TUNED IN, SPACED OUT: THE WORKS FESTIVAL

This exhibition focused on the hypnotic power of screens and the interaction of screen-based images, with a large video projection installation “Infinitessemal”, print-projection installations HEAVY I and HEAVY II, and video piece “So Below” and was presented as part of the Works International Art and Design Festival in 2018.

Infinitessemal (an intentional misspelling of the word to include “tesse,” as in tessellation coming from the greek word tessare for individual stones used to create mosaics) was a video produced after playing with the zoom function on the tumblr mobile app while viewing my art portfolio. After realizing I could zoom in and out infinitely on any image in the app, and observing the self-similar and holographic nature of the moire patterns created on pixelated images as I zoomed in and out, I hacked my phone to install a screen recorder so I could record the zooming in and out infinitely. 

While I was only initially focused on the moire patterns themselves, the visuals were too difficult for my phone to accurately capture and created fascinating video glitches where the image would pop back and forth and tear itself apart into square chunks while some areas would render correctly. I created a video tryptic with the intention of projecting it at a large scale to amplify the hypnotic effect of the patterns. In the middle of the video, the images are so far zoomed out they appear as single points of flickering light much like a star in the sky giving the work a cosmic scale. 

At the opposite end of the exhibition was another video created during my grad studies. So Below, made by recording video feedback, where the camera is outputting video to the television and then pointed directly at the television causing an infinite regression, was created using a small CRT television much like the one used to present the video. The shifting and chaotic nature of the video inspired the name, So Below, as a reflection of the nature at the quantum level and the phrase “As Above So Below” used in hermeticism and alchemy, reflecting the correspondence between the higher and lower planes of existence and acting as a juxtaposition of the Infinitessemal video projection. Flanking the small screen are two large format backlit prints of macro images of water droplets, HEAVY I and II, illuminated by videos made of the same images that zoom in and out and rotate to create moire patterns on the surface of the video, creating a new illusory experience that exists only on the surface. The placement of the prints in the exhibition acts as columns that frame the projection with the intention of creating a portal that one passes through to experience the larger video that plays into the larger experience of the exhibition as a space for escape and reflection, much like a spiritual site that guides the viewer and places them as the center between the microcosm and macrocosm.