February 11, 2010
Lost and Found film: What’s going on when shirtless man gets inked?
Editor’s Note: The UW Audio Visual Services Materials Library has more than 1,200 reels of film from the late 1940s through the early 1970s, documenting life at the University through telecourses, commercial films and original productions. Some of the short films are easily identifiable, but many more remain mysteries. Who shot these films and why? Can you help answer those questions? Faculty and staff can use the comments field at the end of the story to send ideas. Those outside the University can e-mail filmarc@u.washington.edu.
This week’s film, Moire Pattern, may be anything from performance art to a medical test. We just don’t know! Undated and lasting nearly three minutes, it begins with a shirtless man seated and a man in a white lab coat standing by a cloth-covered table. The man in the lab coat rubs a white substance on the other man’s chest, then covers a roller with black ink and applies this over the white substance. We see a close-up of man’s chest, light shining on the ink, which exhibits a moire pattern. Don’t know what a moire pattern is? The dictionary says this: “having a watered or wavy pattern, as certain fabrics, stamps or metal surfaces.”
In the film, the action is repeated several times. What Film Archives Specialist Hannah Palin would like to know is, “What on earth is going on here?” If you can tell her, please do.
A reader was able to tell Palin that last week’s film, Ivy Planting, did indeed feature David Thomson of Thomson Hall fame. But she’d still like to know what the ivy planting ceremony was all about. If you have any information on that, please pass it on.
