The short films, Garden and Under Skies, were produced as outcomes of research into the use of glass, lens and projection technologies in the production, transformation and presentation of sound recordings and stop-motion (pixelated) image sequences. The films are innovative in exploring and extending creative techniques and practices developed in the visual work of filmmakers including Patrick Bokanowski, Margaret Tait and Marie Menken, applying these in cognate areas of sound practice to investigate unconventional creative and material processes, and novel relationships between sounds and images.

The films were selected through open competition for presentations in over 21 international film festivals, conferences, gallery exhibitions and commercial art fairs in Australia, South America, Europe, the USA and UK. Garden, produced through a residency at Culpeper Community Garden, London, used overlaid and re-photographed pairs of 35mm slides to explore the creation of double exposure effects and illusions of movement. The audio, fabricated from soundfield recordings, extends the investigation of these effects into the film’s soundtrack, focusing on duration, flicker and time passing in the image. Supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The Film & Video Workshop, Under Skies is an outcome of related research into applications of glass in the generation and transformation of sounds and images, particularly through audio-visual synthesis, but also in areas including interpretation and depiction.

Michaela Nettell produced the photographic and sequential aspects of the research, using techniques developed with the support of the Culpeper Community Garden and The Film & Video Workshop. The sonic dimensions of the research were developed by Simmons using experimental digital and material processes focusing on the creation and capture of acoustic properties associated with glass, and the decoding/composition of the soundfield recordings through which these were represented. Nettell and Simmons collaboratively developed the editing and post-production processes employed in the films.