Light Work I is a haunting and impressionistic video that connects the industrial and medical transformations of the early-mid 20th Century, with the present day digital revolutions in music and independent film, and the implied demise of 16mm film.

Light Work I sprung out of an immersive Expanded Cinema Performance (multiple 16mm projection, live music) created by collaborators Jennifer Reeves and Anthony Burr. Light Work I uses uncompressed High Definition Video to record the process of making this longer direct-on-16mm-film work, and composites extreme-close-up High Definition documentation of this physical process with the 16mm motion picture created. The soundtrack is a layered mix of multi-tonal bass clarinet, organ, electronics and sine waves, creating a musical composition out of both “real world” analog instruments and the invisible digital realm.

Symbols of 20th Century science, industry, medicine and madness are mixed in rhythmic molecular forms, morphing frequencies and colorful visual textures. Educational films (depicting factory assembly lines, X-rays, scientific experiments, etc.) are sewn together with melted down pharmaceuticals affixed directly to the film. Century-old physical direct-on-film work converges with the latest HD format "destined to render film obsolete". Formats compete for dominance and resolve to coexist, perhaps in a fantasy world.

Note: The audio is meant to start low and then it peaks very high at 7:20.