Detour III (video)

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A remix of the first two installments of the Detour series, in this version all previous visual and conceptual associations are broken down as the mashed-up video fades and shifts between three different perspectives: 1.) the reedited source images as seen directly from the computer timeline 2.) the screen surface of an old CRT television monitor filmed with a macro lens as it plays back the aforementioned images 3.) the same television as seen from the vantage point of an ordinary viewer sitting in a common living room. The resulting perceptual muddle is an attempt to disorient the viewer in a way that causes them to explore their own role as an observer as well as the ways in which media inherently distorts those observations, whether it be through the manipulative voyeurism of reality television, clinical surveillance via closed-circuit monitor or the simple distraction of enjoying the pretty flickering lights emitted by the machine.

The subtitle “A Requiem for the Cathode Ray Tube” is a homage to the type of monitor used in the creation of this video which was common in most homes from the inception of consumer television technology right up until the early 2000s when flat-panel TVs rendered them obsolete (though they are still used to a limited extent by broadcast professionals and others). The unique pixel patterns and scan line distortions literally hypnotized me as a kid whenever I ignored my parent’s advice not to sit too close to the television and are something that I wanted to celebrate on a purely aesthetic level in addition to everything else I have been trying to convey with this series of videos.