Output details

Images of Dynamics

Digital video: "Images of Dynamics", exhibited in the exhibition Image Dynamics, 798 Photo Gallery, 4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, People's Republic of China. 18 May – 17 June 2008.

This research explored new approaches to image making through motion graphics in relation to questions of how elements of photography, drawing and video can be combined to create intentional relationships between the subject and its re-presentation as finished art-work. It considered the mutation of themes and how these might be developed through complex or random branching structures, controlled by custom-built software engines.

Exploring the potential of collaborative practice led to the conceptualisation of an innovative working method for charting the evolution of successive generations of images, both moving and still. Twelve images combining photography, scanned drawings, direct drawing into the computer, and stills from video provided the ‘genetic’ material for cross-fertilisation. This took place in 12 segments of video, and in 12 further generations of still images, in which the basics of visual statements, the ‘DNA’ of the images were revealed through the processes of applying transformations to their code. Inverting the title of the exhibition to serve as a title for this work, the intention was to draw allusions to the activity inherent in an examination of the function of visual statements across media, and between the real and the virtual.

This work was presented in an exhibition at the Photo Gallery, an established exhibition venue in Beijing and a significant visitor destination. Curated by Wang Chunchen, Art Critic and Curator for the Chinese Pavilion of the Venice Biennale 2013 and of China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing it included major artists Liu Jin, Li Baitian, Matthew Barney, Joel Feldman and Thomas Rose. The research project was undertaken in collaboration with Raz Barfield at the International Drawing Research Institute, Glasgow School of Art.

The exhibition was supported by IDRI, GSA; Photo Gallery, Eyecon Digital Print Publishing Unit; and was featured in online and print media (http://www.798photogallery.cn/EN/exhibition/prevexhibition.html).