Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World

2007, 27:30 min, anaglyph 3-D color, surround sound

Originally presented as an installation in the exhibition Evolution 2007 at Lumen in Leeds, Gift of Fire devotes fetishistic attention to what is probably the first film in history: Louis-Aimé-Augustin Le Prince's 1888 footage of traffic crossing Leeds Bridge. Jacobs continues his intellectual and scientific experimentation with cinema history and visual phenomena by displaying the footage in anaglyph 3-D color, intercut with contextual text and other legendary film scenes, such as the Odessa Steps sequence in Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. The Leeds fragment, only nineteen frames long, is of a relatively mundane street scene. In Gift of Fire, Jacobs underscores the monumental implications of its honored place at the dawn of moving image art.

Commissioned by Lumen. Funded by Arts Council England Yorkshire and Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. 'Leeds Bridge' film courtesy of National Media Museum. William Rose recorded contemporary Leeds Bridge sounds and prepared for the first presentation of this work in Leeds, UK. Assisted by Erik Nelson.

 
 

3-D glasses must be provided to viewers for any screenings or exhibitions of this title. Contact EAI for further details.