Page 33 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 3 #1

ANDY WALCOTT 33

N THE MID 1970s HARRIS BROUGHT HIS Harris was a pioneer in altering the timescales
newly-finished film, Organism, to screen in his films to produce vivid emotional respons-
I at the West Nyack Art Center, just north es. “Film can capture a sense of scope, size, and
of New York City. This event breathtakingly complexity […] to see things from many differ-
pushed my artistic horizon far away from its ent angles and quick juxtaposition in time and
provincial moorings. Harris was in his late space can give us an understanding of some-
forties at the time; a rakishly handsome man thing complex.”
with a mane of hair that he pushed back while
he spoke. He possessed a quiet and humble Harris was modest to use the term “under-
demeanor that was infused with a piercing standing,” for his work profoundly engages the
intelligence.

Spun on a 16mm pro-
jector, Organism was
the culmination of a
multi-year project that
captured the throbbing
and pulsing life of New
York City.

The film is an extended
metaphor that the city
itself is a living organ-
ism with complex sur-
vival systems similar to
our own human bod-
ies. Using microscopic
cellular life, medical
narration, a jittery and
sonorous underscore,
and time-lapse scenes
of New York City, Harris wove a brilliantly con- viewer in powerful emotional connections with
ceived, seventeen-minute lyrical filmic tapestry. the subjects in his films.

NE FUNDAMENTAL NYGHTFALCON For Organism, Harris secured a vantage point
creative proposition, developed by Fal- in the Empire State building for his time-lapse
O con from the views of Nietzsche, reminds cameras with the intention of stationing them
us that objects exist in space and time. Space there for several years. Since there was little
is their relationship to each other, and time is time-lapse technology available in the 1960s
their relationship to the viewer. Our humanity and 1970s, he designed and built his own. Se-
is distinguished by our ability to invest emotion lecting a film camera from the 1920s for fea-
in objects and sustain that emotion over time. tures of its mechanical transport that allowed

nyghtvision magazine volume 3, number 1, WINTER 2013