ALAN NEWHAM

The first video is brought to us by Alan Newnham. Here's what Alan had to say about it:

 

See the video here, on our Youtube channel.

 

Over the course of the last couple of years my practice has become solely video based. The videos often consist of contemplative, seemingly subject-less scenes, paired with mechanical, formal text. These pieces explore the relationship between text and image, as well as themes of indexicality and dematerialization within the digital realm.

 

More recently my work has transitioned from a preoccupation with rural and contemplative scenes, to a concern with urban and occupied spaces; the video i'm sharing here being at this point of transition. My latest artwork, which is still in development, is titled Occupation. Displayed across multiple screens it explores ideas surrounding digital and architectural space; the shared subject being the University of Leeds architecture designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon. The video intends to draw parallels between the futuristic aspirations of digital media and Modernist architecture. In consideration to my practice, and if you'd like any further reading on thiese topics, my influences have been the writings of Rosalind Krauss, Victor Burgin, and Frederic Jameson; and the art and films of Elizabeth Price, Hito Steyerl, Harun Farocki, Chris Marker, and the late career of Jean Luc Godard.

 

The video you see consists of two separate artworks partnered together: Looped Woman and Feedback Loop. In conjunction, they explore the political dimensions of the digital condition. The complex relationship between spectator, subject, and filmmaker is a dominant factor within digital video, which can be easily manipulated and exploited. The artwork analyses the intersection between text and image; most significantly how they inform one another, but also their qualities as a signifier. The videos also explores topics such as the determinism, dematerialisation and the possible erasure of indexicality in the digital field, alongside theories of simulation influenced by Jean Baudrillard. When shown in an exhibition, the videos are displayed on two different ways, spanning different eras and applications - one is shown on a CRT monitor commonly used for video editing and calibration, and the other is shown on a standard LCD screen. This highlights the ever-changing physical mediums which are crucial to the display of moving image.

 

- Alan Newnham