Frances Scott
2021PHX [X is for Xylonite]
Frances Scott
Frances Scott explores the history and usage of plastic in this imaginative essay film. Using three-dimensional animations, distorted vocal recordings, and the words of Roland Barthes, she connects the founding of the first plastics factory in 1866 and the development of cellulose nitrate, a key element in the creation of film stock.
PHX [X is for Xylonite]
Valentina
Frances Scott
‘Valentina’ is a prelude to ‘Wendy’, a speculative portrait of, and film fan-letter to, composer and musician Wendy Carlos – self-described as “The Original Synth”. In ‘Valentina’, an unedited 100ft reel of hand-processed 16mm film, shot in rehearsal, is used as a silent score for a reading. Performer and dancer Valentina Formenti recalls part of a transcribed interview with Carlos, later edited for publication in ‘Playboy’ in 1979. Whilst the magazine interview was seen as the first public announcement of Carlos’ gender transition, these absent passages, excluded from the final edit, include her connected interests in cartography, physics, mathematics’ transformations, astronomy, and her practice in solar eclipse photography.
Valentina
