Crreeeeps

Sound Loop | 10mins | Dec 2019

– So, apparently I’m a video artist now

– Are you sure they weren’t just throwing you shade?

Says my ex-coworker from my days as a video rental store clerk.

I know where they are coming from as we wait in line for our next Fantasia Film Festival film. We breathe sci-fi, horror and fantasy films with kids wearing shirts from metal bands, who cheer on Korean noodle commercials and make cat sounds mixed in with the occasional hiss of beer cans opening as the theatre goes dark. ^[1]Matthew David Surridge, “FANTASIA 2018, DAY 5, PART 1: NEOMANILA”, Black Gate: Adventures in fantasy literature, Aug 8, 2018, … Continue reading ^[2]Nick Allen, “Fantasia 2018: Just a Breath Away, Nightmare Cinema”, Rogert Ebert, July 13, 2018,  https://www.rogerebert.com/festivals/fantasia-2018-just-a-breath-away-nightmare-cinema, … Continue reading My professor was not throwing shade. I remind them of their friend Anna Hawkins, ^[3]Anna Hawkins, How to Chop an Onion, dual channel video installation, 2016, https://annahawkins.net/How-to-Chop-an-Onion, accessed on June 2, 2022. , the self-identifying video artist who, like me, does not fill the screen with one image, they cut it up into parts. We share our form, but as I read her website, I do not resonate with her approach.

The sculpture student told me they didn’t mind seeing the beginning of a film after it had already ended. But I did. The kids in metal shirts arrive on time for their screening and refrain from divulging spoilers. These are unwritten norms, but in the art gallery the viewer meanders at any time, they might chatter with their friend and leave when bored. ^[4]Dominique Chateau, “Art, Otherwise Than Art Cinema and Contemporary Art: A Mutual Challenge”, Post-cinema: Cinema in the Post-art Era, eds Dominique Chateau, José Moure, Amsterdam, Netherlands, … Continue reading

Crreeeeps (that’s two r’s and four e’s) is the looped soundtrack designed for a looped film designed to compensate for the art gallery environment. I seek to create a soundtrack that parallels my visuals such as in Pond and Antidote, where we vacillate between organic and digital, between figurative and abstraction. Walter Murch talks about a similar ambiguity created in the Lung Do Bridge scene of Apocalypse Now  where the sounds melt between the bridge repair, the chaos of the gun fight, the jungle and rock music of unknown origins. ^[5] Walter Murch, “Touch of Silence”, Lecture, Institut Francais, London, Friday 17 April 1998, in Soundscape, eds Larry Sider, Diane Freeman, Jerry Sider, London, Wallflower Press, 2003.   One moment Crreeeeps is a calming waves and the next time it is nails on a chalkboard. There is no dominant emotional state, akin to a moody teenager. Electronic sounds, a cello, an electric guitar and recordings from a Japanese temple are mixed to blur the line between soundscape and music.

As the hiss of beer can is replaced by the cracking of twisting off wine bottles tops, I am not sure what will happen next. I doubt I can get anyone to miaow, let alone yell at my screen, if I’m lucky, I might get some disgusted grunts. I’d also like to mention that drugs are not discouraged and I’m pleased that  someone has asked.