Video still
Colour, and nothing but colour, flat and unmodulated, floods the attention. While the colours are very simple this body of work has light, fresh qualities about it.
This work grew out of my playing in Flash. I really got into animating using ActionScript, enjoying the control it gave me in moving objects around the screen. This body of work (I made three variations in all) came about by experimenting with the ActionScript and making controlled experiments.
This body of work initially involved code, which randomly places a preconceived set of images into the picture frame, depending on a set of rules. This then creates experimental abstractions that fuse technology with the visual arts.
Aesthetically I was heavily inspired by pop art, along with some ‘St Ives’ painters from the 60s and 70s. I wanted to work with flat colour and keep everything 2-dimensional.
Visually I was also influenced by where I live on the south coast of the UK. Living very near the sea, the light is always changing. What with this and the expansive views you get looking out to sea. In this work I wanted to reflect this experience using the power of abstract shape to create computer animation into a contemporary visual form.
I used Flash at the time to make the work, but found it problematic to getting them seen. I had a couple of successful gallery showings where I could project from a computer, having them continuously changing, evolving, running for over a month.
Someone then asked me if they could show it in a film festival. I then exported the randomly altering work into a standard film that is always the same (which is the version you see here).
Since then I have got back into film and stop frame animation, using Final Cut Express. I have also really got involved with creating soundscapes using Alberton Live.
My interests’ lie in issues around public/private spaces we inhabit, how we use and claim ‘ownership’ over these places and often freely move from public to private spaces without being aware we have crossed a boundary. It is interesting to observe where we gather and how we relate to one another. I often see peoples movements as an unconscious choreography.
My latest body of work is halfway between photography and painting. I have been exploring the possibilities of how the surface can speak and I think there are a lot more possibilities yet for me to discover.
The soundtracks to these new pieces embody the psychological or psychic presence that I perceive. Within those frameworks, I like to record or amplify sounds that might otherwise go unnoticed, everyday sounds that can be very beautiful.
Something I love about the sounds I record is how small differences can change the way things and places sound – like what season it is, how far away something is, what the weather is like. It is the little details that make one recording more interesting, more evocative, than another.
