Automaton

This is an exhibition of a single screen video projection in a group exhibition at Tate Britain and other venues.

The film was commissioned by the Film and Video Umbrella, for gallery exhibition, outdoor and cinematic screening and web-download. All works included in the exhibition were filmed in one single, continuous take.

My film ‘Automaton’ features the improvising percussionist Steve Noble playing a black and chrome drum-kit. The camera movement was programmed using a Motion Control camera rig (of the type often used in commercial cinema and television for special effects). One of the aims of the film was to represent on an equal footing, both the performance and the technology of its representation. The camera explored the drum-set from every angle during its elegant and complex journey, catching glimpses of the dynamic performance, which comprises the soundtrack. Referencing the ‘live’ single take in cinema (Orson Wells’, Touch of Evil) and the technology behind subjectively perceived camera movement e.g. The Steady-Cam as used by Stanley Kubric in The Shining or 2001, A Space Odyssey), my film also explored improvisation and the ‘live take’ in music.

The film can be reviewed on a web-site which accompanies the exhibition (www.single-shot.co.uk). The Exhibition was reviewed in The Times with a complementary paragraph dedicated to Automaton, which was also described positively by Jonathan Romney in a review in Modern Painters. The film will be profiled at the Estampa Art fair in Madrid in October 2007. Project supported by the Arts Council and Film Council of Great Britain.

Automaton was exhibited at Tate Britain during November - December 2006 and then toured to a number of venues around the UK and Ireland (including Manchester, Gateshead, Birmingham and Galway). Other Artists featured include Clio Barnard, Ori Gersht, Mike Marshall and George Barber.

• http://www.chelsea.arts.ac.uk/17271.htm
• http://www.single-shot.co.uk/
• http://www.seandower.com/