The double squint, two places made one: Affect and audio-visual installations

Abstract

Through five audio-visual installations representing three scenarios, this research project considers place-specific affect: the affect produced when two contrasting places are brought together to form a third, different place. Each installation focusses on combining or superimposing views of two or more places that are familiar in some way but become a different, unfamiliar, third place through this superimposition. Through this resulting dislocation the project seeks to gain a new understanding of place-specific affect. The metaphor of the Double Squint, where two normally impossible (or unlikely) views are brought together, is woven throughout the practice and reflected in the written thesis in which theoreticians, artists and the works in this project are discussed in a verbal tapestry of juxtapositions that reflect the superimposition and contextual overlapping in the practice as described below. Through the works of writers and artists concerning affect, place and power/relationships this project posits definitions that seek to be consistent through the three works. Similarly, the practical application of these is explored through work focussing specifically on place, frames/ thresholds and the use of sound. The affect produced combines the expectations and experience of the viewer with the choice of both audio-visual footage and the specific site of its installation. The entrance of the viewer into the space of the installation triggers a process of affect which generates a third place, which is the point of intersection of all these elements: the visual elements, the location and the mind of the subject (viewer). This combination of places/elements/viewer produces another space and affect which is the seat of the art. The sites/places chosen for this project share key features: their influence, whether positive or negative, on our life experiences and, therefore, on our expectations on being exposed to them, their connotations re the locus of power, our experience and understanding of the concept of home or belonging, and their physical architecture. The three pieces also share an emphasis on the accompanying sounds which, although actually those heard whilst the footage was being filmed, serve to add to the dislocation. Still small voice brings together two different churches in a large lecture theatre and its foyer, the pulpit and pews being reflected in the dais and seating. I don’t have much news is confined to the home, combining a repetition of daily routine with a narrow view of the outside world through the television screen and is screened in both a large, empty lecture theatre and an empty office. Body and soul returns to power hierarchies. Featuring old anatomy and operating theatres it focusses on wealth versus poverty and women’s position in this and is screened in a small lecture theatre and conference suite, implicating the spectator more closely in the potential spectacle and referencing life drawing in the art school. Through the scenarios/installations encompassed by this project the location of art as a conceptual space is questioned. The practice is the basis for reflection on ideas of site-specificity, temporality and affect in contemporary art, above all, affect. The outcomes of the project extend these ideas and may prove of significant value to other artists and writers in the field.

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