Interactive Sound Player
Using Pure Data and infrared sharp sensors, the soundtrack was created to be unpredictable, yet thematically connected to the film sequences.
Film screenings are also triggered by the sensors.
Film Triptych
This work, which extends the artist’s interest in film editing, began as an experiment to mix a stylistic edit (left screening) with a simple narrative (right screening).
Its development considered the effect of interaction on the final edit, and ultimately on the installation.
Code art was introduced (centre screening) to balance the work.
It tries to bend film & photography rules for dramatic effect:
- avoids Black & White for memory (uses eyes / finger* as reflective devices – left screening)
- sequences do not necessarily ‘observe the line’: before, during, & after shots of fast train; bird’s eye view composited over worm’s eye view of same fish (right screening)
- retains red-eye (left screening)
- stylistic edit prefers snatches of motion to a succession of still images (left screening)
(also uses ‘stop-frame’ style with offset composite images to suggest motion blur)
- viewer reads type (driven by mathematical code) from the bottom or centre of the screen (left screening)
- wave formation simulates horizontal motion, although part-framed with border
(central screening) - narrative plot so simple it resembles / requires a second stylistic edit (plot synopsis: one return journey)
- uses chroma key at times without background (chroma green turns to black)
- asserts that iMovie transitions can be used in an art film
It exploits unexpected ‘accidental’ footage:
- the ‘blink’ sequences, intended as photographs, had the video setting on
- *’camera-through-finger’ on credits was accidental
- unplanned sound on video recordings used for interactive sound player
Left Screening: ‘ricordo’
- Prelude prompting reflection is followed by selective memoirs
- Acrylic models connote childhood / toys
- Relocation from the Spey Valley to the capital is documented for its life changes, e.g. cross-culture marriage, children and a career in digital technologies (keyboard / puffin sequence)
- Relaxation has become a grounding practice in the metropolis; hence the reference to picnics
Centre Screening: ‘astrazione’
- Adapting mathematical formulae in Processing, these abstractions try to show how the artist feels about adjacent visual themes, e.g. poems about friends, the bendy-bus 12, an intercity train and Camberwell traffic.
- Text animations were dramatically altered via changing trigonometric values in the source code to logarithms.
Right Screening: ‘tratti’
- Diasporic rail trips from the capital to Morayshire, Inverness-shire and Ross-shire are referenced by an acrylic freight model (inspired by a rail bridge above River Findhorn, near the A9).
- The fish theme refers to picnics at Loch Ness, holidays by the Caithness / Sutherland Atlantic coastline, and day trips by the North Sea.
Music
Gregorio Allegri, Miserere Mei Deus, circa 1635
REM, Losing My Religion, 1991 (adapted and overlaid)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Rex Tremendae, 1791
