Dub // Virus

by Alex Hetherington, 18 Jan 2008

Janie and I put out the call for video and film from international artists a short time ago, we posted the information on a couple of sites and mailing lists as well as our own web pages and the Falkirk residency blog. This is a repetition of the work we did for The Consequence video and film screenings that we presented at lowsalt and ESW during 2007. The process begins again, a slow trickle of works on DVD at first, then a gradual build of brown paper padded envelopes, links to web sites, artists’ work in need of a screen. We also posted to the Flats a set of posters asking for old home movies to commingle with the artists work.

I enjoy watching the process of the work arriving and speculating on how artists hear about the call and an excitement about where they are geographically; so far we have work in from the United States, South America and Europe, an Italian application that we need to find a way to translate. The Call has a kind of infectious nature where it begins to come into view on different web sites, like a symptom. I’ve enjoyed watching a video from Carlo Sansolo that I think we will screen, it moves from the exterior of ultramodern skyscraper in Brazil to the streets below and moves onto a man’s face as he rides the elevator, he speaks to the camera but the soundtrack has been dubbed with noise, with tones, the city’s machine and holler.

I keep in mind something that Lindsay Perth said about her top floor apartment at the flats she is working in; the building sways, sometimes dramatically, in the wind. So much so that people who live there often get ‘sea-sick’. I also remember living in Hong Kong in the early 90s and my tower block facing out onto this enormous electrical storm that lit up the sky like a blast of momentary daylight shocks. So close to the lightning bolts you could taste them.