[Workshop] INTRO TO 16MM WORKSHOP

INTRO TO 16MM WORKSHOP
by Lab Laba Laba

Date: Sat, 24 October 2026​
Time: 10am – 5pm (6 hour duration with 1 hour break)​
Location: SAM at TPD, Level 1, The Engine Room
Admission: SGD $50 (Ticketed for programme only; exhibition admission fees apply. Please see full details below)

This hands-on workshop introduces participants to shooting and working with 16mm film using print stock as an affordable and highly experimental alternative to conventional camera negative.

Participants will learn the basics of operating and loading a Bolex camera, metering light, and understanding how light interacts with photographic emulsion. Working collectively with 100ft of film, the group will shoot a short roll before moving into the darkroom to process the material by hand.

The workshop will also introduce alternative processing methods and explore how changes in chemistry, exposure and handling can be used creatively to alter the resulting image. Once processed, participants will learn basic film editing and splicing before working directly with 16mm projectors, experimenting with lenses, filters and other ways of manipulating the projected image.

Over the course of approximately 4–6 hours, participants will experience the full analogue filmmaking process, from loading and shooting, through processing and editing, to the final projection of the film they have made together.

No prior experience with 16mm film or darkroom processing is required.

This programme is presented under the "Rhizomes" strand of YAM AT SAM (28 Aug 2026 – 31 Jan 2027), comprising workshops that introduce participants to various aspects of analogue handmade image-making - across shooting, processing, projection and cameraless techniques.

Workshop Flow:

Introduction to 16mm and print stock

Bolex camera basics

Shooting

Processing

Editing and Projection

Sharing and Conclusion

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 WORKSHOP FACILITATOR

Aditya H. Martodiharjo is an experimental filmmaker from Indonesia who uses celluloid film as his primary artistic medium. Drawing from found-footage archives, his compositions employ techniques of cutting, pasting, and looping. He further manipulates the material through reprinting, drawing directly onto the film, or even burning it as it passes through a film projector. The manipulation of machines—and the way the eye perceives light and darkness—forms a major part of his artistic exploration.

He is also active in Lab Laba Laba, an artist-run film lab based in Jakarta, and works professionally as a film preservationist.

Lab Laba Laba is a Jakarta-based film laboratory initiative comprising filmmakers, visual artists, programmers, archivists, scholars, and film enthusiasts. They extensively work with photochemical material and other physical media to disseminate knowledge about the film production technology and its sociopolitical entanglement. In 2015, Lab Laba Laba kicked off their first major exhibition in the abandoned facility of the State Film Production Company of Indonesia. Lab Laba Laba’s work and program have been presented in Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Berlinale Forum Expanded, Short Film Festival Hamburg, and Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana.

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.