Bound i-iii
22 of 208 images taken over the Summer of 2018
Bound is a project that explores the liminal space of the Northern Ireland/ Ireland border through photography and sound. These recordings have been made at the roads that intersect this line and was born out of the highly contested political situation surrounding Brexit. The project aims to document the open, free movement that is currently enjoyed on the Island of Ireland.
The project breaks with traditional methods of displaying photography. Rather it experiments with using coding platforms to animate and explore the homogeny of the original images via the production of composites. The project also seeks to explore the intersection of the visual and sonic landscape through ambisonic recordings distributed throughout the installation space.
Each iteration of the project has been regenerative, with new archives of material created and methods explored.
Throughout the exhibition at Allenheads a new archive of composites was created. Over 95,000 unique images were produced that where then installed in Hawick, for Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival in May. These images animated with modes to create behaviours in an attempt to create a sense of fluctuation and questioning.
“James Davoll’s Bound (2019) explored the Irish border through two screens algorithmically displaying an assortment of photos taken on roads crossing the border. Reflecting the tensions inherent in the subject the screens they also contradicted one another – one highlighting individual landscapes and the static nature of the border, the other super-imposing them to illustrate their homogeny and creating a blurred motion effect in response to the roads’ traversing of the boundary.”
Nicohlson (2019), Wild wonder inside and out at Alchemy 2019, Sight and Sound
Diptych installation with multiple programmed behaviours and modes. 8 channel ambisonic audio.
The viewer is placed between fluctuating images of both the unprocessed documentation of the roads and the composites produced during show at ACA. The two screens facing each other interacting and responding to time and pattern.
Performance images courtesy of Alchemy credit: Oliver Benton.
Bound i, Installation at CCA, Glasgow, 2018.
Placing the viewer within the crossroads of the border each screen representing a cardinal direction. 4 channel sound.
Placing the viewer within the crossroads of the border each screen representing a cardinal direction. 4 channel sound.
Bound ii, Installation at ACA, Allenheads, 2019
Exploring both the original raw images, sounds and creation of new composite archive. 4 channel audio. Print and generative computer composites creating a new representative archive of the border. Over 95,000 unique images were produced during the exhibition. These new images were then worked upon and installed as part Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival.
Performance of Bound at Spaces of Intervention, Culture Lab, Newcastle, 24/10/2019.
This performance at Spaces of Intervention was a showcase of different methodological approaches and creative practices concerned with archives both made and found.
Recording of Processing application generating composite images.
Here you can see composites being made via the layering of pixel information from 32 images of the 206 roads. The number 32 selected as a representaion of the counties of the Island of Ireland. These images stack and unstack one at a time with the process allowing up to 36 undecillion unique variations. These works are an average of the pixel data rather than simple opacity changes.
Exploring both the original raw images, sounds and creation of new composite archive. 4 channel audio. Print and generative computer composites creating a new representative archive of the border. Over 95,000 unique images were produced during the exhibition. These new images were then worked upon and installed as part Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival.
Performance of Bound at Spaces of Intervention, Culture Lab, Newcastle, 24/10/2019.
This performance at Spaces of Intervention was a showcase of different methodological approaches and creative practices concerned with archives both made and found.
Recording of Processing application generating composite images.
Here you can see composites being made via the layering of pixel information from 32 images of the 206 roads. The number 32 selected as a representaion of the counties of the Island of Ireland. These images stack and unstack one at a time with the process allowing up to 36 undecillion unique variations. These works are an average of the pixel data rather than simple opacity changes.