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Electricity

A 10 minute extract from a 50 minute video installation piece recorded in Chonburi, Thailand in August 2005. ‘Electricity’ is intentionally minimal in its use of visual stimuli, relying solely upon flashes of lightening, sometimes visible in the frame of a hand held camera, to light the frame and silhouette an electricity pylon and cables against the night sky. This piece is designed to be projected, unedited, in a darkened space with stereo sound. A subtle narrative progression is suggested by the soundtrack as it relays information about the movement and location of the storm. One intention of the piece is to compose an association between the uncontrolled power of the natural storm and the channelled energy of generated electricity as sources of illumination in darkness and therefore, by implication, extensions of our consciousness. Additionally the work strives to encapsulate the interdependence between the stasis of the photographic image, and the recorded/relayed time of video that manifests here in a sense of tension born of suspended temporal progression. Viewing the video within a darkened environment for a period of time causes the over-exposed, flash-lit frames to leave brief afterimages on the retina, underlining further connections between physicality and a phenomenological perception of time.

Scott Steven