Artist Statement
In the short video piece Ac⋅tu⋅al⋅i⋅ties I consider how history is not always clearly visible or readily interpretable. This seems especially true in the mediums of film and video, which have historically been seen as ‘truthful’ mediums. Utilizing video technologies, I change the viewing speed and re-edit portions of early films. I discover nuances in the original that are lost at speeds of 24 frames per second. These ‘lost’ details include original anomalies in the films themselves such as copyright stamps and ‘flash’ frames. There are also clues left by the archiving process that can take many forms. Some of these are: missing frames, documentation of cataloguing and signs of restoration and/or prior re-editing. Thirdly, there is evidence specific to film and the way it ages such as scratches, emulsion decay, and shrinkage of the film stock.
In examining not only the films themselves but also ‘invisible’ evidence left by librarians and archivists, I comment on the content of the films and the changing technology surrounding the archiving process. The series of vignettes in Ac⋅tu⋅al⋅i⋅ties illustrate the different methods and outcomes of my continuing exploration into issues of temporal disarticulation, truth in translation, and how these ideas relate to the mediums of early film and contemporary video.
