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| "Protest"
a screaMachine 2004 proposal for: |
8th
Annual D.U.M.B.O. |
Art
Under the Bridge Festival |
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| "Protest" is
a work with two interacting elements. The first element
is a group of three video projections
on buildings, depicting crowds protesting the Iraqi war
in New York City. They are accompanied by looped protest
chants. The second element features a car roving the area,
projecting images from the same protest rallies, but this
time concentrating on the police interactions with the
crowd. Sounds from police houdhailers, sirens etc. also
emanate from the car. The three projections are fixed and
continue uninterrupted until the roving car drives by and
blasts the images of the police over the existing images
and upsets the chanting with its noise. The installation
component will continue into the night. The Drive-By component
will happen sporadically in that time period. |
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| Video
projection component: three projectors illuminate the
three open walls of buildings on the corner of Jay
Street and Water Street. Each projects similar, but not
identical, video sequences depicting protestors rallying
against the war in Iraq. The montage of semi-animated images
in high-contrast black & white throw emphasis on the
graphical nature of the protest signage and to the ebb
and flow of the protestors accompanied by their chants |
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| "V.R.A.G." (video
remix artillery gun)., a device created by the artist,
combines a data projector, a custom MIDI controller and
a swivel mount. When connected to a computer, the artist
can control the direction of the projection beam and the
video content by "playing" the video clips like
a MIDI musician plays a synthesizer. Video and audio are
output from this system. |
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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. (inside the roving car). These
clips will be mixed live by the artist as he projects them
around the area. Similar clips make up the projections
in the installation.
The artist shot many hours of footage at the various anti
war rallies in New York City from February 2003 to the
Republican National Convention in August 2004. 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 (in the case
of the V.R.A.G. in the car) or to be played in sequences
(as in the case of the three projection installation).
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. |
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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 installation space. The animated video clips appear
like still images that can be navigated through, with strange motion, giving
an hyperreal sense of space, time and environment.
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. These forces clash each time
the roving car passes by and projects into the installation.
The viewers are those who chance upon either the installation or the roving car,
preferably both. They interact with both; entering into the installation space,
surrounded by chanting; hearing the approach of sirens, only to suddenly be immersed
it images of riot cops and then passed by. The protestors hold their spot, available
for viewing over time; the police make incursions into the space, and rove the
neighborhood, violating every street with their brutal images and noise. |
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Map of D.U.M.B.O. area featuring location
of installation |
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