Emiko Stock’s contemporary “city symphony” video, “commute” superimposes footage from Bangkok and Hong Kong to foreground the materiality and affect of the city. Shot with a Lomokino camera, “commute” is situated between film and photography, and thus able to parse the rhythms of urban life and movement for the viewer. The double exposure of “commute” further makes palpable historical and present-day linkages between the two cities of Bangkok and Hong Kong.

As Stock writes, “This installation uses loops of 35mm B&W footage shot at the rate of 3-5 frames per second to question urban temporalities. Taking the idea of ”in-between” at its core, the still-moving composition envisions the idea of interstitial space in both form and content. By layering public settings and private introspections, the film makes use of multiple exposures to intertwine crowds going about daily transportation and stasis in Bangkok and Hong Kong. The Lomokino, which shoots at a slower pace than any modern film camera but uses photographic 35mm brings to fruition the texture of the metropolis across time. The device helps to seize the stillness in time of the city (through the repetition of its patterns and sets of familiarities no matter where), and the fast pace of our intimacies and introspections (thoughts running constantly through our minds, flows of exchanges through discussions with close relations or perfect strangers, text messages, phone conversations, anxious social media checking).