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"Diapositives"
1995-1998
By directly projecting a three dimensional object, mechanism
in order to obtain a picture, this work (mechanisms in slide-form,
or "Diapositives"), is experimenting with a different kind of cinema.
The presence of objects and elements in the slide creates its own
live action. The spectator shuttles constantly between his view of
the projected object and his supposition of what is really contained
in the projector.
The image projected is by definition weightless. By introducing real
elements I am attempting to give it a particular physical consistency.
This first work with slides is presented during a thirty minutes
projection-performance which includes about twenty devices. Each
"Slide" describe a very short story and the projection (with an
adapted slide projector) juxtaposing them in an experimental production.
The following work "Demi-pas" is more recent and develop the concept of
" inverted camera ": a computer assisted slide projector which is able
to produce a "film".
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>>video 
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Demi-pas ( Half-step)
Projection-perfomance, 20 min, 2002
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"Half-Step" is a 20 min film consisting only of three dimensional
projected objects : a collection of "Diapositives" or "projection modules"
. They are constructed with laser cut ektachromes, motors, electrics and
electronics devises, in order to animate the pictures directly inside
the projectors , or to produce the movements by adjusting the depth
of field (the focus is made on different layers of the slide).
"Demi-pas" is a projection using only still pictures, animated in
a ameliorated magic lantern process and synchronized with sound.
Based on this experimental form of projection, the film narrates
a tale that has an extremely simple storyline: one man's daily routine.
"Demi-Pas" is a short film that constructs an everyday reality, thus
highlighting simultaneously both the simplicity and the complexity of
this reality.
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Julien Maire's performances using proto-cinematic micro-machines
both evoke and outdistance the illusions of the phantasmagoric
projectionists of the pre-cinema. His intricate archaeology though
seems not primarily concerned with retrieving the effect-ploys of
optical illusion, but of reimagining the apparatus as itself as
illusory, one in which the image and its operation are meticulously
intertwined. In this sense, rather than allegorizing the image,
Maire allegorizes the machine.
The scaled-up projections in his performances mimic those of the
illusionists of the 19th century, but the images are less anecdotal
than episodic, they provoke deliberation rather than sentiment,
reflection rather than mere sensation. Rather than simply enlivening
the image with transitory effects, Maire summons not the apparitions
of ghosts, but the "ghosts in the machine", coaxing them into
operation with minute mechanisms that donŐt render representations
of illusion, but lay bare illusions. This subtle shift comes as a
welcomed corrective to many so-called media archaeologists content
to replay media rather than reinvent it.
Maire's Demi-Pas (Half-Step) transforms the image machine into a time
machine by evoking both mechanical and physical movements.
The adapted projector of his earlier work becomes a computer-assisted
one in this work. The "stepper motors" and the "half steps" of human
motion are linked as the projected images establish a dynamic
relationship between image and movement, sensation and narrative.
By layering image and performed interventions into the projected
scenes, the images and operations differentiate themselves spatially
with perceived realities weaving in and out of perceptibility.
Maire's performances play in the interstices between machine and
image and provoke a serious reconsideration of the "cinemaginary"
interface.
Timothy Druckrey M.I.T press / Z.K.M
(extract of the catalogue "Future Cinéma")
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© 2004
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