Two Video Errors

MiniDV, 7:11 min, color, sound, 2022

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This video features unexpected transfer errors in the MIniDV footage I recorded at the Ásmundarsafn in Reykjavík. The old cassette had likely coated the camcorder tapehead with debris that interfered with the transfer.

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I performed the editing in-camera using a method I call Swiss-Cheesing—randomly scanning back and forth on a tape, dropping new video through old footage. Since MiniDV records digital information as interlaced lines on the tape, errors manifest bars across the footage like Barnett Newman zips, making it difficult to tell foreground from background, past from present.

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The title of the recorded exhibition—Loftskurður—a collaboration between Rósa Gísladóttir and Ásmundur Sveinsson—translates literally to “air cutting” or “spatial Infractions."

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