Sounds of the Projection Box: Artists Talk with Michael Lightborne

Sounds of the Projection Box: Liner Notes on a Phonographic Method with Michael Lightborne

This year Michael released an album of field recordings from cinema projection boxes (Sounds of the Projection Box, Gruenrekorder, 2018). This talk and workshop will explore how this project used phonographic field recording as a means of investigating the sonic environment of the projection box, the work of the projectionist, and the sounds of 35mm film. This work formed part of a larger research project based in the University of Warwick, called The Projection Project, which examined the role of the projectionist, and the history of cinema projection in the UK across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Michael will talk about the larger research project, the role of sound recording as a sensory ethnographic methodology and artistic practice within it, and will play some tracks from the album.

Participants will get the chance to use induction coil and contact microphones to listen to the hidden sounds of both digital and analogue projectors, as well as CRT and flatscreen televisions. Finally, we’ll talk about how these kinds of methods might be used to investigate other places and environments, other forms of activity, and other mediums.

Presented as part of Mediafest.