7 (etcetera. )
The number 7 has many symbolic associations in religion, mythology and philosophy. The seven classical planets resulted in seven being the number of days in a week.¹ Many things consist of seven parts, like there are seven continents, seven colours of the rainbow, seven letters in the roman numeral system, seven serves as base for Western music scales, etcetera. In mathematics, seven is the fourth prime number. Seven is also the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. At last, seven seems to be a good number for puzzle making or encryption because of its wide range of associations. And seven episodes in a mini video-series is perfect for releasing one episode on each day of the week, so perfect there was not really another option to choose from but this obvious one.²

Home filming
We filmed everything at home so I hope that by acting as my own streaming platform this mini video-series flies from one home to another.

Cast
The Casting, Directing, Doping, is done by Nefo, Thomas and Nina. Quite simultaneously, taking on all roles in classical filmmaking. This erased the whole backstage-frontstage line, resulting into informal filmmaking³.

Camera
Subtle sounds of the lens focusing bzzz zz z are a constant in the clips. It’s nice how this characterises the camera and kind of animates it. The camera becomes one of the main characters in the videos, where we, Thomas Nina and Nefo move around on changing distances (which can be heard through the volume of our voices). The buzzzz zzzhhzchzzhz sounds of the lens reveal the camera’s searching towards a clear image. In episode 5 “Communication”, this is even more clear when most of the episode’s timeline is a big blurred image slowly put into focus. On the background one can hear our communication and towards each other and sometimes a picture/single frame is presented of what we were doing as a kind of puzzle piece that peaks into the front/back stage.

SET!
A theatre of the home! You can break a leg everywhere and anywhere. Believe in the things you find in your room and take them seriously. With the right imagination and intention anything can fulfill a desired purpose, especially through the limited eye of a camera. Curating what one sees and does not see, the limitation of perception of space, can let imagination run wild. Maybe a bit of a cringe reference, but think of youtube videos and pictures of liminal space maybe? Also what is so beautiful about arttttt.... That in so many ways you can show how you (want to) perceive reality.

A quick change of room to theatre happened in Nina's room, to create the right playing field for attributes to become props, and ideas to become games. A lamp becomes something magical, functionalities beyond imagining. The light it gives to a scene, telling and not telling. Bouncing around in a smelly dress.

Home screening
A preview screening to a few friends was done in Nina's bedroom. Thank you Iris, Thieu, Mauro, Job and Cemre for watching and discussing it with me! Now HeartHacker consisting of 7 small episodes will be posted to an online website, 1 every day, during one full week. So you can view in your bedroom as well!

1. Carl B. Boyer, A History of Mathematics (1968) p.52, 2nd edn. Informal filmmaking seems like a good term to describe this happening.
2. When such an obvious solution is in front of you, it doesn’t give the need to think about it for long. It feels obvious episodes now have to be released on each day during one full week.
3. Informal filmmaking seems like a good term to describe this happening.