[Workshop] 16mm direct animation and projection

16mm direct animation and projection

By Lynn Loo

Date: Sat, 7 November 2026​
Time: 2pm - 6pm
Location: SAM, Level 3, ex-Situ
Admission: SGD $50 (Ticketed for programme only; exhibition admission fees apply. Please see full details below)

This hands-on workshop explores the mechanical poetry of moving images, inviting you to get up close with the materials, tools and machines that bring them to life.

Working directly with 16mm celluloid, we’ll explore the possibilities of making films without a camera. Using the film itself as a surface for experimentation, you’ll work with a range of techniques, from making marks and removing emulsion to reworking found footage. Through these processes, images can be altered, interrupted and transformed, revealing new ways of thinking about what film can be.

We’ll then turn our attention to the projection. Designed to smooth out motion, a film projector transforms a succession of still images into a continuous flow. It is an explosive instrument that interrupts darkness with successive bursts of light, operating through rhythm, flicker and repetition.

What happens when we begin to work with the projector rather than simply switching it on to show our film? We’ll explore how these machines can become active players in the creative process, shaping images, rhythms and the spaces they inhabit. You’ll learn how to splice together strips of film and lace them into a projector, before experimenting with two or more projectors to layer, overlap and transform images across a screen or exhibition space.

No previous experience is needed — just curiosity and a willingness to experiment, play and explore the material, physical and spatial possibilities of moving image.

Workshop Flow:
Introduction to experimental cameraless filmmaking
Working with leader and found footage
Splicing 16mm film
Lacing 16mm film on a projector
Expanded cinema techniques and possibilities

GENERAL PROGRAMME INFORMATION

Administration Details:
•Workshop Format: This is a seated programme.
•Arrival Time: Please arrive at least 10 minutes before the workshop starts.

Admission & Exhibition Entry:
•This workshop is ticketed at $50 per person and does not include exhibition admission.
•Please refer to the exhibition admission rates on our website or purchase tickets directly at our Visitor Counter on Level 1.

Cancellations & Refunds:
•If you are unable to attend and need to cancel your ticket, please notify us via Peatix message or email at [email protected] at least 48 hours before the programme begins.

•Please note that refunds cannot be issued for no-shows or cancellations made less than 48 hours before the programme commences.

•While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of our programme information, changes are sometimes unavoidable. The Singapore Art Museum reserves the right to modify programmes without prior notice. For the latest updates, please visit www.singaporeartmuseum.sg or follow us on Instagram (@singaporeartmuseum).

Getting Here:
•By MRT: Alight at Cantonment MRT Station and take Exit 1. SAM is just a short walk from the station.

•By Bus: Hop onto any of the buses: 10, 30, 57, 80, 97, 97e, 100, 131, 145 and alight at bus stop no. 14061 (Opp Former Railway Station) along Keppel Road.

Accessibility:
Attendees with accessibility needs can reach us via the "Contact Organiser" function or email us at [email protected].

Photography, Audio and Video Recording:
Please note that there may be photography and/or video recording (audio and/or video) at the programme. By attending, you consent to your photograph and/or recording (video/audio) being used for future communications both online and offline by Singapore Art Museum for archival, museum-related publicity, and publications only.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Originally trained as a music teacher, Lynn Loo made her first film in 1997 before entering the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to study filmmaking. During this period, her films explored the dynamism of moving images and sound, forming a kind of narrative without words. In 2004, she moved to the UK, where she immersed herself in materialist and structural approaches to cinema, producing expanded cinema works and occasionally collaborating with UK filmmaker Guy Sherwin.

Lynn explores visual and sonic connections between everyday experience and structural ideas through close observations. Working across 16mm film and video, her practice can broadly be divided into process-based and impressionistic works, presented as single-channel films, installations, and live multiple-projection performances.

Her films have been shown at international film, sound, and arts festivals, as well as in institutions and galleries. She has also curated artist film programmes, including the EXiS Film & Video Festival in 2010.Alongside her artistic practice, Lynn has led film workshops in various cities and is an occasional lecturer at Middlesex University. She also works as a film conservator and collaborated with Dr. Louise Curham on a set of instructions for the re-enactment and distribution of her expanded cinema work Autumn Fog.

ABOUT YAM AT SAM

YAM AT SAM is a programming collaboration between the Singapore Art Museum and artists Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen of the artist-run analogue film lab Film Nerve. The collective will present a series of live performances, hands-on workshops, and regional screenings focused on analogue photochemical experimentation and expanded cinema.

The project takes the taro (yam) plant as a central thematic motif, drawing parallels between the physical medium of analogue film and plant growth—both being slow, organic processes shaped by light, time, and collective labour. Embracing an incubation model, the series emphasizes open experimentation, shared artistic labour, and community-constructed knowledge.

YAM AT SAM is conceptualised with three strands: Clusters, Rhizomes and Orh Nee Screening Nights.

Clusters presents expanded cinema performances by local and regional artists that extend the language of moving images beyond fixed screens and traditional boundaries of cinema, using projection, performance, sound and physical space. This strand draws from the roots of live analogue film projection, steeped in DIY ethos and grassroots initiatives.

Rhizhomes presents workshops that introduce handmade analogue filmmaking and techniques, in collaboration with guests from regional artist-run film labs and collectives. With this strand, knowledge-sharing and community-building are conceptualized with the horizontality and multiplicity of rhizomatic structures, where learning is open and non-hierarchical.

Orh Nee Screening Nights presents special screening programmes of films and moving image works, largely never shown in Singapore before, made with analogue film and photochemical processes. The programmes include works by contemporary artists and newly restored prints. This strand is conceptualized around the celebratory dish Orh Nee, as a celebration and communing around moving image works hand-made through the labour and care of working with film material.