Single shot documentation (filmed on a cell phone) of an evening ferry ride from Staten Island to Manhattan, Hologram Analogies (a.k.a. Cram Engram) explores concepts of experience, mediation, memory, re-memory, and the emergent temporalities these ideas allow.

Hologram Analogies (a.k.a. Cram Engram) was born out of a desire to venture into and tamper with the spectrum that connects, distances and shapes our understanding of documentary and experimental forms. The video begins under the pretense of pure, observational realism with its presentation of a single, (presumably) unedited long take of the ferry ride to Manhattan. As the shot progresses, the video slowly moves into the realm of the experimental through the implementation of an increasingly noticeable and, eventually, all-consuming audiovisual intervention. Similar to Michael Snow’s Wavelength, the potency of the work can be attributed to the slow unveiling of the intervening force which (in spite of challenging viewer patience) ultimately offers moments of unstable categorical placement, asking viewers not only to interpret the veracity and meaning of the present mediated moment, but all transpired and forthcoming moments as well.

HOLOGRAM ANALOGIES (aka Cram Engram) from Dustin Zemel on Vimeo.