Progressive Recession (1974)
Creator:
Hall, David-
This work is part of the rewind archive.
Duration: Continuous
Year: 1974
Media types:Video
Type of work:Multi-screen interactive video installation
Funding source: Arts Council of Great Britain
First exhibited: The Video Show, Serpentine Gallery, London 1975
Technical details: 'The installation utilises 9 cameras and 9 monitors (but no recording equipment) in a corridor configuration. 2 monitors are placed either end - facing each other - and the rest line one side. Each has a camera placed on top. The first monitor, at the side on entering the corridor, reflects the participant facing it - the camera above is directly linked to it. The second remains blank when facing it, the image from its camera appears on the next, ahead of the participant's move along the corridor. The third is also blank with its camera's output appearing on the monitor two ahead, and so on - the image moving further ahead by a systematic rate of 'acceleration'. The return journey along the corridor is similarly structured - participant relative to his/her image. The two end monitors are linked to their opposite cameras, each image receding away with the participant's move towards it..' David Hall, 1974 Requirements: 9 monitors, 9 video cameras, custom built plinths and corridor enclosure.
‘A live interactive installation (using no recording equipment) which, as the participant moves through, progressively separates and distances his/her image from its origin.’ David Hall 1974
‘Many early installations were devised as a complex analogical mirror where the viewer, interacting with his/her image as collaborator rather than spectator, was simultaneously the viewed in a process of ‘self-referring consciousness’. It is quite evident here that artists were intent on exploring relationships of hitherto unapproachable psychological innovation and response, where the formal, physical (and technological) framework was essentially the site of the experience…’ David Hall, Early Video Art: A Look at a Controversial History, Diverse Practices: A Critical Reader on British Video Art 1996.
Progressive Recession, technical information sheet & sketches.pdf here
Study of British Video Installation work which makes reference to David Hall’s works, 1984.pdf here
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