David Claerbout: The American Room (second Movement)
“In The American Room the relation between movement and stillness is being translated very literally into the relation between breathing and holding the breath. The moments in which we hear the singer are also those moments in which she is
offscreen - moments as long as a breath can be hold" DAVID CLAERBOUT
“The American Room (second movement)” shows a concert held in the intimate atmosphere of a small concert room. The slow movement of the camera through the room and the Dolby-surround sound installation strengthen the viewer’s and listener’s feeling that they themselves are in the middle of the concert room. What irritates the viewer is the relation between movement and
stillness: while the camera moves through the room, the people in the audience remain absolutely motionless.The impression results from a high degree of technical ingenuity, for the scene has been composited completely digitally: the people in the audience have not been filmed but photographed from all sides against a bluescreen to create a three-dimensional effect and then cut out and placed digitally in a photographed space. The movement of the camera was then
processed on a computer with the aid of an editing program. The music of the soundtrack in turn conveys a sense of movement through its rhythm.
