PoetryFilm Archive: “Floaters in the Eye” by Antoinette Zwirchmayr

The text of Paul Celan’s poem Schliere (Floaters) is printed with a Braille writing machine onto black leader, translating it into Braille writing. The 16mm film is readable to a blind person through physical touch, though projected onto the screen the writing transforms into an unidentifiable code of bright spots.

A blind person can read the 16mm film through physical touch, though can’t see the film projected; a sighted person can see the film projected, though can’t read the visual Braille poem – a paradox particularly appropriate in relation to Celan’s key themes of language and trauma.