Wien 17, Schumanngasse

Synopsis

"A car drives through Schumann street from its beginning to its end and is filmed in such a way that the beginning of the film is exposed exactly at the moment the car starts at the beginning of Schumann street, until at the farthest end of Schumann street the camera is just able to take in the street sign. The drive was filmed in one take, end and beginning of the film being identical with the end and the beginning of the street. A regular roll of 16mm film has a length of only 30m, so if Scheugl wants to film Schumann street in one take from beginning to end, he may use only 2 and 3/4 of a minute, because these 2 and 3/4 of a minute are the equivalent of the 30 m at a projection speed of 24 frames per second. Scheugl is thus forced to consider the time of the film take and to regulate the speed of the car.

The length of the street and the length of the filmstrip become identical by an apparent equation: space becomes time, space distance becomes time distance/duration. The words 'the duration of the film is identical with the duration of the drive through Schumann street, but the length of the street is not identical with the length of the film strip' overlook, that time and space are reflective, and misunderstand what is demonstrated in Wien 17, Schuhmanngasse, the relativity of the reality of experience. Our sensual organs provide a daily film, whose rules may be made conscious by this film. We will never know, how long this street really is, since rules and structures of reality are only gaugable by the rules and structures of our image forming calculations, thereby never examinable." – Peter Weibel