Based on the concept of accelerated perception—the faster we move the more we observe—I created a video that explores the basic principles of this idea. With speed we visually sense more data—we see more, we process more. As Paul Virilio claims in his book “Open Sky,” speed not only allows us to move or travel more easily, it enables us above all to see, to hear, to perceive and thus to conceive the present world more intensely.
The video utilizes the synergy of an audio recording of an individual vocalizing excerpts from Virilio (Open Sky) and Parmenides (The Way of Truth and The Way of Opinion), and a video recording of key words from Virilio. In the video I merge the thoughts of Virilio, a philosopher of contemporary thought, with thoughts of Parmenides, a philosopher of classical thought. Although these two philosophers lived at the end of different millennia their views on time and perception are very similar; in a way this dialogue is a conceptual bridge over time.
The speed of the visual delivery accelerates and decelerates on a cyclical principle throughout the video. In theory we analyze, and process sound faster than image: while the eye is more spatially adept, the ear is more temporally adept. In my video the speed of the audio delivery does not always match the speed of the visual delivery thereby challenging and puzzling an observer’s perception. At certain intervals one voice becomes clearer than the other, and just when a viewer starts to decipher the vocalized data the delivery accelerates and total recognition is lost. The video intentionally overloads ones’ senses and to a degree confuses perception.
Creative direction: Danilo Bojic, Beckham Dossett | Sequencing: Danilo Bojic. Created at University of Houston.
