A rough translation of ‘Once seen’ in Greek, Hapax Idomenon consists of a screen with a square-shaped segment removed in the centre alongside two supporting pieces of apparatus. As the project is more conceptual than physical, these two elements can be imagined in a variety of ways. The version seen in the attached document is then more of a prototype, with the screen able to be made out of anything from a matchbox to square mile of cloth; the supporting apparatus from twigs to industrial cranes.
Simply, the project works as a screen. Instead of the conventional collection of pixels or projection of film onto such a screen however, this is replaced with a hole where one is able to look through to the other side. With two groups of people stood either side of this screen, one group becomes a ‘film’ for the other, and vice versa. The movements, sounds, smells of one group are all experienced by the other group to create a film devoid of the materials usually associated with the medium.
The project relies on viewing film in a reductionist manner. By reducing the criteria for what a film needs to have to be considered such to just light and time, the experience provided by Hapax Idomenon becomes an undeniable film. By leaving the manipulation of these elements to those using the project also, the experience transcends from the typical notions of what a film should and can be further.