discoordinate
video installation, 2023



discoordinate comprises four video loops, each depicting a digital body struggling as it attempts to escape the visual space of the screen. Each body’s entire skin is made of repeating faces. Shown as an installation, the videos appear on four vertical screens on pneumatic arm mounts that reach out from the wall at different angles. The digital bodies are driven by captured motion data of the artist testing the boundaries of an Optitrack motion capture system’s vision, climbing slowly over the edge of the measurable volume. As she crosses the threshold of visibility, the coordinates of her joints stop reading; the avatar body glitches until it goes limp. Meanwhile, the virtual camera used to render the final images of the avatar body has its own imposed limitation of vision. As the body comes closer to the viewer’s perspective, it is vivisected, revealing its hollow interior where more faces appear on inner surfaces. How can the body resist machinic representation or use it to expand its dimensions?