Bleep test

Bleep test
As I was working on "Tent Film" I had the simple Idea of doing a Bleep test with the space in which to run decreased ten times so that the runner was only traveling two meters instead of twenty. A bleep test "involves running continuously between two points that are 20 m apart. These runs are synchronized with a pre-recorded audiotape or CD, which plays beeps at set intervals. As the test proceeds, the interval between each successive beep reduces, forcing the athlete to increase velocity over the course of the test, until it is impossible to keep in sync with the recording". However this method of fitness was then made extremely easy to do. This obviously makes the activity of exercise ridiculous as it means that the runner would always finish. This allowed the framework to make a performance and film the results but left the element of the unknown.
I discussed this idea with Danny and he liking the subject matter of the absurd and surreal so we began to discuss the subject of collaboration. We talked about the idea of filming from multiple directions and the sinking the footage up. This was a technique adopted in Germany to record the visuals and sound from different sources. This was achieved by the use of a clapperboard, to find where the clap was on the audio and on the visuals and then sink. We used it to find the clap on all the separate angels and then sink it that way. The idea started to evolve in to mimicking the way that when we dream it is sometimes possible to see from multiple positions or perspectives. Where as when we are awake we can only see though one position, our eyes. I have always been fascinated with the idea that you could see through the eyes of someone, somewhere.
After the performance, I began to think that the costumes and props as well as the theme could be related to dreaming. In a literal sense we some time say "I have been running through my mind all night". Costumes and props that where used began to represent different thing, some were thought through and intentional but some where also discussed after and found when viewing the footage. I was interested in the sculptural nature of these objects that then began to tell a story of how they became involved. They also began to relate to different ideas and also how they related to the objects around them. In the same was as the movement of DADA used found objects and transformed them into sculptures, I began to adopt this method. I started looking at questions of gallery context and how when an object is placed in a white room or a space defined for art, it becomes art.