'[...] Biology of One Body's Work':
A video collage of seconds counted while drawing + 2-minutes' playback layered a number of times
Introduction
The 3-minute video includes drawing process and recorded speech monologue evolving over time, as a contribution to the i2ADS supported research: The Observation of Perception, considered through drawing. The work should convey a sense of perception in action in visual, tactile and auditory modes in and as drawing. The video divides into two halves, the first concerning the continued working of a drawing that was already in progress at the start of the recording, with three layers of spoken monologue edited into the video, and the second concerning a slow-scrolling drawn response to the first half of the video. This conceptual framework enables the author of the work to settle into his habitual perceptual drawing methods, and for the video's viewer to observe multi-sensory perception unfolding in relation to drawing process and development. As artistic research, the purpose of the video is to try to demonstrate temporally, through drawing and simultaneously thinking aloud, how perception both informs the drawing process and works cooperatively with drawing's materiality. The question implicit in the work is if this exposure of the mechanics of perception, in this case in relation to drawing, can sufficiently be a means of perception's observation when, arguably, perception is imbued with reflexive subjectivity. While such subjectivity may be seen in action in a medium that is usually only seen as still image, the subjective inclination of the author's speech, particularly due to his enunciation, is here available to be seen and read in transcription.
The exposition first presents the complete video, then as componts of transcript and screenshots that enable the viewer/reader to consider the work more from the perspective of research.
thirteen, fourteen . . . . (Comes back quietly at 1: 23mins) One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight–. One, two, three (gets louder) four, five
(Fades out at 1: 42mins)
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen . . . fourteen . . . .(Silent at 0: 13secs) (Comes in again at 0: 27secs resonating as if spoken in a deep, hollow, contained space) One, two, three (gradually fades out) four, five (gets louder) six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, none, ten, eleven, twelve (at 0: 49secs. fades out again) . . . . (Comes back loudly at 0: 55secs) One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve…
(Gradually fades out to 1: 16mins): Figure 1
R A U M (Sound held steady until 1: 07mins, when it starts to fade out, finishing at 1: 11). (At 1: 13mins, spoken monologue begins) And when I pronounce this . . . (comes in again at 1: 23mins, after long pause) I can feel it . . . in my diaphragm coming up from my diaphragm, through my, larynx through my throat, however this . . . biology of one body’s work, of one’s body works.
(Monologue finishes at 1: 43mins): Figure 3
(Comes in at 0: 02secs) One, two, three, four (At 0: 07secs. gets louder) five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven (silent from 0: 17secs. until 0: 24secs) . . . . One, two . . . . (Intonation begins at 0:27secs.) R A U M (fades out until 0: 35secs) (Counting begins again at 0: 36secs) Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen . . . . Ten, eleven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight . . . .
(Silence from 1: 27mins): Figure 4
Drawing in response to the video's playing back a number of times and layered over nine panels, from 1: 49mins until the end of the video at 2: 36mins
Banner view, Figure 5
Layer 1: Speaking the counting of seconds
(Fades in from 0: 00secs.): Figure 1.
© Michael Croft, 2021
Layer 1: Speaking the counting of seconds
(Fades in from 0: 00secs.): Figure 1.
Transcripts of each of three layers of spoken monologue, including two repetitions of a particular instance of prolonged intonation
Layer 1: Speaking the counting of seconds
