Video Textiles

Digital media, as opposed to tactile material, lacks an immediate and expressive physicality. The digital screen acts as a window into virtual space, but is also a barrier that the viewer is dependent on to translate visual experiences. In my work, I am interested in making this translation between viewer and digital media more transparent by pulling digital artifacts from the computer and establishing them as physical material. Merging computer-based systems with handmade processes has been a means for me to explore technology as an expressive medium. The Video Textile prints in the MFA thesis exhibition represent my investigation of video as a malleable fabric. Working between video and image software, I developed a system for exporting video frames into time-based patterns. Each video frame or 1/30th of a second is compressed into a vertical strip and then assembled sequentially into a horizontal pattern. The resulting image is a fragmented filmstrip that tracks the movement of the camera over time. This work developed from investigating video as a material that can be manipulated like a threads of a textile. The footage is abstracted into color, shape and pattern, replacing the original representational imagery with the gesture of capturing moments in time. The titles, There was morning in the evening , Wild as a mink but sweet as soda pop and Will the circle be unbroken , are all quotes from traditional bluegrass songs that are suggestive of contradictory patterns.

MFA Exhibition 2008

There was morning in the evening (Video Textile), 60" x 30", 2008.

Wild as a mink, but sweet as soda pop (Video Textile), 60" x 30", 2008.

Wll the circle be unbroken (Video Textile), 60" x 30", 2008.