No light, no film. In mainstream cinema productions, and the James Bond film series in particular, lamps sometimes play a dramaturgically key role. They are often knocked down as the trigger for, or as a result of, a fight and frequently they get broken dramatically.

In the four-video-channel-installation fade IN fade OUT they become the main actors at the centre of events. The video recording, which is simultaneously the light source of the room, shows images of four lamps, which back-to-back fade-in and fade-out in real-screen-time. The new arranged sound pieces, which are extracted from the James Bond film series, are in evidence in between the dark light sequences. Again and again, just at the point in a film where lamps are involved in turbulent action scenes – falling over, breaking, imploding, clanking, exploding, hissing, etc. – the audience thrusts into an dramatic sound collage, which are the James Bond film series lamps last breaths. The sound excerpts enfold a time period of 50 film years. At both video levels the lamp becomes a performer. The lamps, which are shown in the video recording, are borrowed from the private collection of lamp-shade-maker Elisabeth Kemeter, who made in 1989 two blue lampshades for the James Bond film The Living Daylights. They were, however not to be seen in the final version of the film and the original designs no longer exist.