Turnbaby
The key theme of this piece is the concept of turning (round and into), as represented on both the physical and digital stages. Turnbaby begins as a sonic zoetrope, a digital rendering of the 'wheel of life' invented by Horner in 1834 to recreate motion using a series of images placed on a rotating drum. To create an illusion of motion, the drum is spun; the faster the rate of spin, the smoother the progression of images.
Beyond the zoetrope, a larger nine scene wheel transforms the contemporary dance sequence via two 100 year old clips, early cinematic experiments made by Thomas Edison. Through dynamic random and user-generated interaction, the dancers move in a fragmentary way. Sometimes they remain static, and it is the degradation of their image that dances. As they pirouette, they change form; this process is echoed by the pirouette of each digital scene.
The result is a dynamic on-screen play of image, frame and movement; a conflicted theatre or a fractured cinema of many parts. Here, the viewer is an active participant in the creation (and illusion of) motion that defines the history of the moving image, from early visual toys such as the zoetrope through cinema, and now in digital dynamically generated and interactive form.
Prog:ME, 1st Festival of Electronic Media of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2005)
Sequences, Furniture Works, London, UK, UK (2005)
Sequences, Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, UK (2004-2005)
Electronic Language International Festival (FILE), São Paulo, Brazil (2003)
La Isle Festival, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2003)
JavaMuseum's 'Highway' feature, Germany (2003)
Video Marathon 6, Chisinau, Moldova (2002)
Primer Cyborg Festival, Valencia, Venezuela (2002)
Rhizome Artbase (from 2002)
Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum iS.CaM Open, Turkey (2002)
Palimpsest Project, Stasis_Space (2002)
Window, Auckland University, New Zealand (2002)
Whalelane 3 (2002)
Beyond the zoetrope, a larger nine scene wheel transforms the contemporary dance sequence via two 100 year old clips, early cinematic experiments made by Thomas Edison. Through dynamic random and user-generated interaction, the dancers move in a fragmentary way. Sometimes they remain static, and it is the degradation of their image that dances. As they pirouette, they change form; this process is echoed by the pirouette of each digital scene.
The result is a dynamic on-screen play of image, frame and movement; a conflicted theatre or a fractured cinema of many parts. Here, the viewer is an active participant in the creation (and illusion of) motion that defines the history of the moving image, from early visual toys such as the zoetrope through cinema, and now in digital dynamically generated and interactive form.
"The experimental studies of Thomas Alva Edison (two films, end of 19th century) and a video of b'toch bet are presented in short sequences and stills. Moving pictures, video sequences and simultaneous presentations with possibilities for changes via click operations constitute net configurations of the photographic and filmic montage. The historicizing element is reduced to a short form of the relations between cultures of body movements and the history of media. "Turnbaby" constitutes an exemplary actualization of the visual net possibilities"
- Thomas Dreher, Lessons in NetArt, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Germany (2003)
"Turnbaby bring[s] Edison's early experiments with moving pictures into the 21st century."
- Helen Varley Jamieson, Rhizome.org Net Art News (2002)
"Turnbaby manipulates film footage originally produced by Thomas Edison into a Flash application. Beginning as a reinterpretation of a zoetrope, Turnbaby goes on to contrast the differences between 19th Century dance and modern artistic human movement."
- John Kannenberg, Stasis_Space Curator, Chicago, USA (2002)
Awards & Exhibitions