Launderama 16mm 9 minutes Black & white film on continuous loop

Launderama 16mm film

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. These initial films had no conceptual or interlectual purpose originally yet they led toward a more refined idea.

After the film had been completed ‘Launderama’ was unloaded from the Bolex 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 the 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) 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 and out. However the film was quite uninteresting to watch, even boring.

London 1989