the artist in Permittivity
Through the use of optics, my work involves engagement with a filmic space via performative activity. A choreography of objects is employed to alter what the viewer sees and determine their interaction in the space. The gaze of the spectator and their relation to films is examined through installations which allow the viewer to interact with the situation presented. There is also an exploration of the effect of technology, such as the recording of filmic events or viewing of images, shown through the self-awareness of a figures’ actions.
How the image is encountered by the viewer is also explored; for example, a division of space through objects which cause an orchestration of movement, such as suspended silk chiffon screen prints, which act as a membrane and divide the room and offer a partial view of space. Additionally, the encounter of the filmic space is explored through a play on scale from the cinematic to the intimate. How these different conditions of the encounter affect levels of immersion is also a critical interest of mine.
the artwork in Permittivity
Gaining control over what is seen and the instability of perception is examined through deconstructing how images are perceived and processed. This is expressed in the work through an explorative dismantling of an LCD monitor’s screen and its re-assembly to a new form, looking at the propagation of light and at when an image becomes visible to the viewer.
The work consists of two ‘screens’, one releasing white light. The random electric field of the white light is then polarised by the second ‘screen’ to oscillate along one vertices and make the image visible to address the spectator. The second screen, whose structure is based on a pantograph, traces the movement of the first screen to the second causing the hidden image, a video, to be revealed to the spectator.
