Binghamton Babylon by Scott M. MacDonald

Author:Scott M. MacDonald
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2015-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 30. Photograph of light-play and Arnie Zane sleeping, by Philip Sykas. Courtesy Philip Sykas.

Arnie went so far as to begin making his own slides and he made a whole body of work. I still have the magic lantern and the slides that he made for it—some of them are quite beautiful and a wonderful extension of photography. His interest in these antique image technologies was a result of our connection with the Cinema Department.

Philip Sykas: I cannot remember when I began to study precinematic devices and to make serial-image works, but I took it up as an independent study in the fall, 1972 term. I remember making thaumatropes, and being quite proud of a single-frame “film” I devised using a cylindrical Quaker Oats carton. By turning the top of the carton, the face of the eponymous Quaker journeyed around the inside of the carton until he appeared once again in the opening I had cut.

My final project was a magic lantern show. I remember always being worried by the complexity of cinema and its expensive high-end gadgetry. I knew that if I was going to make films, I’d have to start with the basics and make my own equipment. So I began by making a magic lantern. I studied elementary optics and constructed my own condenser lens. I made slide carriers from hardwood veneers assembled with tiny brass screws. And glass photographic plates were specially ordered and processed to be employed alongside antique painted slides purchased in Binghamton and New York City antique shops. I still have these slides. One is a classic skipping rope effect, and another shows the moon emerging from clouds. There are processions of comic figures, a farmyard scene with a sequence of domestic fowl, and a Dutch slide with a duck playing the piano. Painted in a continuous strip but having four or five “frames,” they come alive when projected with the rhythm created by gently pushing the carrier.

On the 30th of May, 1973, I moved to the former Elks lodge ballroom space at 137 Washington Street in Binghamton that would provide the venue for the performance. It was quite derelict: glass needed installing in the windows to keep the pigeons out and mounds of dung had to be cleared away. There was no running water or toilet, so water was collected in a five-gallon jug from the antique shop across the road, and the toilet in a local hotel was used discreetly when needed. Perhaps this sounds mad now, but I didn’t think much beyond my delight in renting, for a fairly nominal sum, this huge and evocative space with its chandeliers and stained glass. The floor below was used as a rehearsal studio by a rock band, and after the band moved out in 1975, that lower floor became the home of the American Dance Asylum.

Bill T. Jones: Phil was working on his thesis project for the Cinema Department and the three of us decided to make his presentation a real performance event by adding music and dance and even a little magic.

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