How to Destroy Video
December2019
VHS Video and Sculptural Installation
︎ Film Runtime:0:07:14
︎ Performance Runtime:0:15:00
How to Destroy Video is a surreal educational seminar where the power dynamics between instructor, seemingly subordinate genius and omniscient technology become blurred and unstable.
The VHS melodrama deals with the dynamics of power and authority. The instructional ‘how to’ workshop becomes a surrealist nightmare when the sentient technology regains control with the help of the rebellious subordinate. Together they re-infect all tapes with reconstructed footage that appears progressing onto all seven live television creating a cacophony behind the demonstrators back.
The power is seized by Crawlspace Dweller Ryan who uses this opportunity to film himself on a LoFi DVS tape - committing ‘suicide’ into a tower of chairs.
The performance raises ideas around abstraction when making scientific or technological progress within a specific system. It remarks on how the ultra specificity becomes an investment in obsolescence.
The original performance lasted 15 minutes and was filmed to be later displayed through installation with examples of the footage rendered using additive deconstruction.
SCRIPT:
HOW TO DESTROY VIDEO
The VHS melodrama deals with the dynamics of power and authority. The instructional ‘how to’ workshop becomes a surrealist nightmare when the sentient technology regains control with the help of the rebellious subordinate. Together they re-infect all tapes with reconstructed footage that appears progressing onto all seven live television creating a cacophony behind the demonstrators back.
The power is seized by Crawlspace Dweller Ryan who uses this opportunity to film himself on a LoFi DVS tape - committing ‘suicide’ into a tower of chairs.
The performance raises ideas around abstraction when making scientific or technological progress within a specific system. It remarks on how the ultra specificity becomes an investment in obsolescence.
The original performance lasted 15 minutes and was filmed to be later displayed through installation with examples of the footage rendered using additive deconstruction.
SCRIPT:
HOW TO DESTROY VIDEO
