Making Images from Scratch: Camera Obscura and Handmade Films Workshops

Admission to this event is free and open to current USC students only. Help us continue to offer free events by making a tax-deductible donation at https://visionsandvoices.usc.edu/support.

Renowned cinema artists and will lead three hands-on workshops for USC students exploring projection, light, and camera-less image creation. Emphasizing handmade, analog image-making practices, the sessions will reconnect participants with the materiality of light and the world around us. Students may sign up for one, two, or all three workshops!

Workshop 1: Create a Camera Obscura, 12–2 p.m.

Gibson and Recoder will present a brief, illustrated lecture about the history of the camera obscura, one of the oldest image-making devices, and then transform the large gallery space into one by installing lenses and apertures and “catching” images on various surfaces, including semi-transparent fabric and tracing paper. Snacks will be provided.

Workshop 2: Make Handmade, Camera-less Films, 2:30–4:30 p.m.

Working together, participants will scrape, sticker, delaminate, and alter pieces of black and clear leader, as well as cast-off, found footage, to create new work in the form of 16mm loops that can be viewed immediately on available projectors. Participants can take their loops home. Snacks will be provided.

Workshop 3: The Art of Projection, 5–7 p.m.

Working with the 16mm film loops created in the previous session and an array of other materials, participants will use multiple projectors to explore the incredible capacities and potential of light, space, and creative projection techniques. Dinner will be provided.

Click here to read more.

Presented by USC Visions and Voices. Organized by Holly Willis (Media Arts + Practice). Co-sponsored by ZAP.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

USC School of Cinematic Arts, 900 West 34th Street, Los Angeles, United States