Part of an experimental series of works investigating the unintentional or unwanted marks that can emerge during the act of making.

The ‘hair in the gate’ phenomenon

The term ‘hair in the gate’ originated in traditional filmmaking, when films were shot on physical celluloid rather than digital cameras.

The gate is the small rectangular aperture inside a film camera through which light passes to expose the film. During filming, a tiny strand of hair, a speck of dust or a fragment of celluloid could become lodged in or near the gate. Positioned in the path of the light, this debris could appear in the recorded image as a dark, wavy line or blemish, often along the edge of the frame.

In Step Down, the ‘debris’ is intentional. It challenges the expectation of extreme cleanliness in the holographic recording process, drawing attention to spontaneous imperfections and the traces of making that might otherwise be regarded as flaws