tx-transform is a film technique that transposes the time axis (t) and the space axes (x) with one another. This technology is a ,new way to map time and space on a video. Tx turns the familiar perception of time and space upside down.

Technique
tx-transform is an internationally recognized film technique that transposes the time axis (t) and one of the space axes (x or y) with one another. Normally, each individual frame of film depicts the entire space, but only a moment in time (1/24 second). With tx-transformed films, it is just the opposite : each frame shows the entire time, but only a tiny portion of space - if one cuts alongside the horizontal space axis, the left portion of the picture turns into the « the before », the right one into « the after »

Martin Reinhart has been working since 1992 on the development of a process that, so to speak, inverts the system of filmic order and makes it legible transversely to the axis of time. With tx-transform, sequences can be produced in which filmic representation is no longer fixed exclusively through the spatial presence of an object ; rather, its form depends upon a complex interplay of relative motions. Accordingly, an object on film is no longer defined as the likeness of a concrete form of existence, but rather as a condition over time.

Motion in film
If an object at rest is filmed, it basically does not matter whether the film is running in reverse or extended mode, or if a cut has been made, either during shooting or playback ; the result will always remain the same. Motion in film is only recorded motion relative to the division of the film into frames. In this case, « relatively static » means that the relation between the object being filmed and the lens remains unchanged, that a fixed axis exists between the signal and the recording of it. Accordingly, it can be said that motion within the borders of a frame can be perceived only if there is motion either of the object in relation to the camera or of the camera in relation to the object - in short, if there is relative motion.

Precisely in this case of film, it can be simply illustrated that one further motion is necessary in order to create the illusion of movement : the film has to run through the projector. The motion of the film itself allows for only one direction : from the first to the last frame of a reel. This informational structure along a temporal vector can also be conceptualized as a stack of images, such as flip-book showing sequential pictures which, when rapidly riffled with the tip of the thumb, produce the illusion of motion due to the quick succession of individual layers of time. Like a reel of film, this toy contains the totality of all spatial aspects of motion, and can be understood as an « information block ». Normally, this block is riffled from front to back along the time axis to create the illusion of filmic motion.

Motion in tx-transformations
tx-transform is another sort of cut through this « information block », but along the space axis instead of the time axis. Upon initial consideration, it may seem highly improbable that these « space cuts » could lead to discernible images, to say nothing of perceptible sequences of motion. But that is by no means the case. The consequence of these « space cuts » through the « information block » is a series of astounding visual effects : houses start to move, heads grow out of themselves, moving trains become shorter and shorter with increasing speed, and much more.

In contrast to conventional films, the specification of the motion of the camera and/or the object takes on substantial importance in tx-transformations. In order to be able to use material captured on film for the production of tx-transformations, a number of different parameters must be precisely conformed to and a variety of criteria with respect to the relative motion of the camera and the object must be fulfilled, whereby the standard procedure of omitting an unsuitable segment (cutting it out) is impossible since a single missing image in the raw footage would have consequences for the effect of the entire sequence. Nevertheless, the result of a tx-transformation can appear to be completely abstract or completely realistic, depending on the type of shot being made.

Consequence
This is also the demonstration of the accuracy of Heisenberg Principle : the uncertainty principle. « For instance, in 1927, Werner Heisenberg stated that the more precisely the position of some particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be known, and vice versa.[1] The formal inequality relating the standard deviation of position σx and the standard deviation of momentum σp was derived by Earle Hesse Kennard later that year and by Hermann Weyl in 1928 : » More information on wikipedia

Radical attack on the cinematic order of images
« By movement in space, the objects of a set change their respective positions. But, through relations, the whole is transformed or changes qualitatively. We can say of duration itself or of time, that it is the whole of the relations. »
(Gilles Deleuze, « The Movement-Image »)

Film involves the relationship between time and space and can be understood as a linear system of order which assigns a certain spatial or visual configuration to a certain point in time. In everyday life, time is normally understood as a linear dimension of an unequivocal quantity. According to our idea, this view of reality corresponds to the progression of time in film. A strip of film has a beginning and an end ; the direction is determined by the direction in which it runs through the projector, and the relative duration of the projected events can be calculated on the basis of the length of the film material and the speed at which it moves through the projector. What we perceive as time is for the film a spatial dimension which expands in a certain direction.

With tx-transform, objects depicted in a film are no longer defined as images of something that exists concretely ; they become conditions in time. The digital realization of this technique in no way influences film’s special character as a fundamental model of order and perception.

Film’s organic physical, physiological chemical constants make it a historically and technically comprehensible medium, and its technological basis has not changed in decades. Part of Martin Reinhart’s work consists of questioning established norms, tracing them to their origins, and manipulating them in new ways. In doing so, the goal is not solely an archeology of the obsessed inventors and artists whose developments and innovations have lost their significance and are now forgotten, as this effort also represents a search for and identification of visual phenomena which stimulate our perception as an elastic and alterable matrix, thereby providing a glimpse of the incredible potential available beyond standard representational technique

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