Thursday, May 27, 2010

get another perspective

 
The above OFS clip (and fantastic soundtrack) grants thinking space to create one's own relationship with the visual data presented. A morning TV news show packaged video footage described as "another perspective" on the Gulf oil spill. Amidst anxious narrative and jumpy editing in the news clip, the broad associative power of visual content is diminished. Underwater footage is always slightly uncomfortable, since the familiar figure/ground orientation is denied its usual ground. The landlubber's eye seeks horizontal planes: an undulating sandy ocean bottom, the occasional sparkling sunlit surface above. Apart from reminding me of Turner's atmospheres, the OFS clip is uncomfortable on all accounts.