Supportive Systems

Last year in 2010, I filmed a series of videos that dealt with the documentation of site-specific improvisations and looked at appropriateness of movement within a space. Continuation led to my idea of what a space is and its functionality. The opening of the video is a close up of a root from a 30-foot tree in an urban park with typical sounds of birds, wind, people, and the near by man-made stream. Within 15 seconds a new image appears of a forest of air-condition vents that support a major institutional building. In the second image is a figure standing still that soon multiplies and vaguely seen repeating task through out the industrial landscape. The layers become more complex but direct as the function of this machine is solely to complete one job; this directness is reflected by the raw editing of the layers and the sound of the performer giving cues to turn the camera on and off. The similarities of these two are the idea that they are a cavity for energy and nutrients to flow as well as the mimic of their geometric form. As the roots don't have negative space to explore I felt I could speak for both images in the performers placement with the pipes and exploration of rhythm in each task. The crescendo of this exploration is a compilation of multiple layers videos. At this point they're too many layers for all to be seen only leaving the presence of their sound (feet running, conversations, and dropping of objects). The interesting underlying thought is the contrived design to be hidden from the everyday viewer. Urban parks are to be places of relaxation and escape as the air-condition vents are to be buried within the building; thinking about this I have furthered my research of space to think about not just how to be within it but also what is not seen; the history of how that space has come to be.