Home is a camera.
Home with camere.
Home, my cameras.
<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5168/5309539429_28fe63945c_z.jpg";
width="640" height="518" alt="" />
càmera rum. camara; prov. cambra; fr. chambre; sp. e port camara: dal
lat. CAMARA e CAMERA == gr. KAMARA (zend. kamara, pers. kamar, arm.
gamar, a.a.ted. chamar, boem. pol. komora) arco, volta, dalla rad. CAM
esser curvo che ritrovarsi nel sanscrito (KMAR data dei lessicografi
nel senso di andar torto) e nel celto: ond' anche il lat. CAMURUS
ricurvo . il gr. KAM-PTEIN piegare, girare KAM-PE piegatura, (v.
Camuso e cfr. Gamba, Cambiare, Campo, Gambero).
Questa voce daprima fu adoperata dagli architetti romani per
significare un soffitto centinato e poscia ogni stanza costruita con
quella specie di soffitto. Oggi vale Stanza principalmente per per
dormirvi; e si disse ancor Il Luogo dove si conservano le scritture
del pubblico; al presente Cancelleria, Archivio, l'Erario pubblico, il
Fisco, e nella Roma papale Il Tribunale che conosceva delle cause
fiscali. Cosi chiamasi inoltre Il Luogo dove si adunano i senatori e i
deputati per discutere le leggi.
»Camera stellata« dicesi in Inghilterra l'Alta Corte di Giustizia
de'Lordi sedente in una sala, sopra i muri della quale erano una volta
dipinte delle stelle. Cosi spiegano i Dizionarii storici; ma uno
scrittore contemporaneo, Greene nella sua Storia del popolo inglese
dice a tale proposito; »Al tempo di Gugliemo il conquistatore, cioe
verso il 1070, gli Ebrei, che erano fuori della protezione delle leggi
e non potevano domandare soccorsi che al solo re, ebbero il permesso
di depositare le loro cedole di sicurezza in una sala del palazzo
reale di Westminster, la quale riceve il nome di star chamber, dal
nome ebraico delle cedole«. Infatti STAR o neglio SHTAR dicesi in
ebraico ogni stipulazione per scritto, contratti, cedole, ecc. la
radice e SHTAR scrivere, che esiste anche nell'arabo. Ora la voce
ebraica star o shtar fu col tempo confusa coll'ingl. STAR stella, onde
camera stellata.
Deriv. Cameràio; Cameràle; Cameràrio; Cameràta; Cameràzzo;
Camarella-etta-ina-otto-uccia, Cameriere-a, Camerista, Incameràre.
càmera romanian camara; provincial cambra; french chambre; spanish e
port camara: dal latin CAMARA e CAMERA == greek KAMARA (zendo kamara,
persian kamar, armenian gamar, old high german chamar, bohemian,
polish komora) arch, vault, from the root CAM to be curved found in
sanskrit (in the sense of going the wrong way) and celtic: ond' also
latin CAMURUS curved . il greek KAM-PTEIN bend, turn KAM-PE bending,
(see Camuso and Leg, Change, Field, Shrimp).
This word was first used by Roman architects to signify an arched
ceiling, and later, every room made with this type pf ceiling. Today
it is used principally for a room to sleep in; and is said to be still
the place where the public records are kept; the Registry, the
Archives, the Treasury and Taxes; the courts of papal Rome that knew
of tax cases. This is also how the place where senators and deputies
gather to discuss the laws is called.
»Star Chamber« is how the High Court of Justice in England is called;
the Lords sat in a room whose walls were once painted with stars. So
says the historic dictionary; however, a contemporary writer named
Greene writes in his history of the English people; »During the time
of William the Conqueror, around 1070, the Jews, who were outside the
protection of the law and could not demand succor from the king, were
allowed to deposit their coupons in a secured room the royal palace of
Westminster which was called the star chamber, from the Hebrew word
for coupon«. Indeed, STAR or SHTAR is Hebrew for every stipulations
for written contracts, coupons etc. the root SHTAR to write, also
exists in Arabia. Over time the Hebrew word star or shtar was confused
with the english. STAR star, star chamber.
Derivations: Cameràio; Cameràle; Cameràrio; Cameràta; Cameràzzo;
Camarella-etta-ina-otto-uccia, Cameriere-a, Camerista, Incameràre.
From April to December 2010 I lived inside a camera. A foro
stenopeico, a camera obscura. By taping up my windows and door-jambs
with black paper I was able to shut out all external light in my home.
A single hole, the size of a one Euro cent coin, was made in the paper
covering the north-facing window of my bedroom. This room, my own
camera clausa. This room would become my dunkelkammer, my foto-aparat,
my own star chamber. A place to work, to sleep, to fuck, to dream, to
wake up to distorted figures walking my walls, bicycles overtaking
lorries on my ceiling.
Some previous occupant of this room had put up fluorescent stars on
the ceiling which I used to lay staring at. I liked to think that
surely they were a map of the night sky somewhere. Lalibela, perhaps;
maybe Antares.
My room was a facsimile of countless others; Et nos non inventimus
ita, to paraphrase Ibn al-Haytham. The pieces Laptopogram, Handmade
Garlic and the Dunkelkammer Sessions, Creature Feature, And One for
the Cyclops, regalo, Mister Mandayam, Il Lampeggiatore, Bar-Bar
Bar-Bar and szendvics, amongst others, were thought up in this room.
See Works.
Home is a camera.
Home with camere.
Home, my cameras.
The images birthed by these walls came from a number of apparatii:
scotch bottle-cases & mother-of-pearl clutch purses; pumpkins &
watermelons; pea-pods & colanders. The materials used were varied:
eggshells, casein, semen, cigarette-ash, urine, coffee grounds,
papaver, mint.
Over time I grew to despise the stars over me. A number of reasons:
aesthetic, astrological, plain inertia, perhaps. I stood on the top of
my old rosewood desk and took them off one by one. An old habit of
mine, peeling things: eggshells, crabs, scabs, grocery stickers,
beer-bottle labels. I tried to think of what I would replace them
with. People had lived with the weight of the stars over their heads
for millenia before we started dirtying up the skies. I had read
somewhere that during Galileo's time you could see ten thousand times
the number of stars you can see now. La Via di Latte a perennial
ribbon.
Living inside of a camera distorts your thoughts. At around the same
time as these developments I got hold of a Canon G11. This camera has
influenced me deeply. The digital cameras I had used previously were
distant, intractable objects: not because they seemd daunting or
mysterious; but because they had few charms. The G11 immediately
became an extension of my faculties, a fourth eye, a seventh sense. To
elaborate on the changes and ideas it brought within me is a story for
another time; for the time being I would like to explain a single
image made within my home.
In November 1948 the Polaroid Corporation started selling the Land
Camera Model 95: the first instant camera with self-developing film.
The ideas contained within this camera date back many decades: to
house everything needed to produce a photographic image within a
single package. Polaroid was the first to realise the complex
mechanisms needed.
Polaroid was also a savvy marketer; they combined cutting-edge
technology with catchy advertisements for their products. The Polaroid
Swinger jingle went:
Swing it up! {yeah yeah}
It says YES {yeah yeah}
Take the shot {yeah yeah}
Count it down {yeah yeah}
Zip it off! {yeah yeah}
See also: Songs of the Darkroom.
However, I digress. The point of the Polariod aside was to illustrate
the manners in which I used my bedroom-camera. It was used to make
images of the outside world, of the people and autos milling on the
street below my second-floor window. And the insides; of the rooms
within, of the objects within these rooms, images of the camere and
the cameras within, of the insides of my own body. I used it as my
version of a Polaroid Land Camera: a self-contained system for
producing photographic images; albeit at a different scale,
semi-automated, and not terribly portable.
In time I realized what I wanted to replace the fluroscent stars above
with: my own constellations: a fantastical map of of the night
overhead. A outline of the demons I had seen while half-awake at noon
on sunny midsummer days; of playing connect-the-dots with the
zeitgeist.
I started out by looking at the sky. There is only so much you can see
in Veneto.
Here is the image, once again:
<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5168/5309539429_28fe63945c_z.jpg";
width="640" height="518" alt="" />
This is an image of the night sky above where I slept for eight months
in 2010. It now lives in myriad forms: as a framed print in a gallery
somewhere; another print lies in the basement of a friend's home in
Paris; two copies lie in a farmhouse in the Polish countryside near
Bielorussia; a few dozen copies float around on the web; sometimes I
surprise myself by finding one on my laptop.
This was one of the last images I made in my bedroom. I had to leave.
One of the final acts was to turn my sets of cameras heavenward, to
try and squint past the three floors above me, past floors and carpets
and slippered feet; past what-nots and bedsteads and canopies and
lace; past rough hewn concrete and sleet and midwinter frost; past the
low mists that swirl in from the Adriatic; and onto the creatures
above my head.
Aditya Mandayam
Białystok, Poland
2010.12.31
http://cixa.org/ephemerides/(sic%7Bsic[sic]%7D).php
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