Output details

Iris Out - video film

As with previous videos of Payne, the colour in Iris Out is derived from the palette that comprises the colours in the standard test signal image. The tones that accompany each colour likewise refer to the test signal. In the fast pace of the piece several colour composites, combinations and ‘overtones’ might be perceived, but what’s interesting to me is the tension between the nominal accuracy of the digital colours and sound, which ordinarily constitute a visual and aural reference point, and the complex nature of what the viewer perceives.

An additional technical and formal issue that the piece explores is the move from the standard definition screen ratio of 4:3 to widescreen, and the distortion that this often affects. The piece is fundamentally comprised of two sequence types, based on ‘transitions’ called irises. In addition to being perceived as expanding or contracting the circles can be read as diminishing or advancing in depth, and in this respect the piece activates cues regarding motion in depth as well as on the surface of the screen. The central figure of the iris refers to the act of vision that the piece engages.

Iris Out has shown in a number of international film festivals, screenings and exhibitions, including: the Rotterdam International Film Festival; the European Media Arts Festival, Osnabrück; Media City, Windsor, Ontario; Videoex, International Experimental Film Festival, Zurich; Phenomena in Flux, Edinburgh International Film Festival; 25 FPS, Zagreb, Croatia; Reading Experimental Film Festival; Colour Field Frames, Modern Art Oxford. Iris Out is cited in the following publications: A.L. Rees (2011) A History of Experimental Film and Video. 2nd edition. London: BFI; and Ed Small (2013) Direct Theory: Experimental Film as a Major Genre Illinois: University of Southern Illinois