Launderama 16mm 9 minutes Black & white film on continuous loop
Launderama 16mm film
London 1989
one of the early washing machine experiments consisted of a 16mm 9 minutes long black and white film produced of my washing being cleaned in a public laundromat washing machine. This film had been inspired by previous experiments made by putting super 8 cameras into the washing machine and making short films from inside the machine whilst they were running. The small battery operated super 8 camera was wrapped in a plastic bag to keep water tight.These initial, mostly abstract, films had no conceptual or intellectual purpose originally yet they eventually led toward a more refined idea. They were, for all intents and purpose, preliminary sketches
This film was then the first ‘conceptual work’ and after the filming had been completed ‘Launderama’ was unloaded from the Bolex 16mm hand wound mechanical cine camera and then loaded directly into the same washing machine it had been filming. A changing bag was used and a circular board placed over the window of the washing machine. Developer was then added to the machine via the soap-sud compartment and the machine was started by pushing coins into the slot on top of the machine with the temperature control placed to the warm wash cycle. The 16mm film was developed, fixed and subsequently washed inside the identical machine to the one it had just filmed, therefore creating a film that had not only witnessed the clothing being washed (as a visual image recorded on the film by the act of light working on the emulsion) but had also experienced the physicality of the washing (chemical development) process from within the machine by being fully processed and developed there also. The concept, as it seemed, was that this would create an exceptional ‘existential’ type of film, having witnessed the total process both inside (via development)and outside (from the visual) creating a perfect seamless loop, the image and how it was produced merging into one (gesamtkunst).
This early laundromat experimental work then set the tone for the later experiments with washing machines, originally using my mothers washing machine in Leicester (both inside the kitchen and in the backyard). These initial experiments gave way to larger more exacting works the first of which was carried out in Utica upstate New York during a residency and produced the work ‘Laundromat Pictures’ (1991) which produced four or five 10 x 8 inch black and white photographs using sheet negative film made by the use of a lens pushed onto the glass door of the machine and sealed with a cycle inner tube. The suit jacket of the operator would double as a changing/loading bag using magnetic strips sewn into the jacket so it attached to the metal front of the machine. The operator could then load the light sensitive film through the arms of the jacket and into the washing machine ready for the photographic exposure.
After completing Laundromat Pictures it seemed necessary to make a work using all of the machines inside the laundromat to create a sequence of images and so slowly over the course of a number of years the project developed, initially in my mind, then physically by planning to find find an establishment large enough with 12 machines placed in a row. Several visits to washing machine manufacturers in order to collect more accurate data on the ipso washing machine and precise temperature during the various wash cycles which gave more perfect development of the image. Simultaneous to this the equipment was produced for creating 12 camera lenses and associated paraphernalia.
Equipment and suitcase for Laundromat-Locomotion 1997
The equipment was made in London over a period of 2 years even though at the time of making the lenses no venue for making the project existed, even an initial search in San Francisco yielded no feasible site to produce such a large scale venture.
During a visit to a factory close to Newark airport in America the director mentioned a large laundromat that might be a perfect place to carry out the work. The equipment was shipped to New York and the project L-L finally started in 1997 in Bayonne, New Jersey.
Applied Photography
(original unedited text written to accompany Laundromat Locomotion)
“On first looking at the work of Muybridge in the calm stillness and muted intellectual setting of a college library the naked studies of woman thereby bought about an erection in the innocent young student.” Anon.
Initially there may appear to be no connection between a washing machine and a camera, washing clothes and the procedures & processes of photography. A highly unlikely combination perhaps, but one that redeems itself upon a closer inspection, revealing many similarities both mechanically and chemically, including more complex sociological connections.
My interest was first drawn to attention by the close similarity between people sitting staring at the washing machine in public Laundromats with that of people sat mindlessly watching television. Although before arriving at a situation of the washer as television, the images must first be manufactured, by the use of a camera, and then displayed on the t.v screen. It therefore seemed illogical that the washing machine could go directly from cleaning clothes to behaving like a television set. There had to be some type of intermediate stage of development which had somehow been bypassed.
After some time spent sitting and studying the dynamics of front loading washing machines, waiting for the wash to finish, and experimenting with attaching super 8 cameras to the interior of the washer drum, I realised that the machine did in fact possess all the relevant characteristics to produce a perfect photograph completely by itself, with the addition of a few accessories. There was also the added bonus of being able to process the negative picture afterward by merely adding the chemicals directly to the soapsud compartment and switching the machine onto its ‘warm’ wash cycle. The development and fixing processes perfectly aligning themselves to the wash, rinse and spin cycles of the machines normal programme.
Visually the front loading type washing machine is very comparable to the layout of a single lens reflex camera with the large glass door of the machine representing the optical lens or eye.
A further examination of details concerning the merger or marriage (even cross dressing) of camera and washing machine reveals a number of suprising similarities between the two otherwise unconnected processes. The extraction of dirt by a chemical detergent to regenerate clothing and hence revitalise our own image, compares favourably to the way in which photography takes our image and stores it on film until the action of a chemical developer brings out the latently stored negative picture. Both have the power to reconstitute and regenerate the image of ourselves, making us look better or younger and yet both processes are external to our physical body. Both procedures require time to render perfect, interrupting the process mid-way has the possibility of jeopardising either one, and the results of both are self-image concerns, at least when comparing photographic portraits and washing clothing. This perhaps stems from a general belief in the machines ability to improve on the original, so that whatever goes into a machine (any machine) and is processed will always emerge in a better state due perhaps to the concentration of time and energy as well as our implicit trust in the efficiency and reliability of the mechanical process.
If the washing machine, which is a highly dedicated and specific piece of machinery can be converted to produce high quality photographs then surely there is a possibility that the camera could also be converted to provide another useful function with the minimum of alteration.
By a strange coincidence while working on the Laundromat-Locomotion project I happened to notice a new chain of stores opening up in London. A combination of two well known companies, Super-Snaps and Sketchley dry cleaners merged into one store. A peculiar commercial venture enabling a customer to drop off a colour film for processing whilst having their suit or skirt dry cleaned at the same time. This seemed to suggest that a more concrete connection did exist between cleaning and photography (and that it might even be commercially viable) but before I had managed to investigate this intriguing hybrid further the shop local to me had closed down.
Having completed an initial series of photographs using a commercial washing machine (Laundromat pictures, 1991) I realised that the next step would be to utilise all the machines in a public Laundromat, 12 machines in a row with each one converted so as to produce a sequence of photographs not unlike Edweard Muybridge’s photographic studies made at the turn of the century entitled Animal & Human Locomotion.
The more I thought about the Muybridge studies the more it seemed necessary to pay some type of tribute to his work, perhaps even taking it a step or two further by making some studies which Muybridge forgot, or at least overlooked. This would then also require the presence of a horse and rider to emulate the famous sequence of studies, verifying the horse lifts all four feet above the ground during a gallop. Unfortunately during the actual course of the photographic sequence, the horse, who was just on the verge of a gallop, became spooked, possibly by one of the old ladies in the background of the Laundromat hastily trying to pull her washing out of a machine.
Later, on looking at one of the developed pictures of the horse and rider it seemed peculiar to note that the photograph, with excessive scratching caused by the negative being processed inside the machine, appears to look just like an original Muybridge. A result caused by the vigorous agitation of the washing cycle combined with the high speed spin of 500 rpm, which not only damaged the emulsion but in some cases completely destroyed the negative.
What was originally conceived as a problem arising from an inferior method of loading and attaching the film to the interior of the washer drum then turned into an effect that gave the photograph some degree of authenticity by making it look like an original Muybridge photograph from one hundred years ago. The scratches on the negative surface becoming a substitute for time, an artificial ageing process lending the pictures an accidental air of authenticity.
ER
During the initial searches for a suitable Laundromat venue in San Francisco, one large enough to accommodate the horse & rider, someone there informed me that Muybridge’s work had been partially discredited by his seemingly endless studies of woman getting in and out of bed. Studies which lacked purely scientific criteria, referring only to his own particular private obsessions.
With this knowledge in mind I embarked upon the sequence ER. A photographic sequential study of a naked figure walking with a full erection would become my personnel tribute to the work of Muybridge. However in order to obtain an erection whilst working alone in the dead of night seemed a particular concern to me and one which would need careful and close consideration. However, after working in the Laundromat for some time I noticed a variety of ladies undergarments which had been either mislaid or forgotten. This seemed to provide the perfect solution to my problem enabling a coherent method of arousal to the genitalia for the ER sequence by a manner strictly in keeping with the Laundromat environment. Fetishism manifesting itself here not only by the individual items of clothing but also in the presence of the machines, which provided an equal and complimentary source of excitement. (There were in fact over one hundred washing machines in this particular establishment and an equivalent number of dryers).
For the unassuming voyeur the Laundromat is the perfect place to view the normally hidden and private elements of ordinary everyday life such as dirty undergarments, women’s lingerie and soiled bed linen. All items which surface in public, albeit briefly, and which the casual passer-by can accidentally observe and then play with in his or her imagination, even if only for a moment.
There is a similarity to the slight distress caused at the thought of being observed when loading the machine with our dirty washing at the Laundromat. This was perfectly illustrated during the making of Laundromat-pictures (1991) when one of the customers became aggressive because he assumed, incorrectly, that his washing was being filmed through the glass window of the machine. Analogous to this is the embarrassment that occurs when having our photograph taken and during the moment when we draw the curtain of the photo booth or when the finished photograph is quickly collected from the side of the machine, so that no one can see it. Both are concerned with elements of our image production and manipulation, the details of which we would prefer to keep hidden, showing only the final result, well distanced from it’s connived and laborious manufacture.
Another element of the washing machine in it’s role as a camera which is formidable is that it is bolted to the floor, in the case of a Laundromat, which means that the machine is restricted to a highly limited viewpoint, necessitating the photographing of subjects in the direct vicinity of the machine or ones that happen to be passing by. But this does tend to have the advantage of eliminating any possibility of camera ‘shake’, during exposure. This of course is diametrically opposed to the unlimited view of an ordinary hand held compact camera which can adopt any position anywhere in the world or beyond and possesses no in built restrictions as to the type of subject matter it records.
The circumstances surrounding the transformation of the washing machine and its new use as a camera must surely reflect the current overwhelming obsession for photography. An all consuming passion that surely must point to the immanent and destructive end of the ‘unphotographed event’. This will inevitably lead to a situation in which every possible place is occupied or covered by the presence of a photographic recording device of some type. Cameras are now so common and cheap to acquire that it surely must be possible to record the whole of a person’s life in real time, rather than just the brief main events. New systems of compression technique, cheap video cameras and long play tapes make this a very viable and affordable possibility, enabling the production of a documentary video in which someone’s entire life from birth to their eventual death, including all the years of uneventful time, is recorded in full.
On-line washers
One recent phenomena in the development of the washing machine is the introduction of the modem into selected machines enabling a Laundromat owner, who may have several stores, to monitor all the machines in his possession from any location via the telephone and internet. It seems a highly preposterous fact that the washing machine now forms part of the information superhighway, even if only a minor tributary. Helping the washing machine into line with other state of the Art “appliances” residing at the forefront of the media oriented technological interface.
In reality though the Laundromat remains, at least on the surface, on par with the public convenience or railway terminus in its attraction of societies fringe elements. One particular characteristic intrinsic to the Laundromat is its degraded atmosphere. The accumulative effect of fluorescent lighting, repetitive sound, warm damp air and the smell of detergent, all lend an air of low life that is universal in its ability to depress. Perhaps this atmosphere more than any other element was the one which attracted me to the Laundromat as a place in which to spend large amounts of time.
The otherwise low-tech Laundromat remains a place of low visual distraction in that colours are subdued, sound is reduced to the humdrum and there is a general absence of demands on the mind, making it the perfect place to hatch a fairly high level of thinking. The marginalised space of the Laundromat (combined with the fact that it was located in New Jersey) make it conducive to the formation of ideas due to its lack of intellectual clutter.
Whilst spending a ridiculous amount of time installing my photographic apparatus within the Laundromat environs, I started to become increasingly concerned with my own image and in particular the clothes I was wearing.
For this reason I started to adopt the use of a suit during installation of the photographic paraphernalia, in order to blend with the surrounding environment thus avoiding suspicion and so gaining entry into people’s trust. The jacket of the suit consequently had a more direct function, doubling as a loading bag that attached to the front of the washing machine, using sewn-in magnetic strips, enabling the loading of high sensitivity black and white film into the drum of the machine during daylight. However one distinct downside of the suit was that during the setting up of Laundromat-Locomotion some of the clientele assumed that I was responsible for the operation of the machines and so I was constantly being distracted by people who did not know which temperature setting to use for a woollen wash or in which part of the soap compartment to place their fabric softener.
Documentary photograph made during the Horse & Rider sequence (the first flash bulb can be seen illuminating the subject as well as horse shit on the floor to the left)
The Importance of a Wetting Agent
The obvious paradox of taking dirty photographs in the clean and highly sterile setting of a Laundromat is perhaps made more understandable by the peculiar, nonsensical names of the washing powders such as Omo, Aerial (Automatic) and Bold (biological) as well as the more explicitly direct “Fairy Liquid”. Signs and symbols which perhaps indicate the presence of some otherwise unexplainable activity. It is a fact well known by the amateur photographer that fairy liquid doubles as an extremely good ‘wetting agent’ when the correct chemistry is not at hand. Water hardness can also create problems both for the efficiency of development and the effectiveness of washing powder. The addition of one or two drops of acetic acid to the film when washing can resolve some of the problems as can the addition of fabric softeners or other powders to help overcome the excessive calcium present in ‘hard’ water.
One element of the chemical process that is virtually identical in both photography and laundry is bleach, whose action on the negative and clothing is virtually identical in that it strives to bleach out anything which is dark or black in order to make it white or transparent. Another element with dual purpose is the addition of an anti-static agent at the end of the cycle, decreasing the amount of static electricity present in both the garment and the negative.
The continued trend for washing powders to try and obtain whiter whites equates to photography’s constant search for better definition and higher quality of image. Higher resolution, sharper definition and better colour saturation versus whiter, cleaner and more sterile clothing. Repetitive t.v. advertisements for soap powder are a good indication of the nation’s obsession with obtaining “a whiter white” or “a new blue white, whiter than anything before”. This obsession for whiter, cleaner clothes and the total obliteration of dirt is really connected directly with the individuals constant need to rid themselves of dirt in the search for absolute perfection.
But although the Laundromat is a place dedicated exclusively to the pursuit of the hygienic, it is nevertheless a place which extracts and consequently harbours dirt. Essentially it is this dirt which pervades the Laundromat premises and perhaps it is this element that leads to the dilemma of the place being simultaneously clean and dirty. A place trapped in the transition of two extreme opposites.
This project was not originally conceived purely as a homage to the work of the pioneering photographer Edweard Muybridge but seemed to arrive at that point by an indirect route. An accidental collision of precise data with circumstance, and a gradual progression of ideas linked to more elaborate experiments with the washing machine and its apparently inherent photographic character. This originally commenced in 1985 with a rudimentary experiment, called Launderette Interior, and utilised a single machine in a public Laundromat in South London, providing the initial, vital evidence of the machines, until then, undiscovered optical capabilities, bringing about a juxtaposition of what can only properly be called, applied photography.
Fundamental to my interest was the re-use of the machine, transforming the ‘blind’ washer to work as an optical device, but always maintaining the associated subject matter, that of clothing.
The idea of the physical mass of clothing inside the machine being replaced by the more ephemeral image of the clothes, projected inside by the action of light reflected from a suited figure walking past the outside, was the primary concept or meaning of the work, and is crucial to any understanding of it.
A theoretical shift, even if only for a short period of time. As soon as the equipment was removed, the machine reverted immediately to it’s original function, leaving no indication as to what had just taken place.
Laundromat-Locomotion concludes my experiments with washing machines.
Steven Pippin ©1998
Detail from Horse & Rider [image no 06] Laundromat Locomotion 1997. Contact print made from the original negative film 24 inches diameter. Bayonne, New Jersey.