+ FILM AS FORM (Kubrick's Colour Space) 2007

This is one of the first creative projects produced in association with the Stanley Kubrick Archive, which opened its doors at the LCC in 2007.

It was exhibited at the Barbican Centre as part of a Kubrick Archive exhibition and screened at the British Film Institute.

It was commissioned in perspex for the Beyond 2001 exhibition at LCC in 2018





The Stanley Kubrick Archive opened at the London College of Communication in 2007, housing a wealth of archival material and critical writing about the work of the Director Stanley Kubrick. This project was one of the first to utilise the archive.


The project uses archival and critical data connected to the film as a creative method to re-form film sequences exploring the Film as Database. The project uses theories put forward by Manovich, Mulvey, Eisenstein, and Vertov.


Before Kubrick directed film he was a photo-journalist. 2001: A Space Odyssey can be described as his first colour film. 2001 still only uses three dominant colours; the black of space, the white of the spaceships and red, which is used to communicate emotion. This limited palette is said to refer back to his time as a black and white photographer - with the red referencing the red of the photographic darkroom.


The scene where the main character of the film, the AI computer HAL, is shutdown by Bowman demonstrates clearly how the colour red is used to express emotion. Theories of the use of colour are used to re-make the film sequence producing a indexical film architecture.


The experiments also develop methods of mapping temporal and spatial sequences developed through research of Galileo, Eisenstein, Tufte and Ettienne Marey.


This series of work was screened at the British Film Institute in 2007 and exhibited at the Barbican Centre in 2008. As part of the Kubrick 2008 season I was flattered to be invited by the archive to introduce a 7.5mm screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Barbican.


Papers about the project were presented at the EVA Conference in London, the New Views 2 Conference (Research: Innovation and New Critical Thinking) in 2008 and posters from the project were exhibited at the Melbourne Museum in Australia between 15th November and 15th February 2009.