Christopher Handran explores the mediation of experience by technologies such as cameras, projectors and screens, foregrounding the perceptual dimensions of spectatorship. Handran often revisits or reinterprets devices at the historical intersections of art and science, ranging from historical apparatuses such as the camera obscura to today’s global dissemination of digital images.
Flickr films reinterprets the structuralist film genre of Flicker Films, which directed the cinematic apparatus towards an exploration of perceptual affect. Artists and film-makers such as Paul Sharits, Tony Conrad and Arnulf Rainer exploited and exaggerated the flickering operation of the film projector to create overwhelming stroboscopic experiences for their audiences. The work considers this analogue assault on the senses in light of today’s constant flow of digital imagery. The proliferation of digital photography and its distribution reflects a shift in our relationship to photographs, from the preservation of moments to their immediate sharing. Flickr Films renders this overwhelming output as perceptual affect.