Hours of Glass screened at Paradocs IDFA
Hours of glass 2018 Video (7’17”) 4K 4096 x 2160 50fps stereo sound. this excerpt 1 minute.
DCP 4K 3996 x 2160 Flat 25 fps
Time-traveling through a sequence of time-lapses. From a dark sky park on Møn, Denmark, to a vanished observatory in Istanbul (Taqi ad-Din). Via the idiosyncratic Einsteinturm close to Berlin, passing the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope ultimately reaching a secret service post used for intercepting vast amounts of tele-communications: Joint Sigint Cyber Unit, the largest eavesdropping base in the Netherlands.
This short photographic investigation follows a colorful, associative path along places that helped shape the observation of the heavens. An extraterrestrial gaze is turned towards earth in the form of a full spectrum camera, with its eerie colour schemes. Likewise, some of the deep-gazing techniques are directed towards people sharing thoughts over the ether.
In order of appearance:
Møn Dark Sky Park, Istanbul Museum of the History of Science and Technology in Islam, Leiden Observatory, Einsteinturm Potsdam, Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope, Troposcatter Hoek van Holland, Joint Signals Intelligence Cyber Unit Burum.
Some parts of the soundtrack are created with sonification software (NASA ESA). This computer program can translate different possible models of the young universe into the audible region. The Cosmic Background Radiation (oldest observable light of the universe) is made accessible to the human ear. Van Bakel chose to use sonification as a synthesizer of sounds to create moods, instead of performing a one-on-one translation with it. Next to the electronic sounds there are actual sounds from the locations. Furthermore, in the last shot we can hear a short sample from Francis Ford Coppola’s classic paranoid surveillance film The Conversation.
Made possible with the support of the Mondriaan Fund.
Distribution partners: LI-MA Amsterdam and EYE film institute.
