Cinema-Transcode

Cinema-Transcode is a device created to explore film materials originally conceived as linear analog formats which, once digitized, become open to manipulation through programming. This machine allows the user, via a panel of push buttons, to recombine fragments of video and audio across independent tracks, generating variable audiovisual forms.

The videos are projected onto seven sand-filled containers, allowing users to manipulate the image both physically and symbolically, while the audio elements are represented as light forms projected onto the buttons.

The piece revisits existing film material to extract new visual discourse by integrating new modes of execution, investigating the contemporary potential to create technological supports for audiovisual forms that escape traditional linear narrative structures.

The configuration presented in this exhibition explores archival footage from the Aragonese filmmaker Segundo de Chomón, whose pioneering early 20th-century work deployed a remarkable range of special effects—effects now reinterpreted and expanded through the Cinema-Transcode system.