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| "Protest"
a video remix performance by screaMachine using the "V.R.A.G."
(video remix artillery gun). The artist controls both the
direction of the beam and the content of the video. As the
projection moves around the room, the focus of activity
moves. By utilizing all surfaces in the area, the artist
redifines the space and the traditional audience viewing
experience. |
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"Protest"
uses a series of animated video clips made available for
instant playback via the MIDI controller switches on the
V.R.A.G. These clips will be mixed live by the artist as
he projects them around the performance space.
The artist shot many hours of footage at the huge anti war
rally in New York City in February 2003. This footage was
then time remapped in an animation program such that it
pauses and zooms onto significant frames every second. If
these frames are 2 seconds apart, then those 2 seconds pass
in 1 second, if they are 1 minute apart, then a minute is
compressed into 1 second, and equally smaller time segments
are expanded to fit the 1 second template. The footage is
then sorted and arranged into clips to be played back from
a video sampler via MIDI. Each clip is combined with an
appropriate audio field recording: protest chants for marchers
and banners, cop sirens and loud hailer commands for police
footage. Once loaded into the sampler, each clip can be
played at any time and in any order, sped up, slowed down,
player forward/backward etc. The artist makes these editing
decisions live, alongside choosing where the projection
beam hits. The chaotic dynamic of the protest, with its
cacophony and immersive, surrounding action is recreated
in the gallery performance space. The animated video clips
appear like still images that can be navigated through,
with strange motion; these images give a further sense of
space and environment as they are mapped onto the walls
of the gallery space.
The use of stark, high-contrast black and white further
enhances the polarity of the imagery: the opposing forces,
the peacemakers versus the riot cops, freedom versus containment,
chants versus commands etc. A similar dichotomy is played
out in the performance iconography; a performer, in military
style clothing, operating a device that mimics an artillery
gun, fills the space with a loud and assertive plea for
peace |
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