Now on Vimeo is a video presentation of selected images from the Mechanism series, with a soundtrack assembled from audio recorded as part of the process.
The audio track doesn't reward ambivalence. Played at a low to moderate volume it will simply be an annoying drone, but at a higher volume there's subtly and nuance that can be appreciated. The base track is a combination of recordings of the motor in the flatbed scanner that captured the Mechanism images, and they have been layered, shifted, and stretched to create interference and sounds that didn't previously exist. Also layered into the base is the underlying rattle from an industrial heater in a parking garage, which what what started me down the path that has brought me to here.
The sounds that are woven into the soundtrack include eastbound and westbound traffic recorded from between their respective express and collector lanes of Highway 401, subway trains, both curving between Spadina and St George stations and passing overhead on the Prince Edward (Bloor Street) Viaduct, the lunch crowd at a local food court, concrete pumpers building the foundations for the future One Bloor condo tower, the rattles of a 72A Pape TTC bus on an empty run downtown, and the late-night footsteps of people walking past in the long hallway of Spadina subway station. As with the images in the series, the sounds are an expression of the city that I live in.
It can also be found at vimeo.com/matthewrobertson/mechanism
The images used in the video are also in Mechanism – The Book, which can be ordered from Blurb either as an 8x10 softcover or as an electronic download.
A number of large prints will also be on display as part of the Annex Patio Art Show, this coming weekend of July 13 and 14, 2013.
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