Ninth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

The talk describes the processes and outcome involved in the creation of 3 examples of video art (A Mother Grieves for Her Son, Ghosts of Concordia and Glorias), where the methodology of production derives from a reframing of traditional habits of image acquisition and consumption: The pieces -created between 2014 and 2017-, combine computer vision techniques with archive news footage and 3D animation, in order to propose new readings on notions of contingency, re-mediating the archive, in order to address the distance between witness, news events (the floods of Concordia in Argentina, the shooting of a university student in Venezuela and the riots of the 21st of May in Chile), and the distant observer for whom the practice of observing usually has become an activity of consumption, rather than an mode of contemplation and reflection. The paper proposes the possibility of using computer vision -particularly the kind that is applied within the film and entertainment industry- not merely as a tool-set for content production, but as a medium that can contribute towards committed viewership from artists, implying that a context of image overexposure demands new habits of observation that may materialize in significant artistic project within the field of digital media.