veils into dark places (2022-2023)

veils into dark places is a video installation consisting of an assemblage of three televisions, two smartphones, and sixteen tablets closely arranged in layers and covering the surface of a found sheet of ruined plywood balanced on a scavenged, weathered steel tube frame. The devices are scattered across the surfaces of the larger screens of the televisions, some balanced against the sides. A multitude of wires powering the installation hangs down from the table, emphasizing the presence of hardware, or the subface, of the devices. On the surface, each screen displays different videos which were generated through machine learning.

Collected video clips from Nordic noir shows, paranormal horror films, and YouTube videos of debris in abandoned homes are enlarged to focus on specific assemblages of things, compromising clarity and the quality of resolution. These genres of appropriation were chosen for their recycled notions of haunted objects entwined with the cliché figuration of melancholy and the memento mori motif. The appropriated clips were edited into short montages and exported into groups of individual frames that were used as datasets to create machine learning models to generate the final videos.

Each generated image was set to morph into the next at a defined pace, giving the assemblage of moving images incongruent variations of tempo, yet still maintaining a consistent flow. The generated videos displaced the sequential order of the original montages while also distorting symbolic coherence. The generated images serve as surface evidence of omission and abstraction that signifies zones of illegibility, which can also be considered to be a form of generative decay.

Photo credit: Frank Piccolo