On sampling worlds & the soft line between photography & filmmaking.
Happy Sunday.
Here is a ~3-minute meditative visit to Tokyo’s Myogadani neighborhood for your morning coffee. Headphones recommended. :)
For years I’ve been recording the sounds of places I live and visit — from crows to cafés to church bells to subways. I’ve walked the streets — and forests — of Seattle, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Zürich and many more with a camera in one hand and a tiny microphone in the other.
I think of it as being like DJ of cities and spaces: I love to sample the found-world around me, visually and acoustically. I’m a nostalgic romantic who likes to revisit places in memory, and an inventor who likes to remix them into new worlds. I love immersive art and virtual worlds — to lose myself in them and create them for others.
They are love letters, really.
A few years ago during pandemic, I started making ambient soundscapes using my field recordings. I have zero musical experience, but I started playing with Garageband and such just to be able to compose a simple background texture for my recordings.
Sampling the real world.
Maybe you can relate to having a vast backlog of photos or videos that you’ve done nothing with (which is okay!)?
This past week I finally finally created the work above that I’ve been thinking about since I collected the sound samples from the Myogadani neighborhood where I lived early last year. I’ve made many more field recordings before and since, but I am so happy to have at last made a first “short film” using some of them.
Field recordings used in M23 Myogadani: A Photographic Soundscape (in order):
Tokyo Metro – Marounuchi Line stop announcement.
Birds and crows in Koishikawa Botanical Garden.
The automated bathtub in my apartment.
Rainy night in early spring.
Small stream through Sakura-Dori.
Lunchtime at Cafe Totoru.
Family Mart.
The soft line between photography and film (and beyond).
More and more, I’m also recording short “cinematic” video clips with my GR camera wherever I go, using my same custom photography settings so that they seamlessly complement my other work. I’ve made two triptych-style short films with these, with more to come. I’m trying to figure out how to exhibit them.
The work that most excites me these days is this in-between space between still photography and…. everything else to create immersive, exploratory, and even responsive or healing little worlds. (And, yes, this includes photobooks.) A few years ago I created this virtual gallery of my work on Spatial (photo, video, sound) and I still like to visit it.
Last month I started entering film festivals(!) with my little 2-minute film Dream of You — something completely new to me. On the entry forms, there’s always a field for the budget for the film. Um, $0? $50,000? I don’t know. I capture life as I live it.
I am so grateful for the wonderful photography and FilmStack communities on here.
Thank you for reading, watching, and inspiring me every day.
JILL.DESIGN 
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