PleaseLookAt theScreen from scratch.utopia on Vimeo.
In the mid-nineties I was making video about video. With the accelerated proliferation of video cameras it seemed to me that we would from now on, and to ever increasing degrees, exist alongside our video doubles. Reflections, simulacra these were renditions of ourselves that we were about to get to know very well -- to witness on a daily basis. But how much did we really know about the technology that was producing them? What would our reactions to their ever increasing presence be?
Shot on SVHS in the loft studio of Tower Hamlets Community College, Jubilee Street, London -
participants are interviewed whilst confronted with a monitor,
feeding back a live image of themselves.
I remember being
unhappy with the unease the experiment seemed to create in the
participants, none of whom I'd known before (or knew after) but who had all
enthusiastically volunteered to appear in the piece.
I'd hoped they would
elaborate and expand on their responses and attempt to
elucidate freely on what it felt like to be reflected by and embodied within
electronic media. At the time it seemed that despite my best efforts,
my attempts to elicit relaxed responses had failed, leaving the participants
uncomfortable and unwilling to open up.
It's hard to imagine
now that appearing on a TV screen was still a relatively novel
experience for most, just twenty five years ago.
I was interested in exploring my belief at that time, that consumers and users of video technology were already alienated from it and, perhaps rather cynically, my suspicion that these technologies were ultimately capable of alienating us from each other.
Oddly, the anxiety that seems to underpin the participant's reactions now seems the most interesting facet of the piece. In an era when we truly co-exist and interact with our video doubles on a daily basis, it is of interest to see that the initial novelty of this relationship, in this instance anyway, appears to quickly give way to a sense of trepidation, distrust and anxiety.
I was interested in exploring my belief at that time, that consumers and users of video technology were already alienated from it and, perhaps rather cynically, my suspicion that these technologies were ultimately capable of alienating us from each other.
Oddly, the anxiety that seems to underpin the participant's reactions now seems the most interesting facet of the piece. In an era when we truly co-exist and interact with our video doubles on a daily basis, it is of interest to see that the initial novelty of this relationship, in this instance anyway, appears to quickly give way to a sense of trepidation, distrust and anxiety.
