I cut and paste my heart like filmstrips

This film was made for the Big Tent installation, an 8-screen, large scale (20 foot), 360 video and audio projection that creates an immersive, multi-media environment. This rendering is a single video that attempts to combine the eight different film in one so that it can be watched outside of an installation, but note that it is meant to be experienced in the immersive environment. "I cut and paste my heart like filmstrips" is an animation and video collage exploring nostalgia and the fragmented workings of our memory. Shapes of color dance to detailed recorded sound across eight screens, speeding in a sequence of succession that stimulates the chaos of collecting everyday, finite moments. The piece concludes with a still meditation on the summer sky, asking viewers to capture the most they can of the seemingly static but constantly changing images we call life. Through the use of paper collage, Super-8 film and animation, we wanted to reflect the fleeting and weaving nature of memories and examine film as a medium to preserve life--the butterflies in frames or flower petals pressed between the pages of a book--memories and moments imprinted forever.

Made by Rena Johnson and JPOG