Installations

(part 2)

Video/sound installation by Ingrid Plum 2004

all music and visuals © Ingrid Plum 2004

 

"Transformation of Ignored Things" is a sound and video installation using surround sound and dual video projection. The most important aims of this work are to represent the usually ignored, chance events of everyday life within a gallery context, and to transform that moment, through scale, spatial arrangement, and medium. The intention is to provoke the audience into contemplating both the events and the processes we use to interpret them in life, whilst allowing the viewer to experience them in a way that usually would not be possible through the processes used to create the work.

 

 

For me, the point of using any medium is not only to question the nature of the ideas within the work, but also to try and question the nature of the medium itself. I use video because I feel it lies in a gap between our experiences of time in the present as we live through events, and a different experience of both those events and time itself as they exist in our memory. When we view video we are simultaneously experiencing the past and the present, potentially clashing our memory with our awareness of the present moment. The Aborigine concept of 'Dreamtime' treats time as one continuous and connected state, rather than separated into past, present and future. They believe that the past is not a fixed record of events but that it changes with every new experience, as does the future.

 

 

This can be particularly true with daily events, so small we either cannot see them or do not notice them. We may record events that are dramatic more accurately than the things we see more often without paying attention to them. The assumptions we all make about the way in which these small, everyday accidents occur, can differ greatly from the reality and imperfections of naturally occurring phenomena within our manmade world. Our perception of time exists within us rather than in measured minutes, and it is affected by the way in which we experience it. When we watch something dramatic or emotional we have already witnessed again on video in real-time, it can seem much faster than in our memories.

 

In this piece I do the opposite; I recreate the ignored moments of life using video editing techniques to alter the speed or context of the ignored moments, to give the emotional and dramatic weight they are not normally allowed in our memories. This piece allows viewers to assess the perfection, or imperfection of these moments. Our inevitably inaccurate memories of them, form the basis of our perception of these tiny events that fill our lives, though we may not have examined them before.

 

 

Equally, the importance we give to sound is based on our most memorable experiences connected with those sounds. The soundtrack is a soundscape using found sounds combined with classical singing and modern production techniques. The sounds are linked with the events taking place on screen but are made abstract through process in order to make the viewer question the impact of that sound in its usual context.

 

 

Our individual perception of our own existence is defined by the sum of our experiences, an equation that changes with each new addition. Each experience we have is defined by our previous experiences; none exist in isolation or independently as they describe each other. So to be aware of what the importance of the dramatic moments in life are, we must be aware of the importance of the ignored moments in life.

 

 

 

"Transformation of Ignored Things" (part 2) comprises of two 17 minute videos with separate soundtracks that play together in synchronisation.

Stills from floor projection sequence.

Stills from wall projection sequence.

To view still photographs taken of T.O.I.T. at different exhibitions, click on the options below;

 

Graduate Exhibition, Brighton University,2004

 

 

Contemporary Gallery, Brighton,2004