The Projection Project

Cinema-goers know that the magic of the silver screen is projected from the small dark room, the projection booth, at the back of the auditorium, and 'the projectionist' is a significant figure in a range of films throughout cinema's history. Using interviews, photographs, feature films and archive research, this project investigates and documents the role of the cinema projectionist as this role passes into history and also considers some of the new potential of digital projection in public spaces.

Most cinemas in Britain switched to digital projection between 2010 and 2012. Most of the multiplexes are now all digital while some repertory and art-houses maintain the capacity to project 35mm celluloid film, although fewer films are being made available in celluloid prints. This transition means that the job of projecting films has changed, with many film projectionists losing their jobs. Films are now delivered as digital files and performances are programmed by computer. The combination of mechanical and aesthetic skills that characterised the traditional cinema projectionist has become redundant. The most evident sign of these changes for the cinema-goer is the way in which the house-lights now often come on brightly immediately the film images cease. This is because the programming of the lighting into the digital performance is often done without regard for the long tradition of fading the lights up slowly to allow the audience to adjust more gently to the return to everyday reality.

Projectionists used to be the most highly paid members of the cinema staff, and many have mechanical and electrical skills, as well as extensive knowledge of cinema history. The contemporary transitions in projection are the latest in a series of transformations through which the history of cinema itself can be traced. We will combine archive research and interviews with (former) projectionists to learn about what the job entails, the history of trade union involvement, significant alterations in exhibition practice and the projectionists' views of cinema and the aesthetics of the 'good performance'. This combination of methods will allow us to contribute to the understanding and history of cinema as both industry and artform. The interviews, which will be mainly organised on a regional basis, will allow us both to document a passing analogue/ mechanical trade and also contribute to the debates about the future of cinema as it becomes digital. Our pilot study has taught us that although projectionists work anti-social hours, they often know each other within a locality and between them can provide a history of cinema exhibition in the area. This oral history of the more recent period will be put in historical perspective through research in trade union archives and trade papers to narrate a history of the figure of the projectionist. For example, after WWI this was seen as a job particularly suitable for facially disfigured veterans, while during both World Wars, the job was performed by women ('projectionettes').

The research into the contemporary and historical figure of the projectionist within a British context will be complemented by two minor, more international themes, the representation of the projectionist in the movies - which is how most people know about projection - which will be researched as a Phd, and the investigation of 'The New Projection', the emergent uses of digital projection as an artistic practice, conducted by the scholar and artist, Dr Michael Pigott. Here, our interest lies as much in the new material practices of digital curation as in the selected case studies of projected image-work.

Through these different aspects of the project, we hope to demonstrate the way in which the attention to projection and the figure of the projectionist can illuminate both histories and theories of the digital future of cinema and projection-based work.

This project seeks to intervene in public discourses about the 'digital revolution' through a specific historical enquiry which examines the effect of the transition to digital in one industry/ artform that is dependent on the projection of light. As its material is the mass popular art form of the C20th, and its topic the transformation of both the medium and everyday working lives, it has rich potential for several types of impact and wider public engagement.
WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THIS RESEARCH?
We will focus on four categories of potential beneficiaries:
1.The national public, conceptualised as both 'digital natives' - those to whom non-digital media delivery is almost inconceivable - and the digitally dispossessed - those, like projectionists and many other, often older workers, who have lost employment through digital transformations. In this sense the project will address a prevalent source of inter-generational anxiety and dissatisfaction, and will foster public sphere engagement with notions of technology and change that impact on everyday lives.
2. The local communities where the interviews will be conducted, and particularly those in Birmingham who will benefit directly from the project's collaboration with the Flatpack Festival.
3.The theatrical cinema industry, including those currently and previously employed as projectionists. Our advisory board will represent two important cinema heritage organisations - the Cinema Theatre Association and the Projected Picture Trust - which have substantial numbers of current and retired projectionists among their membership. As well as involving both societies by enlisting their help to solicit interview participants, we will report in their quarterly newsletters.
4. Curators and contemporary arts policy-makers, particularly those involved in commissioning and curating moving image and projection based work. This will be effected through direct collaboration with the curators of the Flatpack Festival, more widely through Pigott's engagement with galleries while conducting research, and finally through a workshop held at the University of Warwick.
HOW MIGHT THEY BENEFIT?
We will develop a number of outputs, events and on-going projects including:
-exhibition events in collaboration with project partner, Birmingham based Flatpack Festival, a pioneering organisation that runs an internationally recognized annual festival of film and audiovisual installations. The events will draw upon our primary research to produce interactive experiences and commissioned artworks engaging with the materials, technologies, histories, and meanings of 'projection'.
-Exhibition with project partner Richard Nicholson which will document and celebrate 35 mm projection. (See partner letter) This exhibition will include (with permission), selections from the projectionist interviews.
-Online Virtual Projection Booth which would be freely accessible via a web-browser. The user will be able to discover the functionalities of various bits of equipment, as well as other details about the workspace of the projectionist, and to contribute to a dialogue about the processes of projection, and the transition from an analogue to digital mode, through a comments section.
-Curating the Projected Image workshop held at the University of Warwick. This will bring together curators and academics to reflect upon the outcomes of the project.
IMPACT MEASUREMENT
The impact of these engagement initiatives will be measured using a variety of methods, such as: exit polls, questionnaires and blog-scraping of comments about the Flatpack events; an interactive comments system for the Virtual Projection Booth allowing the public to record their own views and to demonstrate what they have learned and how their understanding has changed. In some cases (Flatpack and the Virtual Projection Booth) the engagement generated will have the potential to feed back into the project, and to contribute to reports/outputs.