VIDEO TRIPTYCH

Video Triptych is a series of ambiguous moving images. Is the movement generated via human or mechanical means? In production the images were liken to those created within a 3d animation package. A traditional prosthetic is combined with digital technology to create a new position for the needle and thread. Expanding on its traditional function, the object has become, through both hand and technological processes a platform on which to debate what is hand made and what is machine processed. Within the installation the projector was situated at head height, the mechanical lens is on a trajectory with that of the viewer. This connects the participant/viewer to the process of the making; the lens of the video camera recorded what the human eye witnessed. One viewer/participant commented that the movement was generated via mechanical means, which to some extent is true.


CONCLUSION

To conclude, in this paper I have demonstrated a progression of ideas. From the initial starting point of the white shirt, which was unpicked both physically and theoretically to reveal a series of questions pertaining to the making process, not only my own but that of the garment worker and Graham Mack, the 3d animator. In answer to the question; Does being a hand maker inhibit practice – I only found a further question which took me to the centre of my research; what is it that classifies something as hand made? This question has far reaching implications for practice that I enjoy. The importance of finger collars as a piece of work encouraged a subverted view of an everyday and ordinary skill. It focused attention on the hand, which expanded into the bodily contact with prosthetics that for me groups all tools as comparable. Considering the body as original site of production that confirms this for me. The value of collaboration led me to not only observe the practice of another maker, but also to observe my own computer use. The notion of repetition clearly presented itself. Threading the needle, the click of the mouse, the keyboard command, and the record button on the video camera.

These elements have focused my attention on the process of my own making practice and the excitement at utilising a hybrid practice that incorporates important learned hand skills of sewing and movements of operation of mouse and keyboard. This work is a readable development of ideas, through an exploration of differing prosthetics. Machines are fallible just as humans are and the pendulum swings between what feels like complete predictability to total unpredictability. This offers exhaustive frustration but also endless possibilities for imperfection, which is in fact what makes hand crafted objects so valuable.