Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo (KHiO) Exchange
Portfolio of video work, installations, sound, and photography for KHiO exchange application by Jordan MacRae
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).
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.
Installed in Glasgow, December 2023. Sound by moderplusone (Jordan MacRae).
Workflow for “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.
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.
The Trial of Marian Isbister (Excerpt), 2024
B&W Super 8 film, field recordings, soundtrack.
1 minute 48 second excerpt of 6 and a half minute film set around a witch trial in Orkney for 18 year old accused witch Marian Isbister. Shot on location in Scotland on Super 8 between 2017 and 2023. This film’s initial purpose was to predominately to serve as a ‘proof of concept’ emulating the tone of a future work, an oblique portrait of George Mackay Brown and his home island and muse Orkney itself, visiting the island for the first time reading his work and documenting my own experience of visiting. This piece, a collage work of various trips around Scotland now feels strong as a stand alone piece but will still be useful moving forward to try help attain support and or comission for the GMB / Orkney portrait.
Excerpt from ‘The Witch’ written and read by George Mackay Brown.
On Display at GCF Gallery in Glasgow (1/3/24)
CRT Monitor, Media Player looping film, genelec speakers, headphones.
Super 8 single frames, W2 Gallery in Glasgow, 2023.
Jordan preserves the motion and energy of the locations captured by utilising a handheld Super 8 camera and isolating single frames for printing. The handheld shooting style, highly present grain, and unpredictability of Super 8 have captivated the artist for years. Jordan's background as a camera operator for film and television helped him develop the technical familiarity with moving image cameras, so bringing these sensibilities and actively using a moving image camera to shoot stills has provided a unique look to these photographs and blended the artist's history with his interests now and moving forward. the artist aims to establish a new visual language that harnesses colour in a highly exaggerated and saturated manner.
Thanks to Jamie Cooper, Jonathan Canning and Callum Rice.
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 DIY 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.
Above: 35mm double exposures in camera. No editing at all in images 1-5.
Below: 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)
Below: Super 8 Portraits of Cal, Izzy & Ally. Shot in Glasgow, 2023.
Metro-2 (2024)
After being offered to contribute to a group show at Blip Blip Blip in Moscow in February of 2024, I couldn’t figure out what the right piece of work to include in the show should be. I eventually settled on the idea of imagining a soundtrack for “Metro-2”, a purported secret underground metro system which parallels the public Moscow Metro. The system was supposedly built, or at least started, during the time of Joseph Stalin and was codenamed D-6 (Д-6) by the KGB. It is supposedly still operated by the Main Directorate of Special Programmes and Ministry of Defence to discreetly and safely transport elite members of the Russian state. This sound piece imagines a soundtrack for Metro-2 and was exhibited at Blip Blip Blip on two speakers, next to a work by a local artist who traced a crack in his home made by the trainline that passes his building. This work was made in part as a remote collaboration with students from Moscow who volunteered to go out and capture some field recordings which they sent to me in Glasgow to process into the work.
Metro-2, 2024.
Stereo sound installation
10:24 minutes; looped playback.
Field recording, tape, synth, stereo sound.
With thanks to:
Polina Vazhenina
Alyona Povetkina
Valeria Voevodina
Yaroslav Antibin Olya Sollya Nastya Nikiforovam Rory Macbeth
Lighting sytem built for HYYTS live session, dir. Jordan MacRae. Installed in an old ship building yard in Glasgow, this half hexagon lighting system was controlled by a Teenage Engineering OP-1 and automated to the rhythm of the live track being played. With thanks to Luke Palmer.
Movement Study 1 with Robyn Mccrae: DIY Slides made from 35mm photographs printed onto acetate in black and white, interspersed with more DIY slides, these ones made from offcuts of Rosco E-Colour+ 130 Clear Lighting Gel; colour filters for film industry use to manipulate colours of lighting fixtures. The gels were cut to the size of a slide frame and sequenced between the black and white photographs, installed in February of 2024 in Glasgow’s Sink Space as part of a group show.
Pseudo-Mama live visual installation at Exit Glasgow (2024)
Two sheets of taught gauze material suspended by wire hang at each side of the dancefloor, with rear indirect projection. Two films, one projected with a warm CTO image, the other projected with a contrasting cold CTB image, each pointed at strips of wall mounted mylar paper blown by fans, allowing the light from these projections facing the wall to bounce back and hit the hanging gauze material. The result being constantly moving, endlessly shifting, abstract light patterns generating on the material next to the dance floor. Soundtracked by live performances from Naafi and Yulia Carolin Kothe.
