Cubiculum Umbrae

Shot on b/w 16mm with a Bolex on a residency/voyage around Svalbard / Spitzbergen in the high arctic. Soundtrack by Canadian sound artist Nick Kuepfer. This is a critique of sorts on the ubiquitous presence of cameras in such landscapes, our ravenous hunger for the consumption of images.

Runtime: 8m

See it on Vimeo: Cubiculum Umbrae

Somehow, the experience seemed diminished in the fixed quality of the shuttered images… and of a kind of seeing contested by cameras. Art as tourism, tourism as art. Cubiculum umbrae might be translated as “chamber shadows”, referring perhaps to the dark chamber within a camera, or it might also mean “bedroom shadows”… “camera” of course also means bedroom or chamber. The experience was claustrophobic, dangerous.

Available screening formats:
Single channel HD digital video.
Source format: 16mm, digitised.

Credits: Directed by, camera, editing: Richard Ashrowan, sound by Nick Kuepfer.