barbara campbell 2014

I assisted artist Barbara Campbell with the production of her new interacitve work  ‘close’close’, created for the internatal touring exhibition ‘LANDSEASKY: revisiting spatiality in video art’’ curated by Kim Machan for MAAP- Media Art Asia Pacific.

The piece required filming and audio field recording of migratory shore birds gathered in a compensatory ecological offset pond adjacent to a yacht marina near Brisbane, Queensland. The shot was carefuly framed to include a striated layering of activity through the visual space – water in the lower foreground, sandy beach, shrubby mid-ground, a canal bank, half-obscured yachts entering and leaving the marina via the unseen canal, distant gigantic port machinery, sky and cloudscape.

The various species of waterbirds using the area activated this setting with constant shore activity and occasional flock murmurations as large groups of birds responded to stimuli such as raptors and helicopters.

The final work utilises a a single take of approximately 6 minutes duration. Visitors activate the movement of a thin horizontal slot of vision that moves up or down the floor-to-ceiling video projection depending on the visitors position. The visual plane is also divided into three audio zones – top, center, lower. The visitor must therefore spatially explore the activity captured in the scene by moving back and forth in the exhibiton space, only gradually being able to construct a mental image of the scene as a whole.

Kinect programming for the piece was provided by artist John Tonkin.

gary warner 2014