Glass is Slow-moving Water

STEAMCollegeHigh SchoolMiddle SchoolCinemaPhotographyLight

Sep 25

An outdoor cinema experiment with lenses.

*A photograph taken through a magnifying glass with a cell phone by CSUMB student Karen Becerra.*

This is a fun project I do with my Experimental Film Students each semester to start off our thinking about the elements of cinema.

Materials needed:

Old cameras (if possible) and/or
Optical toys (ie: plastic binoculars, magnifying glasses, toy cameras) and/or
Clear object (like a bottle or jar)
A digital camera or smartphone (can work with chromebooks)

Introducing the Project:

I like to bring my old camera collection to share with my students for this project. I talk to my students about how glass is slow-moving water. If we touch the widows in a very old house, we can feel that the glass is thicker on the bottom. The is slowly descending - moving, like water with the force of gravity. That means that the glass on these old lenses is different than it was when the cameras were first released. And, that the lenses on our new cameras will change, too.

This is a wonderful moment to bring up the physical lens as a critical tool in cinema for making meaning. The metaphorical lens - our cultural contexts - affects how we experience the world.

The old cameras are just made of wood and cardboard, with a single, fixed lens. The light passes through that lens and is meant to burn its image onto photosensitive material. This simple box with a hole works similarly to our eyes, and creates potentially meaningful replicative images without elaborate electronics.

The visual toys and clear objects can also affect and infuse meaning into images.

*Photograph of project in-progress, through a magnifying glass by CSUMB student Karen Becerra.*

Using the lens:

I invite my students to walk outside and work as teams to take photographs through the old cameras and clear objects. With their cell phones, they can focus on the small viewer windows of the cameras.