Staging for Stations
HD Video, 2020
This experimental short film was created through a process of improvisation, exploring the narrative and emotive potential of objects by filming various still lifes set on a desk in the nook of my apartment. The film evolves over three acts where these objects become performers and an in-home work station a stage.
Pick-up performance
HD Video, electric guitar, amplifier, cellphone, 2020-21
“Performed” at:
Flourish Festival, Fredericton, NB 2021
Antigonight 2021, Antigonish, NS 2021
Definition: Pickup
1. An electromagnetic device which detects vibrations from a musical instrument.
2. An anacrusis, note or sequence of notes which precedes the first downbeat in a bar.
3. A musical ensemble brought together for only a few performances (pickup-band or group).
Pickup performance is a video installation which explores themes of human connection in the context of livestreamed digital performances. In this work a video of the artist performing an improvised guitar set is looped on a cellphone wedged between the strings of a guitar. The audio from the cellphone is transferred from the pickups of the guitar to the amplifier as if the guitar is “playing” itself. Each performance is built through a series of loops, turing the sound of a single guitar and musician into that of a larger ensemble.
How does the experience of watching a live performance in person or as it airs differ from watching the recording days after the fact? What does it mean to collectively, and individually experience a performance across the world at the same time? How does the mediation of performance through distance and technology impact our experience of them collectively and on an emotional level? Pickup Performance is an exploration of these questions. By humorously combining the pre-recorded video performance with the in person environment of the installation, this work investigates the differences between the physical, ephemeral presence of live performance and its intangible, yet more permanent digital opposite.
