In James Fotopoulos and Laura Parnes’ “Ten Ways of Doing Time” (2012), which recently premiered at NY MOMA PS1, prison drama and science fiction motifs are fused to create an experimental narrative where scientists research on prisoners attempting to create psychotic warriors for the army. This sprawling chapter-based project, both irreverent and outrageous, begins with a formally based structure and then explodes into controlled states of anarchy.
Central to the experiment is a box resembling a cell for solitary confinement. To quote the film’s central scientist: “The box becomes a place of focused consciousness. A portal into our communal negative energy. Together we can create the perfect warrior. One without boundaries that catapults our democratic society forward without being encumbered by its principals.” As the experiment spins out of control, the prisoner becomes a portal embodying numerous criminal personalities.
Prison life unfolds through a series of vignettes where the prisoners are forced to submit to the rules of life in captivity. Often these rules are immediately contradicted. Central characters such as the prisoner, guard, female scientist and witness are performed by actors playing multiple roles. This device is used in both Fotopoulos and Parnes’ past work and is employed to emphasize the iconic nature of the characters while exploring issues of gender and authorship.
The highly stylized dialogue shifts back and forth from prison genre influenced slang to that of a psychotic romance novel. Deploying visual and verbal quotations ranging from The Stanford Prison Experiment (1971), Titicut Follies (1967), Rousseau, Ghostbusters (1984) and soft-core porn – Ten Ways of Doing Time presents a highly charged world of psychosexual drama and sublimated violence.
Both artists will be in attendance for a Q&A following the film.
Doors @ 6:30pm, Film @7pm
Curated by Sight Unseen and co-sponsored by MICA’s Undergraduate Department of Video & Film Arts and the Graduate Department of Photographic & Electronic Media.
For more information about Sight Unseen, Laura Parnes, & James Fotopolous, please visit http://www.sightunseenbaltimore.com/
