Sam Sentivan Wants to Give Projectors Agency
Interview by Lily Nobel
Did any of you guys see the movie projected really large on the side of Mudd a few weeks ago (Thurs. Sept. 4)? The film was Space is the Place (1974), an Afrofuturist sci-fi concert film with elements of blaxploitation and 60s B-movie filmmaking built around the vision of the Sun Ra Arkestra. I tracked down the person who put it up there — Sam Sentivan, 1st year TIMARA guy (his buddy Finn Curran helped too, but was not part of the interview) and we sat down for a conversation.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
L: So why that movie?
S: That movie me and Finn very personally connect with, because I’m from Philadelphia, and the Sun Ra Arkestra now resides in Germantown, so I’ve got to experience them live a good 5-ish times. In a performance, they really take you somewhere. I think that stuck with me, how that movie captured a piece of the energy [the Arkestra] brings to a live space. I love the way it was produced, in that they have so many big ideas, and sort of a B-movie energy, but that doesn’t take away any of its grandeur or ideas. The way it’s executed feels realer than a lot of high-budget movies. There’s less masking of some pretty raw concepts when they’re executed in a less choreographed way. It feels like you’re there. And it’s a film someone can step into and step out of and come away with something. It’s not that there’s no narrative, but it feels like they serve you some ideas, ruminate on it with some interstitial free jazz, and then it’s over.
L: I saw like 30 people sitting there at 11 at night. A lot of them were really engaged, like the film really got them going. Is that what you wanted for the audience?
I went into it with no preconceived notion of who the audience would be. But I liked working in a public space like that, because as the screening progressed people would come upon it by accident and they would stop. Then they wouldn’t interact with the whole thing, but with [part] of it, then move on. It felt cool that as the movie wasn’t static, the audience wasn’t static. I got what I wanted — I had a small group of friends there who I convinced to help me carry things. They enjoyed it for different reasons than other people might’ve enjoyed it; they knew me, they knew Finn, who was my partner in getting things to happen.
L: Yeah, who doesn’t like being in on something.
S: I find that so interesting about a piece of art someone can be a part of. People really like being in on things, especially if it’s an experience you can go have, and keep with you in a more physical way. Most art you interact with now, it’s normally a picture on your phone or a video. I think the idea of going to something, going to a piece of art, is much more enticing, especially for young people. Even in Oberlin, where it’s an immensely creative place, art is normally confined to the internet. It becomes more exciting when you’re able to translate that into a physical space. People are a little deprived of that.
L: So you forced the movie into a physical space. That’s cool. Putting it in a different context kind of reminds me of a readymade [artistically modified everyday objects], but instead, the thing is already a complete piece of art. And like a lot of readymades, the transposed object becomes more absurd in its new context. And with this it kinda compounds – a really unique movie, and also, like you said, with a B-movie vibe, being placed on the side of Mudd, with people sitting in the mulch and grass on the edge of Wilder Bowl to watch. Do you think that could actually take away from the original film?
I think I’d have to think about what it might take away, but it does add something interesting in that it’s a movie that can be enjoyed — because it is, I feel, an absurd movie, especially when you apply it to an absurd scenario. And with certain permission structures, it’s become that inhabiting a physical space feels a bit rebellious, even when you’re not breaking any rules. A lot of people have become less equipped to take art into the world now, because it’s not a necessity anymore. So it almost feels like you’re in on something that’s not not allowed, but it’s out of the ordinary.
L: So the projecting is really central here, and you’ve done projection mapping [projecting video onto 3d objects] since you got to Oberlin. Why the projector?
This is interesting. Projectors normally exist in public spaces as conduits for things that exist in other pieces of technology, but I’m giving them agency in their expression. They’re powerful tools — the ability to cast an image, or an idea, onto preexisting structures, to re-contextualize preexisting structures is interesting. You physically cast life into [a lived-in space]. You take the concept and apply it to the setting. So it’s — you’ve gotta take [art] into the world with you, and then it’s interpreted by however light reflects on stuff.
