Information
Bill Seaman >
»The Design of the Grip«, 1989 - 1989
Co-Workers & Funding:
Partially funded by Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy and Intel Researchhttps://vimeo.com/showcase/6996737
Technology
Display
Computer controlled 9 analogue video machine system, each edited to the same soundtrack, with precise cueing and synchronous playback function.Sound
Soundtrack created with Synclavier digital audio system courtesy of White River Junction Studio. For sound recording Seaman employed the Stereo Ambient Sampling Systems (SASS) Conceived in 1987 by Michael Billingsley for Crown, the SASS type microphone is what is known as a quasi-binaural system. It uses a baffle between two microphones to mimic the way our ears hear sound. Sound was recorded to portable digital audio system which recorded digital Audio onto to VHS tape.
Descriptions & Essays
The next period in Seaman's oeuvre employed video as a poetic technological vehicle, exploring sound, image and text relations within a slow pulsing hypnotic video space. Both linear tapes and video installations were produced. The tapes S.He (1983), Telling Motions (1986), The Water Catalogue (1984) (commissioned by the Contemporary Art Television Fund), Shear (1986), Boxer's Puzzle (1986) with Ellen Sebring were produced in this period. Central in all of these works was the artist's voice, delivering the text in either spoken or sung form. Two significant installations were produced - Water Wheel (1985), a seven channel installation presented through a circle of monitors, incorporating material from The Water Catalogue, and The Design of the Grip (1989), a nine channel video/sound installation with written related text. Significant in this installation was the concept of the "sound pun" - where one sound was used as "folie" for 9 different simultaneous images. In these early works film was shot and transferred to video exploring particular qualities of light, as well as choreographed landscape and architecture. Often texts in the work explored puns, word plays and poly-valent language. The material qualities of both film and video were manipulated for these works exploring both slow motion and pulsing stop motion techniques.
Bill Seaman 29-09-2020
The Design of the Grip was a 9 channel video installation shown at the ICA in Boston and at the World Wide Video Festival in Holland. The work explored a series of images of grip-oriented activities. A special ambient recording by Mike Billingsley was used to record a series of grip-oriented activities. These recordings were made from close, medium range and a slight distance. Seaman had a residency at the Synclavier home office - this was one of the top of the line samplers of its day. The recordings were entered into a keyboard as a series of samples that could be played back simultaneously as well as being looped and sequenced, or played with other musical elements. A humorous, looping soundtrack was composed of the samples by Seaman. Seaman then used these sounds taken out of context to act as foley for the 9 channels of video. Each channel was edited to the same music, but never was the actual sound in sync with the image recording session it came from. Thus, Seaman had created a “sound” pun! There is an uncanny, Rube Goldberg machine aspect to this set of playful non-causal chain reactions. Along with the installation an elaborate poem - The Design of the Grip was developed. This was available on take-away post-cards. Seaman later recorded The Design of the Grip as a song in its own right for The Listening Room radio show in Sydney Australia. Andrew McLennan, producer.
Concepts: sound puns, word plays, texts at a distance to images as a means of playing with meaning, non-causal chain reactions, Rube Goldberg informed mechanisms, qualities of light, abstracted eroticism
Bill Seaman: The Design of the Grip, 29-09-2020, in: Archive of Digital Art The Design of the Grip was a 9 channel video installation shown at the ICA in Boston and at the World Wide Video Festival in Holland. The work explored a series of images of grip-oriented activities. A special ambient recording by Mike Billingsley was used to record a series of grip-oriented activities. These recordings were made from close, medium range and a slight distance. Seaman had a residency at the Synclavier home office - this was one of the top of the line samplers of its day. The recordings were entered into a keyboard as a series of samples that could be played back simultaneously as well as being looped and sequenced, or played with other musical elements. A humorous, looping soundtrack was composed of the samples by Seaman. Seaman then used these sounds taken out of context to act as foley for the 9 channels of video. Each channel was edited to the same music, but never was the actual sound in sync with the image recording session it came from. Thus, Seaman had created a “sound” pun! There is an uncanny, Rube Goldberg machine aspect to this set of playful non-causal chain reactions. Along with the installation an elaborate poem - The Design of the Grip was developed. This was available on take-away post-cards. Seaman later recorded The Design of the Grip as a song in its own right for The Listening Room radio show in Sydney Australia. Andrew McLennan, producer.
Concepts: sound puns, word plays, texts at a distance to images as a means of playing with meaning, non-causal chain reactions, Rube Goldberg informed mechanisms, qualities of light, abstracted eroticism
Literature
Exhibitions & Events