Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Lacunae is a short experimental documentary examining translation as a process of selection and loss. Using digital video noise, a poem translated across multiple languages and erasure poetry, the film highlights how meaning is shaped by what is retained and what is discarded. Framed through an experiential approach, it considers the role of “noise” as both interference and information, suggesting that defining noise is itself a way of measuring detail. Incorporating mathematical ideas through equations of translation, the film focuses on what disappears and what emerges when information is transformed.
Lukas Devos, Flatiron Research Software Fellow, Center for Computational Quantum Physics, Flatiron Institute, Simons Foundation
Danya Abt, Filmmaker
This collaboration was supported by the Simons Foundation's Science, Society & Culture division as part of its Research Engagement program. For more information about the program: simonsfoundation.org/science-society-culture
Lacunae is a short experimental documentary examining translation as a process of selection and loss. Using digital video noise, a poem translated across multiple languages and erasure poetry, the film highlights how meaning is shaped by what is retained and what is discarded. Framed through an experiential approach, it considers the role of “noise” as both interference and information, suggesting that defining noise is itself a way of measuring detail. Incorporating mathematical ideas through equations of translation, the film focuses on what disappears and what emerges when information is transformed.
Lukas Devos, Flatiron Research Software Fellow, Center for Computational Quantum Physics, Flatiron Institute, Simons Foundation
Danya Abt, Filmmaker
This collaboration was supported by the Simons Foundation's Science, Society & Culture division as part of its Research Engagement program. For more information about the program: simonsfoundation.org/science-society-culture
