Artist Statement

Intersection

Video and photo

This project focuses on Video and New Media art by using the material properties of digital video rather than treating it as passive documentation. In my research, I was inspired by artists such as Steina, Woody Vasulka, and Nam June Paik, who approached video as a malleable system, using distortion, feedback, and signal as expressive tools. I was also inspired by Posy’s video on Motion Extraction, and I used their technique to isolate the movement of the cars from the static setting of the intersection. This allowed me to layer the passing cars into a dense scene and combine multiple frames.

This project includes two pieces: A 135-second looping video of the intersection, and a still image that combines 60 frames of the intersection into one composition. 

The video, taken on my Canon R8 camera and edited in Final Cut Pro X, utilizes Posy’s motion extraction to create overlapping and highlighted movement. As I layered the cars, the intersection began to shift from a familiar urban space into a system of trajectories. By manipulating each video layer’s RGB channels and color curves, the image destabilizes and becomes less about geography and more about how digital systems interpret and compress information. 

The still image layers 60 frames from one minute of footage of the intersection. It condenses the passage of time in the intersection into an all-encompassing, single moment. Stable elements such as the road and buildings stay unchanged, and in areas of large movement such as the road and sidewalks, the motion of cars and people is clearly visible. Through both works I pushed my computer beyond typical use and toward its processing limits, using the resulting digital artifacts as intentional parts of the artwork.