Reading urban landscapes: E-makimono and photographic film-strips

A body of photographic film-strips taken at demonstrations and public events in Tokyo.

Hamann’s residency at Tokyo Wonder Site involved taking panoramic film-strips in public spaces.

She observed commuters in Tokyo stations and took part in many demonstrations which have become much more frequent since the Fukushima disaster in 2011. She captured moments in film-strips when multi directional movement in crowds becomes homogenous and common goals direct people into common movement.
Hamann discussed the connections of film-strips with panoramic formats in Japanese culture with curators at the Idemidsu Museum Tokyo and at the National Museum Kyoto to whom she was introduced by Rupert Faulkner, senior Curator of Japanese Art V&A.

As in panoramic scrolls the viewer can experience an unrestricted continuous image plane in film-strip installations and online projects (www.walkalone-neverwalkalone.net), where they choose moments in the narrative and the speed of viewing - a process of reading that becomes increasingly relevant with digital developments.

In Tokyo and Kyoto Hamann saw several of the original scrolls of the 12th and 13th century rarely exhibited and started a new photographic series taken from her 6th floor apartment inspired by the Japanese style of the blown off roof technique (fukinuki yatai) which developed as a radical perspective where the environment is heightened like a sloped stage.

• http://www.tokyo-ws.org/english/archive/...
• http://www.ccwgraduateschool.org/residen...