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Tim Skinner - Enclosed

2:48, 2008, Video Art
 
My artwork explores the visual beauty of sound, documenting it"s effects on water. for this piece I explored the sound of a human heartbeat.
DirectorTim Skinner
 

CountryUnited KingdomEdition2008 ScreeningsE32 gallery, new york city, usa, 11/07 key arts, ipswich, uk, 12/07 the lloyd gill gallery, weston-super-mare, uk, 05/08
 

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Interview

 
Who is Tim Skinner?
27yro new media installation artist based in Essex, England.



Your film is about?
Recorded in 2007 the film explores the visual beauty of sounds ability to manipulate water. In this case I was exploring the sonic effects of the human heartbeat.



How did you start with film? And do you have an educational background in art or film?
I started with film through a natural progression within my art practice, I had been creating visually amazing installation pieces. The pieces operated within the fourth dimension so I needed to document, record, and research, film was just a natural progression. I have an educational background within art, BA Hons at Colchester School of Art. Within my course I did experiment with film, I find it to be a very versitile medium.



Could you explain how you work, what themes or concepts and what is important to you?
For many years now I have been exploring ways to show music and sound visually. First started with me drawing to music, but on one cold wet morning in 2004, whilst preparing a cup of tea I looked outside and my eyes focused on the rain drops hitting the puddles. It dawned on me, why not explore water, the first piece created was an interactive piece where people could create any sounds they desire via a microphone and they could see thier voices appearing in a pool of water.



Where do you get your ideas or influences from?
Ideas just evolve but influences come from many spheres, artists such as Kandinsky, and Susan Hiller have played a very important role within my work. Painters, Rembrandt and Hammershoi create visually still, emotionally charged canvases, which are elements I always allow enter my work.



How does the title relate to the work, and how do you find a fitting title?
The piece was originally created for a show called ’Enclosure’, I wanted to create a piece that was dark and felt traped.



How does content relate to the form of your work?
The content is my work.



How important is sound in film, and if you use sounds, do you create your own or use existing?
Sound is the film, but I do like to cut the sound away sometimes, the visuals then become more ambiguous, allowing to create there own patterns.



How do you finance your projects (by yourself, sponsors or subsidy)?
Myself at the mo.



Nowadays everyone with the right equipment can create videoart, good, bad or ugly?
Visual understanding is very important within all the mediums art, videoart is no exception. Equipment isn’t the key to making good video, visuals are, but then again it depends on what you believe videoart to be.



What possibilities of the web are yet to be explored? Which dangers do you see ahead?
Not to sure, possibilities will emerge aslong as we progress. There are never any dangers within art, the impressionist saw danger when photography arrived, they just deversived in order to understand.



Video broadcasting platforms on the internet, why or why not?
Lets see where it takes us, video broadcasting platforms are going to exist. With the advent of flat screnn tv’s and afordable video projectors this is making video art more accessable, online platforms are doing the same.



In what category would you place your work; cinema or art. And is there a difference between those?
Art, there are differences but the boundaries are blured. Same as art in connection with; music, design, poetry, dance, etc.



How important is the reaction to your film by the audience?
Tough question to answer, it’s up to the viewer.



What is your next project about?
Continuation of the theme but perhaps exploring the video medium in a more abstract way.

 

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