Exhibition Piece Proposal

...An artist walked on stage and sat at a piano in front of a massive expectant ordinance. He remained sat looking at the keys not playing for a long stretch of time before standing up and walking off the stage. The music was the ordinances growing impatient. Silence or not?...

This piece has been designed especially to adhere to the specifications laid down by a chosen individual. This piece will also be exhibited along side the work of five others which is a factor to take into consideration.

I propose a piece of work to be projected onto one of the galleries walls. A blank piece of sheet music blown out of all proportion at about a meter across. Representing silence this image is flashing, two flashes per second to represent persistence. There is then a break of ten seconds before the flashing starts up again at a faster pace. The flashing keeps that up at that pace for two minutes before another break of ten seconds then returning to the original flashing speed.

I propose to borrow the overhead projector either from the university, and the video work will be created using final cut pro. The video itself will take roughly a week to get fully prepared for exhibition. The overhead projector will depend on availability.

The affect intended by this piece is to slightly stress out the visitor. By creating a factor that affects one of the senses in a way the visitor cannot control should aggravate that sense, this will be done by the persistence of the flashing. Ideally the gallery should be slightly dimmed to show of the flashing to its full affect. Where ever the visitor looks within the exhibition the flashing will always be there in the back of their perception, affecting the thought processes.

The flashing represents an element of persistence. It effects the way you think, the more you try to ignore it the more it annoys you. You start to think of nothing else. When there is a break in the persistence you calm down and thank god the annoyance has gone away. only to have it start up again at a faster pace ten seconds later.

There is an element of research within this piece and I intend to ask visitors wether the flashing did effect them in any way. My current hypothesis is that the visitors that rate themselves as relaxed individuals will not be as affected by the flashing, and that the visitors that rate their stress level as high or mood that day as bad will be far more aggravated as the persistent flashing...

...an element they have no control over.

Danielle Birkhead