B/W digital video, w/ audio, 2014.

Drawing on the writings of Charles Pierce, an early exponent of semiotic theory, I was inspired to produce an experimental video exploring the concept of ‘index’ – a connection formed between a ‘signifier’ and the idea or form that it ‘signifies’. Pierce described ‘index’ as a sign that shows evidence of the object or idea it represents by implying their presence, as opposed to resembling them sensorially. In translating this to my own practice I aim to further promote critical discussion about our interaction with video and the mechanical devices which bring it into being, considering how each may affect our treatment of the other.

By incorporating into the ‘act of viewing’, the full site of display, oftentimes hidden subconsciously by the pre-defined processes of our contemporary currency of visual exchange, I am asking the viewer to reconsider video in its broader context as a duplexity, as much concerned with the phenomenological aspects of the audio-visual, as the devices that capture and display them. This forms the theoretical cornerstone for my interpretation of video as an exhibitory medium, placing emphasis upon the framing device itself, revealing the systems rooted in our present culture that subtly inform, define and instruct the viewer’s navigation of it.

Through any format or platform in which video is encountered, the essential apparatus bound-up in facilitating its playback is erased in the act of viewing, giving over to the complete seduction of the viewer into an alternate, phenomenological space-time. By turning the camera back on itself to reveal its own agency within the artificial field, the video is inextricably linked to its physical counterpart, which forms a dialogue that seats the viewer on the edge between the cinematic, and the structural materialist. To do so in a way that would not lead the video fully into figurative, pictorial representation, the notion of indexing the camera through its shadow forms an effective metaphor to guide the viewer towards an acknowledgement of the playback device before them.

The inescapable shadow the device casts back onto the visual field of projection repeatedly denies any real ability to formulate a narrative-based or spatial reading, rendering such artifices inaccessible and effectively useless. The ironic action of the camera’s presence blocking that which it is designed to capture, creates a self-thwarting property requiring a re-evaluation of the use-value invested in it. In presenting itself as a series of fragmented non-spaces, the video piece proposes a series of continual frustrations challenging our expectations of the medium, by undoing the artificial and immaterial space one is both invited and refused entry to.