instrument for spreading resistance, by for instance caricaturing the established order.

32

Mannoni, The Great Art, 33.

33_Ibid.

34_{Vermeir, “The Magic,” 28.} 35_{Ibid., 153.}

36_{Ibid., 131.} 37

According to Mannoni, the ways that the lantern was used after its introduction in different European countries, varied between the countries concerned. In Germany, the lantern was more used for educational purposes while in France the entertainment value of the lantern was dominantly exploited. (Mannoni, The Great Art, 66 – 67).

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The following section will focus especially on the phantasmagoria, a popular form of entertainment that was widespread in 18th and 19th century in western Europe. This

application reveals the amazement of the people, confronted with this novelty, and the clever and inventive ways of the lanternists in order to exploit this effect.

Phantasmagoria

During the eighteenth century, the magic lantern was used for among other things

entertainment shows that were presented by showmen (‘magicians’), in which apparitions (ghosts, devilish figures) were suggested by means of projected images. These

‘phantasmagoria’ spectacles were reminiscent of dreamlike-visions, thereby creating a sense of wonder amongst the audience. In order to enhance the uncanny effect, a modified lantern would be hidden from the public’s eye, for instance by placing the projection screen between audience and lantern. The projector was equipped with wheels, in order to create the

impression of moving or floating specters. The ghostly effect was furthermore reinforced by other special effects, such as the accompaniment of sound, the use of incense and projecting onto smoke.

Tom Gunning connects the magical effect, that the lantern had on audiences, to the uncertainty about the images they perceived, as they “did not know whether to take them for substance or shadow, image or reality”.39 As people did not know the secrets of the lantern, they were more susceptible to its effects.

In the dark space of the phantasmagoria show, human imagination is activated. In her article “Spectral Technology and the Metaphorics of Modern Reverie” (1988), literary scholar Terry Castle explores this idea in her investigation of the word ‘phantasmagoria’, which in English literature has developed into an accepted noun.40 Castle notes a collective shift of ‘the uncanny’, which she illustrates by the use of phantasmagoria. This shift entails a movement of the uncanny, which ran from an interior belief in the supernatural, to an external space of imagination and hallucination. Koen Vermeir illustrates this vision by stating that “our most intimate dreams and horrors could be projected, forming visible shapes on this ectoplasm”.41

Vermeir writes: “The creatures of the imagination were conjured into the open”.42

According

39

Gunning, introduction, xxvi.

40_{Phantasmagoria, according to Gunning, is understood today as an “impossible – yet fully convincing illusion”}

(Ibid., xxiv).

41

Vermeir, “The Magic,” 133.

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to Castle, the human imagination was expressed by the lantern, while at the same time the images, put on display by the lantern, gained meaning through the imagination.

1.1.3 Industrialization and Scientific use

Industrialization and its consequences

The travelling lanternist became increasingly scarce during the 19th century. According to Mannoni this was a direct result of “the industrialization of the lantern manufacture, during the Second Empire (1852-70) of Napoléon III”.43 A commercial lantern industry developed, and slide projection entered the domestic environment, causing the obsolescence of the traveler’s trade. According to Mannoni, “innumerable households, in every part of society, had a simple tin-plate lantern or a glorious polychrome lampascope”.44 Mannoni notes thereby two movements in lantern production: one involving toy lanterns that were intended for children. These were called ‘magic lanterns’. The other trade was lanterns for adults, referred to as ‘projection lanterns’.45

Around the same period, images for slides being mass produced by means of mechanical engraving on printing plates and subsequently hand-coloured (Mannoni 2005, 290).

Professional lanternists who gave high quality private performances with excellent equipment, still existed.

The optical lantern

As Vermeir states: “[The magic lantern] shows and explains at the same time, just like a symbol or emblem” (my italics).46 In the nineteenth century, a shift in the status of the magic lantern took place. As Art Education scholar Jennifer F. Eisenhauer claims, this shift entailed a change of perception from a ‘magic vision’ to a ‘scientific vision’, in which the lantern was redefined as an instrument of instruction.47 Whereas the ‘magic’ attributed to the magic lantern as previously described was the result of its potential for illusion and trickery, the possibility of scientific vision was based on seemingly opposed expressions such as ‘truth’ and ‘objectivity’. Magic shows were still widespread, but they were regarded in a different

43_{Mannoni, The Great Art,103.} 44_{Ibid., 296.}

45

Ibid., 280.

46_{Vermeir, “The Magic,”157.}

47_{Eisenhauer refers to the ‘optical lantern’ instead of the ‘magic lantern’ in this respect. (“Next Slide Please, The}

Magical, Scientific and Corporate Discourses of Visual Projection Technologies” Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research 47 (Spring 2006): 199, accessed 5 June, 2015, doi: 10.2307/25475781).

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manner, as audiences had lost their innocence and beliefs as they had become familiar with the mechanisms of the lantern.

Eisenhauer furthermore describes various technological inventions that influenced this shift. Examples are the use of the Argand burner (1780), the kerosene lamp (1850), and later electricity, but in her view, it was the invention of photography that had the most influence on this shift.48 Here, Eisenhauer seems to express a teleological viewpoint, as she describes these changes as “improvements”. According to her photography functions as a way of “improving the quality of slides”.49

But photography caused a change in image content, rather than image quality.

Eisenhauer points out that the image was now rendered completely mechanical, “elevating its production to an entirely technologically mediated correspondence between one technology of vision, the camera, to another, the projected image” (Eisenhauer, 201).

Photography’s claim to ‘realism’ and thus ‘truth’ and the lanterns ability to magnify and reveal made it an optimal source for education and science.50 When used for scientific purposes the projector was referred to as an optical lantern instead of a magic lantern.

Vermeir’s depiction of the magic lantern as an instrument able “to make the invisible visible”51

applies here as well. The projected images could expose things that were previously unseen such as micro-organisms photographed through microscopes, or faraway countries, animals or people.

By the end of the nineteenth century, Kodak introduced the roll film , thereby making a major contribution to the accessibility and availability of slide photography and marking the beginning of the ‘modern’ slide.52 The next chapters of this study deal with this modern slide, which was further developed and commercially promoted in the twentieth century.

1.2 Domestic Use in the Twentieth Century

1.2.1 Automatic Projector, Colour Slides and The Family Slide Show

As mentioned in the introduction, twentieth century slides are commonly 35mm positive photographic images on a cellulose acetate or polyester film base, framed in slide mounts,

48_{Eisenhauer, “Next Slide,” 201.} 49

Ibid.

50_{It was only later that photographic ‘objectivity’ was questioned. This is a theme that will be further discussed}

in Chapter 2.

51

Vermeir “The Magic,” 153.

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with or without glass.53 The twentieth century slide projector is equipped with a mechanical slide changer.

The combination of roll film, colour photography and automated slide projector are three distinct modifications in the visual tradition of slide projection, which contributed to the spread of domestic utilization. Darsie Alexander makes a rather bold statement about these developments, by noting that “Slides revolutionized the look and power of photography by making pictures bigger, brighter – and, as Kodak would have it, better” (Alexander, 3).54 It is arguable if ‘revolutionized’ is an appropriate term here, as twentieth century slides can be considered another branch in the family tree of screen projection – where there are no ‘winners’ or ‘losers’. Nevertheless, Alexander’s statement does indicate that Kodak’s

photographic color slides are different in content than the magic lantern slides of the centuries before.

The photographic slide is often positioned on the border of film and photography, and thus does not seem to hold a position in itself as a distinct medium. For instance, Tina

Weidner notes that “While 35 mm slide transparencies are a medium in their own right, they are also an interesting hybrid, lying between still photography and motion picture

technology”55 Indeed, a photographic slide might be considered to be “an isolated frame taken out of the infinite cinema”.56

According to Darsie Alexander, the overall popularity of the slide can be ascribed to the fact that slide projection offers “a communal experience of showing and receiving large-scale pictures of private life in a color-saturated palette”. The ‘family slide show’ came into existence when Kodak launched the commercially available slide film and portable projector. Kodak’s sale approach of the slide product, with its famous marketing slogan “You press the button, we’ll do the rest”, was effective. By the 1950s laboratories had emerged all over USA and Europe. This made it possible for people who had the resources, to make photographs and slides. Projecting slides at home enabled them to share their experiences.

According to anthropologist Wendy James, color slide technology furthermore caused a shift in the content of photographic images within the family realm. From a focus on small-scale portraits of family members, the photographer was now able to focus on wider views,

53_See_{https://psap.library.illinois.edu/format-id-guide/slide}_{(accessed 12 May, 2015)} 54_{Alexander, “Slide Show,” 3.}

55

See http://www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/dying-technologies-end-35-mm-slide-transparencies (ccessed 5 May, 2015).

56_{Hollis Frampton, qtd. in Monica McTighe, “The Family Slide Show as a Critical History in Renée Green’s}

Video ‘Partially Buried Continued,’”. Third Text 21 (July 2007): 443, accessed 5 June, 2015, doi: 10.1080/09528820701433943.

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for example on landscapes. Not only the direct family but a more general public was

addressed.57 Thereby, James suggests that slides are “nearly always preserved in series, and nearly always associated with travel, portraying places away from home – often testify[ing] more directly to the “biographical career” of the photographer than to that of the places or people photographed”.58

Whereas in earlier applications, the narrative was meant to match the viewer’s wishes, the family slide show revolved particularly around personal histories.

1.2.2 Adoption of Slide Projection by Contemporary Artists

Since the second half of the 20th century, domestic users include contemporary artists who begun to experiment with electronic media, including 35mm slides. In the 1960s, visual artists started to use slides both as an instrument for documentation and advertisement of their work, as well as a vehicle for expression in its own right. According to art historian Charles

Harrison, it was in part the “sheer unpretentiousness and accessibility of the colour-slide medium that made it attractive to those who first adopted it”.59

Thereby, Harrison relates the adoption of slide projection by contemporary artists to the cultural artistic climate of the 1960s. This climate changed as the modernist paradigm ended.60

Even though the modernist paradigm emerged as a response to the art establishment in its own time, it was still limiting the boundaries of art by being profoundly normative. The modernist invention of abstract art allowed for a great autonomy of the artist, and a viewpoint that “pictorial representation was actually dispensable”.61

However, modernism relied on a definition of art, which encompassed ‘the artwork’ as an authentic, unique material object, thus limiting art to a certain state of being. Painting and sculpture were considered superior for their qualities of uniqueness and being handmade. Famous art critic Clement Greenberg noted that “It [modernism] came to an end when art came to an end, when art, as it were, recognized there was no special way a work of art had to be”.62

57_{Wendy James, “Reflections On, and Of, the Slide Show in my life,” History and Anthropology 21, no. 4}

(2010): 501, accessed 5 June, 2015, doi: 10.1080/02757206.2010.522375.

58_Ibid.

59_{Charles Harrison, “Saving Pictures,” in Slide Show. Projected Images in Contemporary Art, Darsie Alexander,}

(University Park: The Penn State University Press, 2005), 46.

60_{‘Modernism’ is a heterogenic category. According to Harrison’s interpretation, modernism is “a history of}

changes in understanding about what it is that makes a given object a work of art” (Ibid., 37). Generally, modernism is considered to have emerged by the end of the 19th century with the development of Impressionism, and became obsolete during the 1960s.

61_{Ibid., 37.}

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Harrison describes a “change in expectations” that was formed during the cultural climate of the late 1960s, in which artists started to criticize the traditional ‘norm’ of painting and sculpture over “everything else”.63

The idea of an artwork as a unique material object was challenged by artists who incorporated electronic media into their work, which rendered art reproducible. Also, the dimension of ‘time’ itself became a central object of research for certain contemporary artists who used electronic media to that end. Especially after the introduction of the carousel slide projector, which allowed for an uninterrupted cycle of displayed images, the slide projection lent itself perfectly for this purpose. Time-based elements such as rhythm, tempo, sequencing, duration could be captured by means of slide projection.

The carousel slide projector, which had a circular slide tray, was patented in 1965. This projector allowed for a continuous, uninterrupted loop projection of slides – a feature that gave artists the opportunity to display their works in gallery and museum space, as it could continue to play endlessly without intervention.

Besides photographic images, some artists explored other possibilities of pictorial representation, by drawing, painting or etching directly onto the slide film.

Since the 1980s, slide projection has slowly fallen into obsolescence, a process described in the introduction to this thesis. Digital technologies have largely substituted analogue slide projection, both in private as well as in public environments.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this chapter has outlined a history of slide projection that showed changes in the kind of users and their expectations, in the variety of applications and in the status of slide projection. From a user who witnessed phantasmagoria shows in awe to a more ‘emancipated’ user who knew the workings of the lantern. From an exclusive to a more general public, from travelling showmen to domestic use. But the ability to “make the invisible visible” is an intrinsic characteristic of slide projection throughout history. As a technique in itself, slide projection is neutral. It gains meaning as an (powerful) instrument, when applied within a certain conceptual objective.

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Chapter 2. Contemporary Artists and 35mm Slide

Projection

In 2011-2012, Tina Weidner, the conservator for time-based works of art ath the Tate Gallery (London), carried out a research project named “Dying Technologies: The end of 35mm slide transparencies”. In her study, Weidner observes:

“Since the 1960s, a number of contemporary artists have adopted 35 mm slides for use as an artistic medium – attracted to them either because the technique was readily available, or because of their specific aesthetic qualities. Many artists also valued the sculptural aspects of the visible apparatus, and the impact this has on the experience of the work. In addition, a carousel slide projector creates a unique soundscape, with the whirr of the fan and the click of the motor as the carousel rotates and alternates the slides.”64

Indeed, these are valid observations that reveal some important motivations behind artistic practice in general. The current chapter expands on this, by demonstrating that these

observations offer a somewhat limited view on artistic practice and the use of 35mm slides in contemporary art.

The aim of this section is to deal with the following question: why do artists utilize 35mm slide projections in their work? This central question, at the same time will form the basis for the consideration and investigation of possible preservation strategies in the next chapter.

In order to answer this question, the wide scope of appeal that 35mm slide projection offers to contemporary artists will be discussed. The discussion will therefore be limited to the artist’s use of photographic 35mm slides.

These observations are divided thematically; as a rule I prefer to avoid overly rigid taxonomies so these divisions may seem somewhat artificial, but in order to present the collected data in a comprehensive manner, structuring them is unavoidable.

In this investigation, three primary motives emerge: time, beauty and truth, and functionality. It is certain that as a result of this classifying and structuring of the data, only certain elements of the story will be revealed. Most artists do not limit themselves to only one reason for using 35mm slides. For some artists several motivations of aesthetic, functional and time-based ‘nature’ can be interlinked.

64_{Tina Weidner, “Dying Technologies,” accessed 5 June, 2015,}

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The first paragraph addresses the thee of ‘Time’. This motive appeals on different levels to artists. Primarily, in a conceptual sense, some artists explore time as a dimension in itself. The passing of time is addressed here, in which notions of duration, rhythm and sequence play a role. This subparagraph is titled “Time as a visual concept”. The second subparagraph focuses on the symbolic meaning of time: memory and a longing for the past. This section is titled ‘Memory and Nostalgia’.

The second paragraph, “Beauty and Truth”, focuses on the specific aesthetic qualities and ‘honesty’ of slide projection and includes the subparagraphs ‘photographic indexicality’, ‘sculptural value of the apparatus’ and ‘image quality’. The two notions of ‘Beauty’ and ‘Truth’ are combined here, as both can be considered to be an image in the eye of the beholder.

Finally, the third paragraph deals with the notion of “Functionality”, an umbrella term for various attractions. “Functionality” refers here to specific technical capabilities that 35mm slide projection offers. This section entails ‘Best Available Technique’, ‘Flexibility and Performance Potentiality’.

2.1 Time

2.1.1 Time as a visual concept

The duration of the projection of a single slide image, the interval between the slides in a sequence and the entire duration of a whole cycle of slides in a carousel projector are all examples of temporal elements of a (carousel) slide projection. Slide projection therefore lends itself well to the exploration of the rhythm of time. With other audiovisual techniques, like film and video, the emphasis is on movement. Whereas the slide allows the viewer to take time to contemplate on one framed image, a film presents a series of images that suggest fluid movement. Examples of artists who use slide projection as a means to visualize temporality are Carey Young and Joëlle Tuerlinckx.

Carey Young

Carey Young (British, 1970) created an installation titled “Lines Made by Walking” (2003). This is a slide piece which refers to a 1967 work by British artist Richard Long (1945), named “A Line Made By Walking”. In that specific work, Long walked back and forth in a grass

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field, thereby leaving a trace in the form of a straight line as the grass was flattened by his footprints. He then proceeded to photograph the image of this straight line in the field.

Young’s installation consists of slides that depict the artist walking forwards and backwards in a crowd. The scene is located on the London Bridge, and instead of leaving footprints in grass, Young leaves a trace in the form of “personal space in the steady flow of bodies.”65

“As a projected slide piece, the rhythm of the slides changing automatically within the projector (at a 2 second interval) adds a sense of inevitability and a machinic rhythm to the work, plus a cyclical form to the piece.”66

The sound produced by the carousel projector, is as a result important, for it emphasizes the rhythm of the changing pictures.

Joëlle Tuerlinckx

In her solo-exhibition Stretch Museum Scale 1:1, een voorstel voor het Bonnefantenmuseum (Maastricht, Bonnefantenmuseum, 2001-2003), Belgian artist Joëlle Tuerlinckx (1958) visualizes the passing of time by utilizing the self-destructive ability of slides; the projection causes the deterioration of the image. In relation to her work Vivian van Saaze notes:

“Tuerlinckx is interested in the history of objects and materials […] and addresses the passing of time by archiving and showing figures on slides that have become discoloured during the exhibition. The artist, according to the curator of the museum, wants to address the passage of time and intends to make visible the inevitable changing of material objects.”67

The slide functions in this case as an object in itself, that changes over time during the exhibition.

2.1.2 Memory and Nostalgia

Some artists are inspired by the fact that the use of a 35mm slide projector connects one with some kind of image of the past. Their goal is to invoke particular effects on the spectator, triggering memories and feelings of nostalgia. Additionally, slides can function as memories

65

Sinisa Mitrovic “Lines Made By Walking”, British Council catalogue text, exhibition 'Tales of the City', Arte Fiera, Bologna, 2003, accessed 5 June, 2015, http://www.careyyoung.com/lines-made-by-walking-sinisa-mitrovic/.

66

See http://www.careyyoung.com/works/#/product-recall-work-1-1-1-1-1/ (accessed 5 June, 2015).

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in themselves, due to their (photographic) content or their associations with specific moments in history, when slides were much more commonly in use as a means of presentation.

Examples of artists who use slides in this way are Nan Goldin and Jonathan Monk.

Nan Goldin

Since the end of the 1970s, Nan Goldin (Washington D.C., 1953). 19has established an oeuvre consisting of colour slides. She first began to present these in New York at clubs and at private parties, accompanied by a soundtrack, at a time when slide projection was still a rather common presentation format. Initially, Goldin chose slides ‘out of necessity’, for she was unable to afford making films due to its expensive and technically rather complex nature. Only later, Goldin discovered that slide projection was “really [her] medium”.68

The slide show, which was later named The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1985), has since expanded to over 700 slides. Goldin arranged the slides in many different orders for different presentations, but in 1987 she created the definitive version. According to Goldin, the text of the songs included in the soundtrack function as the narrative of the show.69 In the foreword of the printed book version of The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Goldin writes:

“We all tell stories which are versions of history –memorized, encapsulated, repeatable and safe. Real memory, which these pictures trigger, is an invocation of the color, smell, sound and physical presence, the density and flavor of life.

Memory allows an endless flow of connections. Stories can be rewritten, memory can’t.”70

Though the photographic content of the slides is central to the meaning of the work as a whole, Goldin’s choice of presenting the images in the form of a traditional slide projection contributes to the viewer’s identification with a specific moment in the past. Goldin’s slides depict intimate moments of her personal life and the life of her inner circle of family and friends. On the one hand, the slide show invokes vicarious feelings of collective intimacy, and the memories that are stimulated by these images are different for everyone, while on the

68_{Sean O’Hagan, “Nan Goldin: ‘I wanted to get high from a really early age’.” The Guardian, 23 March, 2014,}

accessed 5 June, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/mar/23/nan-goldin-photographer-wanted-get-high-early-age.

69_{Emma Reeves (Dir.) “Nan Goldin - The Ballad of Sexual Dependency - MOCA U – MOCAtv” YouTube}

Video, 10:30, posted by MOCA (The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles), 6 December, 2013,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B6nMlajUqU (accessed 1 June, 2015).

70

Nan Goldin, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (New York: Aperture, 1986), 1.

Today, the slideshow is still presented in museums around the world, its total time extending to 45 minutes and consisting of around 700 images with a viewing time of 4 seconds per image, accompanied by a soundtrack. In 1986, a selection of the photographs were published in the book version of The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (New York: Aperture, 1986).

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other hand it functions as a documentation of Goldin’s life. She remarks in the foreword of the book that it is “the diary I let people read.”71

Jonathan Monk

The slide projection reinforces a sentiment of nostalgia due to its association with the past. The twentieth century family slide show will be recognized by many people of a certain age group – and this familiarity can trigger memories.

British artist Jonathan Monk (1969) incorporates images from his personal archive in his work. In regard to his artistic practice, Monk states in an interview:

“My fathers’ things (photos, slides, drawings, etc.) became a way for me to look at my past (directly), and at once I realized that almost everyone has images hidden away in an old box that trigger emotions of one kind or another. It became possible for me to work with this close related personal history in an open way.”72

Monk uses authentic material from the past, like 35mm slides, in order to mark the passage of time. Thereby, Monk expresses his will to make this personal history publicly accessible. Here, the 35mm slide functions as an historical artifact, a personal trace that was left behind and which is intended to trigger emotion.

Another example of Monk’s artistic work with slides, can be found in his piece One

Moment in Time (Kitchen)(2002). Eighty colour slides are projected by means of a carousel

projector. These slides depict text that reflect the life an average middle-class twentieth century family (“Dad as the captain of a sailing ship”, “Me and James on our honeymoon”, “Egypt”, “You with a friend in Los Angeles”).73

Monk collected these sentences by talking to his sister on the phone, who stood in the kitchen of their mother’s house and who described all photo’s, postcards and other ephemera that were present there.74

These texts stir the imagination. One critic remarked: “Seeing the words instead of the images makes the passage of time more acutely painful than you might expect; it’s a remarkably moving idea.”75

Monk consciously chose an obsolete technique for displaying these memories and exploring his personal history, as the slide projection functions here as a ‘sign of the times’.

71_{Goldin, The Ballad, 6.}

72_{David Shrigley, “’Why Are We Artists?’ David Shrigley Interviews Jonathan Monk,” July-August 2005,}

accessed 5 June, 2015, http://www.davidshrigley.com/articles/jonathan_monk.htm.

73_{Alexander, “Slide Show,” 130 – 133.} 74_Ibid.

75

See http://caseykaplangallery.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/JMPress-Kit.e.pdf (accessed 5 June, 2015).

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2.2 Beauty and Truth

2.2.1 Image Quality

Nan Goldin’s slide pictures are notable for their deep colour saturation, even though initially colour quality itself was not what attracted Goldin to the slide medium.76 In an interview with the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), Goldin states:

“I always hated people who talked about their cameras and their equipment and their printing. For me it was the content that mattered and not the quality of the print. But I did care about my film stock. Because, I have a very saturated vision. I decided recently that it came because I didn’t wear glasses for years, and I can’t really see without glasses, so all I see is colors. I don’t see the details of things.”77

For Goldin, the way that colours are rendered in her images are deeply personal. It is striking that she considers the eye of the camera as an extension of her own eyesight, which is

apparently very saturated since she has blurred vision.

Slide film offers this specific saturated colour quality, and Goldin’s pictures have a distinguished look which is reinforced by her choice for slide stock. She furthermore refers to slide film as having ‘magic’, and the lack of this quality in digital scans:

"I grew up working in Cibachrome and having a printer that understood my work but, after 40 years of working that way, it is all suddenly gone. And they don't make slides any more. Now, I don't even see half my work because it's scanned. A scan has no magic." 78

The material difference between an analogue slide and a digital scan is for Goldin of influence to her personal relationship with the technology.

Goldin’s first presentations of the slide show bring to mind the 18th

century magic slide shows, as were described in chapter 1.

76_{Goldin states: “I accidentally used the roll of color film in my camera. I thought it is black and white, but it}

was color”. Nan Goldin interviewed by Adam Mazur and Paulina Skirgajllo-Krajewska “If I

Want to Take a Picture, I Take it no Matter What”, 13 February 2003, Warsaw, accessed 5 June, 2015,

http://fototapeta.art.pl/2003/ngie.php.

77

Emma Reeves (Dir.) “Nan Goldin - The Ballad of Sexual Dependency - MOCA U – MOCAtv” YouTube Video, 10:30, posted by MOCA (The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles), 6 December, 2013, accessed 5 June, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B6nMlajUqU.

78

Sean O’Hagan, “Nan Goldin:,” accessed 5 June, 2015,

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2.2.2 Sculptural Value of the Apparatus

Some artists value the visibility of the slide projector. This is completely the opposite to the desire to hide the projector in relation to the phantasmagoria, as described in the previous chapter, for instance. Mark Manders for instance, remarks: “There is a slide-apparatus that is just a ‘thing’ that displays images and makes sound. I find that very beautiful” (my

translation).79

The work is displayed by means of a carousel projector, and its visibility adds to the overall experience of the work. Thereby, the foundation on which the projector is placed can be also of importance. In museums, pedestals are widely used. This adds to the visibility and overall aesthetic of the projector.

2.2.3 Indexicality

Mark Manders

In an artist interview that was conducted by Veronique Despodt (Researcher Digital

Collection at S.M.A.K.) and the author, Dutch visual artist Mark Manders (1968) refers to the ‘honesty’ of slides:

“Photoshop is a very common tool nowadays, and also back in 2010, [when Two

Interconnected Houses was created, M.v.d.W.], but it is a more up to date

technique, to be able to manipulate photographs like that. I like the idea that it is something completely different, it is the contrary of… Because in people’s minds, slides are super honest. I liked the idea of combining those two techniques, I think that works really well” (My translation).80

In this subparagraph, Manders’s statement will be examined in light of the analogue slide as a ‘record of the real’: photographic indexicality.

79

Original text: “Er is een dia-apparaat dat gewoon een ´ding` is dat plaatjes laat zien en geluid maakt. Ik vind dat heel mooi. Ik vind het ook heel mooi dat het niet echt materie is maar gewoon licht, gewoon een

lichtprojectie.” Mark Manders, interviewed by Veronique Despodt and Mila van der Weide, 30 September, 2014. Transcript S.M.A.K., Ghent.

80_{“Photoshop, dat is nu een hele gangbare techniek en toen ook al, maar dat is toch wel een nieuwere techniek,}

om foto’s zo te veranderen. Ik vind dat heel mooi dat dat eigenlijk totaal anders is, het tegenovergestelde is van… Want in het hoofd van mensen zijn dia’s gewoon supereerlijk. Ik vond het heel mooi om die twee technieken te combineren, volgens mij werkt dat heel goed.”

Mark Manders, interviewed by Veronique Despodt and Mila van der Weide, 30 September, 2014. Transcript S.M.A.K., Ghent.

Preserving an Obsolete Technology: Contemporary Artists and 35mm Slide Projection