Jordan MacRae SEA Y2 - Formative Assessment Week 14
Lighthouse (2023)
Slide projector, interval timer, handmade slides, prism + stereo speakers
The slide projector installed in a third floor room is controlled by an interval timer moving carousel of slides forward every 45 seconds. Each slide in the carousel is a handmade single colour piece of film which “gels” the projector bulb changing the colour every instance. The projector’s lens has been removed which creates a large circular unfocused spot of light on the wall. The light is obscured by a prism hanging from the ceiling of the room. The prism spins autonomously refracting the coloured light around the room. One full cycle of the instal lasts around 15 minutes before restarting and cycling through the colours again, the soundscape continues to loop. Viewers are invited into the dark room for as many cycles of the work as they like. Recommended viewing is at night and whilst sat comfortably on the floor / bean bag.
Installed in Glasgow, December 2023. Sound by moderplusone (Jordan MacRae).
Interrupting Projectors (2023) Wood/Metal sculpture, four projectors, quadrophonic sound, film, blackwrap.
iPhone video documentation from a public concert with live performance and DJ sets during coclear’s residency at The Dream Machine in Glasgow covering the second half of 2023. DJ set by here & not yet (Clara). Event organised by Conna Harraway, concept and design of "Interruptions" by Jordan MacRae. Film playing through the obstructions is Koyaanisqatsi by Godfrey Reggio. Song selections by Clara, for the purpose of the edit these have been altered by me, they do not represent the mixing on the night.
The intention behind this install was to censor the four roof mounted projectors to make the room as dark as possible and only allow certain parts of the film to pass through the objects installed infront of the lenses. Two projectors have a wood/metal sculpture mounted to the front of them only allowing a strip of the film to be shown, set up to match eyelines in the work. The other two projectors are mounted with blackwrap foil to block out all light then piercings were made, holes and carvings into the foil allow light to pass through and create jagged and spontaneous portions of the film to be seen. There were three performances on the evening of the concert, each accomanpanied by different visual components. This documentation shows one performance from the evening.
Wise Men Say (2023)
60 second cassette loop in tape machine, stereo speakers.
Prompted by a dart thrown at a large map of Glasgow, this project is a chance operation. The dart landed on a Catholic primary school in the east end of the city. To invite further chance into the work an Oblique Strategies card was then pulled. The card reads “the tape is now the music”.
Jordan’s primary mediums are image and sound recording which initially created concerns about the red tape surrounding making a piece of work around the school, but committed to honouring the dart’s true landing position and using this as the base of the work Jordan requested a cassette tape from the School library. Any tape they were willing to part with, intending to sample the tape and rework into a looping sound installation. The resulting tape is Cumbernauld Male Voice Choir. A greatest hits from Cumbernauld’s finest community choir group. Jordan elected to rework their cover of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love”.
The original tape was digitised and reworked in Ableton into a 60 second loop which was then recorded to a cassette “loop tape” which can repeat itself forever, or until one goes insane from the dulcet tones of Cumbernauld’s elders.
(Digital B&W video documentation of studio set up with 4 track and stereo speakers.) You can find the original recording on Youtube uploaded by Roger Milligan if you’re interested in hearing the sampling material.
Work in progress diptych. I have shot half of this idea - the finished work will use these natural images shot on location in Southern Iceland on one screen as the Right half of the diptych.
The Left half of the diptych on a separate screen or projection will be two people sitting very still in similar position to this reference painting below (under these images) by Johannes S. Kjarval, as little movement as possible as they look past each other and the camera holds a two shot.
Reference painting by J.S.Kjarval
Millport Brief - Test Shoot for Larger Project
Visit to Isle of Cumbrae with SEA Y2.
Sketch, a test shoot for potential larger project which would explore Scotland via sites of stone circles and standing stones, shot as a study of place, inviting local collaborators to play music on location. Slow paced film offering a look at these unexplained historic sites.
This first video sketch serves primarily as a test to get a feel for visiting a site like this and finding ways to document the feeling of them.
This also represents my first collaboration with someone else from the course - Bea Arden played violin on location which I recorded and I did some post production processing on.
Private Install 1 (2023)
Loft space install of hung gauze sheets, wall mounted projector and inside walkway channel for full immersive experience. Mounted stereo speakers with loop of music/sound design.
Projected images were produced using a “video bending” workflow. A circuit bent signal processor allows analogue signal to be input via VGA cables, I pointed an old handycam directly at the CRT TV output and generated feedback loops as well as source footage shot in various locations on tape cameras. The processor pushes the video signal as much as possible to distort the image and bring out vibrant colours, on the cusp of the image falling apart completely. The final images taken by recording the screen of the CRT with an HD digital camera were then projected onto the installed sculpture in the middle of the room. I am looking to experiment with this workflow (more details below) more going forward.
Sound by moderplusone (Jordan MacRae).
Workflow for source footage projected in “Private Install 1” above.
Using Mini-DV handicam as a “witness” camera, allowing me to capture any digital source material from projector and distort it through video bending workflow. The lo-fi signal is then “bent” by the circuit bent video processor. Still examples can be seen on the right.
Workflow for producing video art — Diagram 1 (see right) demonstrates the workflow I employ when making video art using glitch gear, CRTs, projection and VHS handicams. Explained in more detail below.
Source footage (underwater iPhone footage for eg.) playing on media player through YouTube / Sent via HDMI to Projector / Projected onto studio wall / Wall filmed by witness camera (handycam) / Composite out sending footage in real time into T+ processor / Experiment with visuals, “playing” buttons, dials, and pointing camera at source to generate feedback loops whilst listening to tracks / Composite out of T+ / CRT plays back the “psychenized” bent footage / digital camera on tripod pointed at CRT filming screen / ingest and edit in Premiere Pro, grade, double exposures, sequencing etc.
An additional way of capturing the “psychenized” footage as well as filming the CRT I sometimes use is by plugging an Elgato video capture in to the outputs of the T+ box and taking the video signal into the convertor which then converts the signal to digital and I ingest on my laptop. This gives a different texture from the filmed CRT which I appreciate mixing in but can be less stable due to unpredictability of video bent signal.
Above: Super 8 images, shown in W2 Gallery in Glasgow, shot on Super 8 with single frames printed.
Artist research/Reference Point + Trial and Error
A reference point for a work I’ve held onto for a long time has been ‘Fase’ by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Michèle-Anne De Mey, and Steve Reich. Within our brief of Body, Object, Space I looked to explore making a work inspired by this in collaboration with Robyn McCrae. Originally I set out to make a Super 8 movement study documenting a silhouetted performance by Robyn. It is something I hope to still make but temporarily is on hold due to the time frame of this semesters’ crit project being not suitable, Super 8 is seldomly used now and to develop it incurs a long wait time. I have since explored other ideas of presenting a similar movement study using slide imagery, experimenting with printing my own slides testing inkjet images onto acetate. Initial tests looked promising but the acetate material did not dry and the images blurred and ran. I tried to dry the ink with UV light but concluded the material needs to be replaced. After getting more suitable material and I tried again, this time it dried well and I managed to make the DIY slides - however the images lacked the detail I was looking for.
I then explored the idea of shooting slides through my camera but E6 chemistry for developing slides is now very rare and expensive, there are no labs in Glasgow which can do this except cross processing. I considered the idea of using cross processing - shooting E6 slide film and developing in C41 chemistry can yield some very interesting results but unfortunately the film itself then becomes a negative and would not be suitable for use in the slide projector. The final decision I made was to shoot the images on slide film and pay the cost, I received the scans back in good time for the deadline but not the physical slides. I tried experimenting with the scans, printing them into DIY slides again but still wasn’t loving it. After confirmation the slides would definitely not arrive in time for the work being installed I decided to play with the same materials in the space I had planned to use and it resulted in a work I am really happy with. (Lighthouse, 2023).
Some artworks / events visited this semester that I appreciated (more in sketchbook)
Corin Sworn at The Common Guild.
Talk at GSA.
Leghairs by Zander McKenzie
Anna Rún Tryggvadóttir, ‘Compasses’.
Sigrún Gyða Sveinsdóttir
Robert Henke, Sonica 2023, Tramway
Finnbogi Pétursson, ‘Standwaves’.
Finnur Arnar Arnarson, ‘Nature II’.
Corin Sworn, ‘In Reflection, Shimmer’ at TCG.
Unknown, Kjarvalsstaðir
SCANAUDIENCE, Sonica 2023, Tramway
Mock up - a study of place, texture, and motion.
Visual references for a new project, cutting 16mm footage from favourite filmmakers and resequencing footage set to my own music to use as a reference work and mood board for ongoing project.
This is something I do for a lot of projects that are visual / abstract. Words can often be challenging to articulate the nuance of the filmmaking I work in. Particularly the textural aspects of the work. Words rely on the reader interpreting the language the same way as you intend so I often reach for a bank of visual references to lay it out for applications to funding and or collaborators involved in the work.
This mock up contains many works by filmmaker Paul Clipson restructured and paced to match the energy of camera work I have brought to this project.
Thanks for your time. I look forward to Semester 2!