Teledivinitry

Set of translucent Fujiflex 16” x 20” colour prints, mounted in custom lightboxes. Editions of 3.

2000–04

te-le-div-in-i-try (télidivinitri) n. the activity of divining meaning, thoughts, or ideas via a recording device such as film, video, or sound recorder // sensing and transmitting over long distances that which is perceived as divine

Recently I completed a film entitled Gambling, Gods and LSD. The opening credit sequence of that film is representative of certain processes I undertook while making it – likened to a kind of collecting or divining, in the sense of one who looks for water underground. The invented name for that visualization is ‘Teledivinitry’ – a name created by taking the meanings of several words and combining them.

The prints on display here are derived from that opening sequence, which sources a pool of many thousands of images. These images come from everywhere – from the film itself, as well as from hundreds of typical television and film broadcasts. Through a process of layering, the original images become individually indiscernible, giving way to a new type of visual interpretation.

The original clarity of representation is decayed, rendering an impression in which the ghosts of our future-past haunt a palimpsest of colour and bitmaps, glimmering as our collective unconscious - like archeological findings from a digital age.

The images are best viewed from varied distances. As one steps back, different shapes and figures will appear through the shifting perceivable resolutions.