The Loud Jacket Man
Long i had stared at the photo - a man posing next to his obviously home made planetarium projector . indeed, VERY homemade,
he was wearing bright tweed
the loud jacket man was he
it was a black and white picture of whirligigs, whatsits, and unidentifiable devices all there for a purpose, even though what it was didnt seem clear. but there was something else about the man that intrigued me ..
he wore tweed - a rather loud version of it in fact. slowly but surely i drifted into obsession with this undated but obviously old picture.
and he wore bright tweed.
the loud jacket man was he
i found myself wanting to recreate the scene . i began building a replica of his impossible projecting device with old planetarium parts i had piled up in my barn ... i kept going until i had what i thought was a reasonable facsimile.of his device. i recreated even the background, what appeared to be almost a silo like dome behind it. the man in the picture was pointing a long slender device up on the dome, so i recreated this as well. but there was one more thing .. i needed his tweed jacket. i trip to a local thrift store did the trick - after shuffling through countless old sport jacket on their musty racks, i finally found one that fit the bill reasonable. it was loud .. it would like about right in the photo recreation i now planned.
the night i actually took the picture i carefully set the scene - i'd have to put my digital camera on manual exposure in the dark, then take my place in my recreated scene next to the reconstructed projector, holding the pointer, then hit a foot switch to hit the slights and do a quick exposure. when all was ready, my foot hit the switch.
something occurred at that instant that i still cannot process. something similar to lightining. there seemed to be a glass partition between me and the world. i could not move, but was frozen in place. i had replaced the man. . i could not get out
and i saw a dark figure leave the room. was he wearing in my clothes ?
and there i hung.
on the wall.
wearing tweed
the loud jacket man was me.
