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Brave Land
song / title By Raine Hamilton  

Video | Motion Capture | Photogrammetry & Unity programming:  Freya Björg Olafson
 

Music: "Brave Land" by Raine Hamilton

4k video | 3m53s

 

Installation / screening

 

2022

 

This video was commissioned by Jazz Winnipeg, for "Project Jazz" which had a number of artists working with moving images responding to local musicians' pre-existing music. The finished works were screened outdoors in Fall 2022. 
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Screen recorded from a digital game environment I created to replicate my real-life live / work space from the last 16 years, this video engages with the striking song ‘Brave Land’ by Raine Hamilton. A 3D model / avatar of myself is animated through both game controllers as well as custom motion capture files in order to move within the 3D LIDAR scans of my studio space and cutout collage imagery. The end result is a single-channel video that brings together machinima footage from the game environment and some IRL (in real life) video footage. This technical workflow allowed me to deepen my conceptual interest in replication, duplication, and iteration of the IRL ‘In Real Life’ / AFK ‘Away From Keyboard’ world.

As mobile internet became widely used in the early 2010s, theorists discussed the error of "digital dualism," arguing against the notion that life online is less authentic than life offline. Curator/writer Legacy Russell embraced this criticism in their 2020 publication Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto in which Russell highlights the "real" openings and opportunities that digital tools and glitch opens up for people of marginalized identities. This quote from ‘Glitch Feminism’ has stayed with me as I consider tools technologies of representation; mocap, lidar scanning, photogrammetry, etc. “Usurp the body. Become your avatar. Be the glitch.” The movement towards web3 and the metaverse continues to grow, as the investment in the related tools/platforms increases; 3D replication/representation, with interactivity and responsive movement enacted through digital doubles experienced through immersive viewers will soon reach a broader public.

“USURP THE BODY. BECOME YOUR AVATAR. BE THE GLITCH.”
- LEGACY RUSSELL / GLITCH FEMINISM: A MANIFESTO (2020)

Contact Freya for the password to view the work online

Distributed by:  VIDEO POOL MEDIA ARTS CENTER

A public art installation project newly expanded for Culture Days 2022, PROJECT JAZZ features ten projected onscreen moving images, brought to life by the innovative and creative energy of jazz. New visuals from filmmakers Freya Björg Olafson, Ervin Chartrand, Leigh Lugosi, Jason Wilkins + Scott Hadaller, and Joel Penner - inspired by music from Will Bonness, Raine Hamilton, Jon Gordon, Apollo Suns, and Onna Lou - join visuals by Leslie Supnet, Mike Maryniuk, and Hugh Conacher based on music from Derrick Gardner, Jocelyn Gould, Richard Moody, and Casati.

Screening History

October 2022   Culture Days - outdoor screening in Old Market Square organized by Jazz Winnipeg

November 2022   Jazz Winnipeg - online screening via their website

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