the wooden lightbox: a secret art of seeing is an exploration and reconfiguration of cinematic apparatus and emulsion. Using the early development of cinema as a marker for cultural, technological and economic change, these film cycles draw from turn of the century cinematic prototypes and long forgotten ideas surrrounding the moving image and its early promise. At the core of this approach is the use of a homebuilt hand-cranked projector in an expanded cinema format to present a striking array of handmade and processed emulsion. The vast potential of the film frame is drawn out through imagery both archaic and contemporary in shape and form. Hypnosis, panorama, motion studies, expectation, magic, the dreamworld and sleight of eye conspire in this intimate and immersive framework.

approximate screening time: 50 minutes.

Alex MacKenzie has been working as a media artist for over 15 years with a focus on various models of expanded cinema and light projection involving the handmade image. His live media works are presented at festivals and underground screening spaces throughout Europe and North America. He was the founder and curator of the Edison Electric Gallery of Moving Images, the Blinding Light!! Cinema and the Vancouver Underground Film Festival. Alex received a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honours in the School for Studies in Art and Culture (Film Studies), Carleton University, and has worked with a variety of independent film organizations over the past 15 years including Mainfilm, Pacific Cinematheque, Cineworks, and Doxa. He has been invited to residencies at Atelier MTK in Grenobles, France and Struts Gallery/Faucet Media in New Brunswick. Alex is the co-editor of Damp: Contemporary Vancouver Media Art (Anvil Press 2008), interviewed David Rimmer for Loop, Print, Fade + Flicker: David Rimmer's Moving Images (Anvil Press 2009) and is currently designing handmade film emulsions and manually-powered projection devices for gallery installation and live performance.
www.alexmackenzie.ca