String Theory from Sam Oster on Vimeo.
String Theory is a timelapse exploration of the concept of String Theory, developed in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Billie Cook. We presented the project with 3 separate soundtracks at a Moving Image exhibition (SALA Festival 2008), and audiences could view the work with a choice of these 3 soundtracks. We were interested in what the different tracks offered the work in terms of how the work is interpreted, and how meaning is negotiated.
This version has a soundtrack created by Anders (Andy Matthews) who sampled various audio 'texts' inspired by the idea of String Theory.
This piece plays with different shutter speeds and 'frame rates' and was shot at my studio in the cyclorama.
Breathe (2010) from Sam Oster on Vimeo.
This is an experiment using a traditional timelapse subject in a 'controlled' environment. I set it up in my darkroom with 2 off-camera flashes, and shot it over a week. One of the major challenges was maintaining battery power, and I didn't manage to do this consistently. I do quite enjoy, however, the way the light flickers and changes across the piece. The soundtrack is beautiful, borrowed from Ulrich Schnauss (I have yet to contact him for permission). This is very rough, and I am working on developing a more reliable lighting solution :)
This is an experiment using a traditional timelapse subject in a 'controlled' environment. I set it up in my darkroom with 2 off-camera flashes, and shot it over a week. One of the major challenges was maintaining battery power, and I didn't manage to do this consistently. I do quite enjoy, however, the way the light flickers and changes across the piece. The soundtrack is beautiful, borrowed from Ulrich Schnauss. This is very rough, and I am working on developing a more reliable lighting solution :)
Melt is a timelapse of an old radiant heater, frozen in a block of ice, as it melts across the day. It was shot in the city against the backdrop of the Adelaide cityscape, on the balcony of a hotel. The piece explores the urban use of electrical energy.
This work was exhibited with photographic work in the exhibition 'Short Circuit' which investigates discarded electrical objects, displayed on a large digital photo frame. It was exhibited in the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Eye to Eye Fine Art Gallery (Adelaide), and Obscura Gallery (Melbourne).
'Grow' is a timelapse of a discarded fan in the garden. Over 8 months the foliage gradually starts to grow around the fan, and we see the seasons changing as the fan sits unaffected by the cycles around it.
The timelapse was captured on an old Nikon D100 using Nikon Capture software to manage the timing of the shots. Images were captured every half hour during daylight hours. In editing the image sequence I tried to select files that were taken in more overcast conditions to limit the frenetic changes that bright sunshine created in the sequence. This work was exhibited with photographic work in the exhibition 'Short Circuit' which investigated the discarded electrical objects, displayed on a large digital photo frame.
Evaporate from Sam Oster on Vimeo.
This piece was produced for a moving image exhibition curated by Annemarie Kohn for Artspace at the Adelaide Festival Centre. It was projected very large onto a screen that could be seen from inside the gallery by day and through the gallery window by night. It is a montage of two separate timelapse captures. The foreground is a timelapse of a large block of ice melting (this was shot in the studio against a green screen). The background is a 12-hour time-lapse of an old pumping station at the Dry Creek Salt Facility in Adelaide, which uses solar evaporation processes to produce it's salt.
I was interested in the idea that as the solar energy builds across a day it melts the block and ice to reveal the landscape.
The montage was edited by David Ngo (The cutting Room). There is no soundtrack as it was designed to be viewed in a busy gallery environment.
Capacitor from Sam Oster on Vimeo.
This moving image piece was produced to display in an exhibition titled 'Capacitor' in 2005, alongside photo-montage work (see this work at www,silvertrace.squarespace.com). It involves a montage of a photographic still (the kitchen window) and a video shot at a wind farm across a full day. The video work was sped up to create a 'timelapse' effect. The video montage and edit was done by Dave Ngo (The Cutting Room). The soundtrack was created by Russell Alexander (Rusty Prod Soundworks) with voice work by Jennifer Jones. As a piece that was designed for a gallery audience it translates quite differently as a monitor experience.