Interviewer: Thonny Vargas
Interviewee: Jamie Benson
T: Your “Teleport Sound” helps imply the unreal quality of this work. How did you come to add it?
J: Well initially, I wanted a cheeky, surreal quality to the discovery of the time-travel object, perhaps as a juxtaposition to the danger I also was interested in implementing. Glitchy video game noises seemed like a way to emphasis this tone. Many of the sounds I use in the first incarnation of the thing were derived from anachronistic video game noises. They’re accessible and iconic, as most of us have had some experience with them, but they’re exotic enough to subvert what is normally considered reality.
T: When I watch your video, I can think of it in context to the show “Bernard’s Watch” because of the lighthearted time-travel aspect to it. Any inspirations for making the work?
J: I’ve always been interested in time-travel adventures, like Terry Gilliam’s “Time-Bandits.” I also found the low-rent, brain-teasing film “Primer” a source of inspiration, to the point that I watched it again after deciding on this topic. Partly due to a lack of resources, I was curious how to even express the idea of time-travel in a really minimal, wordless way.
T: I would describe the clip sequences as having a very quick tempo. How does your use of sound contribute to that?
J: The most definitive sound used here is classified as a video game gun shot. It’s electronic, glitchy even, and very short. I think it really heightens the edits where I pop out of a current frame or scene. When I added a lush, triumphant score to the moments after first realizing that I had time traveled, it seemed to fill the experience with added humor and awe. Because of the time it took to experience that, the same shots seemed to go by faster.
T: I’m particularly interested in how you used the camera to show your reflection in the tambourine. How did you do this?
J: I noticed pretty quickly that I had to be very conscious with how the tambourine was angled, because it would reflect the camera I was shooting it with. I thought it would be a waste if I didn’t find the pro to that con. I had the twistable preview built into the camera facing me, so that I could figure out what angle the tambourine needed to be at to show my reaction to the discovery of time travel. I thought it would be cool to show my reaction to the object within the object.