Jan Kulka: Archeoscope

Jan Kulka (1985) is an experimental filmmaker from Prague working predominantly with analog technologies. Using the Archeoscope, a special opto-mechanical projecting apparatus he invented and constructed for live film performances, Kulka aims to find radically different ways of perceiving, understanding and working with film material, alongside new approaches to the act of projection.

His custom-made and hand-operated device can project all standard film formats (8, 16, 35, 70mm etc.), but also materials like transparent tapes, bandages, laces, fabrics and bubble wraps. It has four independent light sources and optical systems that make it possible to project four different areas of a film strip at the same time. The only way to truly witness a projection of the Archeoscope is to attend a live screening with the physical presence of the apparatus and its operator, as it is technically impossible to capture and reproduce the experience because of a common camera’s fixed frame rates, something the Archeoscope doesn’t have. 

Kulka’s Archeoscope performances are a sensation along the experimental film festival circuit, including IFF Rotterdam, Alud — Barcelona, Process festival — Riga and Diffraktion — Berlin, among others.

Here, you can read more about the wonders of the Archeoscope.

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Preliminary Exercises / 16mm found footage / 25′

A study of the illusion of movement: how it emerges, modulates and falls apart, and, simultaneously, a study of the musical possibilities of the film shutter. What if it weren’t just regular metric repetition, but overlapping polyrhythmic figures or complex synchronous sequences? And what would that mean to the appearance of the motion?

Prefilm / No film, masks, filters, flicker / 25′

Immersive study of the ever so simple yet so powerful phenomenon of flickering light utilising the unique possibilities of the Archeoscope.

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