falling apart to reveal itself

accidental tape glitches

knocking the camera whilst filming

being interrupted by security

and the result of filming in the studio before a group crit.

reflection vs reflexivity

Thoughts post reading Rosalind Krauss’s ‘Video: the Aesthetics of Narcissium’ in which she looks at the inherent narcissistic nature of the video-medium.

we could consider the notion of a medium

- as apparatus, the simultaneous reception and projection of an image.

or - as communication, the mediumistic experience of the human receiver (and sender) of communications arising from an invisible source. ‘The human psyche as a conduit.’

Most video art has used the human body as its central instrument, either the body of the artist-practitioner or in the case of video installations the responding viewer. As video has the capability to record and transmit at the same time, to produce instant feedback, the subject (in my case myself) can be centered between the two apparatuses; the camera and the monitor, re-projecting the image with the immediacy of a mirror.

This closed circuit feedback creates a situation of spatial closure, prompting a condition of self reflection, as I respond to a continually renewed image of myself. This ‘live-ness’ supplants anything prior to it, that is the original action I was doing rather ‘the performer becomes committed to the perpetuation of their own self reflection. There becomes an echo-effect of self-reflection, in a sense a collapsed present’.

‘Reflection in the case of mirroring is a move towards an external symmetry whileReflexiveness, a strategy to achieve a radical asymmetry from within’

In a mirror reflection, although the subject is literally separate from their reflected image, it could be considered a movement towards fusion. The agency of reflection is a mode of appropriation, illusionistically erasing the difference between subject and object.

‘facing mirrors on opposite walls squeeze out the real space between them.’

screen recording of studio footage

re-enacting myself

attempting to perform myself from memory. attempting to align myself with my projected self which is being take for present but is really a (re)presented past event. same too with myself, my real self. my real self is being taken for a present moment and indeed my physical self is present but my consciousness is in yesterday, as I attempt to re-enact my previous actions and words. the viewer consciousness is in the present watching myself and my projected former self. my real self re-enacting my former real, now projected self. lapsing in and out of synchrony and proximity. a reflection. a shadow. a feedback.

Guy Sherwin - man with mirror

I’ve been researching Teaching & Learning Cinema's re-enactment of this piece, but feel its worth posting this footage I came across because frankly I’ve been getting far too excited about it. The way it synchs between present Sherwin and former Sherwin works so well it begins to exceed its own construction.

aligning the apparatus to the image

a sketch of an idea i've been working on for a film to be projected at the Perth, Wellington st Bus Station, where I drag the data projector, and my laptop which it is plugged into around the space, then drag the camera to try and re-align it with the image. The projected image is a photo of the site where it will be projected onto. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the shoddy camera work but I feel there is something in the struggle of it all. I've picked up the speed to harp up my actions, its pretty grueling to watch me dragging the projector in real time.

projection & re-enactment

I’ve begun to use these two terms in narrowing down my project, hopefully grounding it a little.

projection as a medium and re-enactment as a mediation or process

I have been working with recording myself in the studio, projecting back onto the studio and attempting to re-enact myself, this time on a life-size scale. Rather than attempting to synch or align myself in proximity, like a shadow, I have been facing myself, as if it was a mirror. I have been positioning viewers on the side of the projection, so they are watching me awkwardly mimicking my image, rather then watching the projection in conventional projector – screen format.

However I find people still tend to focus on my projected self, rather than the live me, acting out the pre-recorded me. People have commented its easier to look at the projection than at myself, even when I’m directly responding to them. I’m interested in continuing to layer footage, hopefully further conflating what is pre-recorded and what is live, what is the original action and what is a re-enactment.

reality as projection

self referential paradoxes

Is it impossible to be subject and object at once. Can one act upon oneself in the way we can act upon other objects. We can come close to seeing and understanding ourselves objectively, with projected footage, photography and mirroring but we remain trapped inside our subjective selves. Is it possible through layering of self, to overcome this. To be subject and object at once?

filming myself skimming over footage of myself editing footage (of myself)

attempting to destabilise and realign myself