Further Known Screenings:
Arnolfini, Bristol
1977 Artists Video, Biddick Farm Arts Centre, Washington, Tyne and Wear
1978 Whitechapel Gallery
London College of Printing
1997 Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
2001 The Anthony Wilkinson Gallery, London
2005 Silent Shorts, Dusseldorf (re-edited to 8mins and silent!)

“Static Acceleration was first made in a 17 minute version on a half-inch open reel edit deck. A relatively new medium for artists at that time, video was still in the process of being explored for its possibilities and limitations. This is one of a series of works I made in the 1970’s examining specific technical properties while also relating them to expressive or emotive content. While Static Acceleration has an emotive element that can only come from a viewer watching the tape, this piece can be described as analytical of the scanning process both in relation to the physical tape and the cathode ray tube.
A one-minute take was made of my head twisting from side to side at a rapidly increasing rate, stopping only after I went as fast as I possibly could. This was then re-recorded by camera from a monitor with the action being gradually slowed down to play at a constant rate in time with a series of loud regular beats. Using the alarmingly small tape-speed knob on the 1970’s Sony edit deck to progressively slow down the action, the movement of the head stretches the ability of the record-head drum to coherently represent the action, while also displaying its own technical limitations.” David Critchley