legerdemain
Video, 2012, 9:30 minutes
In the single-channel video, legerdemain, I use the visual structure of the stripe pattern as a process to merge the physical body with the electronic image. Using strategies of dazzle camouflage, the prison stripe and the upc code, the performer attempts to become part of the interval, neither foreground or background like the stripe’s own visual structure. The video begins with the flicker of black and white—image and sound are internally generated from the same source—a bank of analog oscillators. Video processing techniques, such as luma-keying (a technique in which you can replace the light our dark areas of an image with another video) allow the striped pattern to be both part of the performer’s body and their environment at the same time.
legerdemain was produced during a residency at the Experimental Television Center (Owego, NY) and uses real-time image processing tools such as the Jones +/-5v system, Jones Keyer, Jones Sequencer and the Paik/Abe Wobulator.