A selection of Jacobs’ “Eternalisms” and other experimentations with depth and perception.

Opening the 19th Century: 1896
Ken Jacobs | 1990 | USA | 9’ | 16mm | silent

“Shafting the screen: the projector beam maintains its angle as it meets the screen and keeps on going, introducing volume as well as light, just as Paris, Cairo and Venice of a century ago happen to pass. Passing through the tunnel mid-film, a red flash will signal you to switch your single Pulfrich filter before your right you to before your left (keep both eyes open). Centre seating is best: depth deepens viewing further from the screen. Handle filter by edges to preserve clarity. Either side of filter may face screen. Filter can be held at any angle, there’s no ‘up’ or ‘down’ side. Also, two filters before an eye does not work better than one, and a filter in front of each only negates the effects.” (Ken Jacobs)

Flo Rounds a Corner
Ken Jacobs | 1999 | USA | 6’ | digital | silent

“The eponymous Flo moves slanted and enchanted down a street in Taormina, Italy – as casual, momentous and as ‘on time’ as the Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat that rounded the corner of another century. A landmark work.” (Mark McElhatten)

Let There Be Whistleblowers
Ken Jacobs | 2005 | USA | 18’ | digital | sound

“A train passes through a tunnel and hurtles on to a station. Time and space are toyed with; things enter an impossible state of ongoing movement while going nowhere. The actual tunnel experience sets off a metaphysical one. Composed to the first part of Drumming by Steve Reich.” (Ken Jacobs)

The Surging Sea of Humanity
Ken Jacobs | 2006 | USA | 11’ | digital | silent

“Stereograph of the crowd at the opening of the US Centennial Exposition of 1893. It turns into a movie. Into an enormous rugged and craggy 3-D landscape… before the people return and the scene is righted again. Many laws were broken in the making of this movie, beginning with laws of gravity.” (Ken Jacobs)

The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
Ken Jacobs | 2010 | USA | 13’ | digital | sound

“This is a stand-alone follow-up to my 11-minute 2006 short The Pushcarts Of Eternity Street. After completing that work, we discovered there was more to the Edison shot at The Library of Congress. We now see the cops making a clean sweep of the street although the reason for doing so is unknown. Illusionary depth is excited by my Nervous System technique.” (Ken Jacobs)

Mosco Street Rapture
Ken Jacobs | 2017 | USA | 3’ | digital | silent

Rapidly flickering between two images (imbued in red and blue) to create an “Eternalism”, this study of Chinatown’s Mosco Street is part of Jacobs’ Thaumatrope series, a reference to the 19th century optical toy. Very near Jacobs’ Chambers Street loft, Mosco Street is a small one-block street, the last remnant of the 19th century Cross Street which traversed the notorious Five Points area in the Lower Street Side.

The Whole Shebang
Ken Jacobs | 2019 | USA | 6’ | digital | sound

This 2019 video is a reworking of the 1982 Nervous System piece. “The state under Reagan becomes one of prolonged emergency alert. An endgame mind-set impels The Whole Shebang, mordant thanatotic reverie. Shots of death-defying/inviting stunts from the Jazz Age and early 1930s are sucked of their content with the relish of a vampire. Black Fords hurtle through walls of flame. Race dead-on into each other. Dad, standing at roof edge, tantalised by the precipice, tosses Baby from outstretched hand to hand.” (Ken Jacobs) 

With an introduction from William Rose.