A note on the video in version 1.0's THIS KIND OF RUCKUS

There’s a moment in many sporting matches (especially cricket and rugby league) where on-field arbiters are faced with moment in which they feel that their perspective is imperfect in order to make a definitive decision – in or out, try or no try. At these moments, they turn to the video, and ask for the camera to closely analyse and review what just occurred, often moments so fleeting that they are missed by the human eye. Over and over again the camera scans, reviewing frame by frame in ever-increasing close-up the event in question, edging continually closer to judgment.

The role of video in version 1.0’s This kind of ruckus is not to be an umpire or arbiter, but something of this role is certainly enacted throughout the performance. As the performers move throughout the work, their actions are analysed and closely scrutinised; slowed down, zoomed in uncomfortably close, and played back again and again in constantly changing configurations. In the process, this video landscape magnifies the detail of physical actions and offers new perspectives on fine emotional detail, shedding new light on the minutiae of these human behaviours.

In this sense, the video in version 1.0’s This kind of ruckus enables the construction of new stories about the onstage events, though probably not classically constructed stories with beginnings, middles and ends. Rather, the video continually and obsessively returns to the very recent past, teasing out the complexity of simple gestures and physical relationships, and in the process attempting to approach judgment without resolution.

Online program note by David Williams and Sean Bacon, August 2009

Images by Heidrun Lohr.