18:12:91 15:35 AEST
Video Installation, still documentation.
Proposal 2007 for 2008.
Daniel Kojta
On the 18th December 1991, in the early afternoon during a day in which I paid no attention to the quality of light or length of shadows, I made a decision which would alter my relationship with gravity and the horizon, by approximately thirty degrees.
In the usual time it takes to punctuate the drama of a tradgerty, I entered the shadow cast beneath the work shed. The work shed was being removed from the construction site I managed. It hovered a meter off the ground, enough space for me to enter and attach a chain to the axle from the crane.
It was forty-five minutes before there where enough men on the site to lift the work shed off my body.
Crisis. Crisis revives our instinct. No thought remains focussed in any other direction or distracted by its own actions. French existentialist, Merleau Ponty describes this moment as:
the prelinguistic communication between things, occurring before the advent of knowledge and consciousness.’
In that moment I lay folded in half with the weight of the shed pinning my body down. I laboured to breathe air into my lungs and drew on inhuman strength to maintain consciousness. The pain was beyond sensation.
This experience may be distinguished as a temporary suspension of chronological time. This acute sensory activity is otherwise known as the experience of the real, or mute perception. It is the obscure combination of the somatic effects of one who is both transfixed in wonder and transported by sense.
Past works have referenced the experience of the real in situations of natural phenomena . 18:12:91 15:35 AEST replicates a moment of pure presence within an experience of crisis. Pure presence occurs when as described by Author, Phillip fisher;
the experience is so striking to the mind that it does not remind us of anything and we find ourselves delaying in its presence for a time in which the mind does not move on by association to something else.
In those moments beneath the shed my consciousness levitated beyond any awareness of reality. 18:12:91 15:35 AEST, repeats the circumstances surrounding the injury which left me a paraplegic, manufacturing the experience of ‘pure presence’ and the instance that was to force fate into a collision with chance, changing my life forever. This moment repeats the experience beyond fear when the self is brought to a peak of concentration, mind, body, and soul saturating the body as a whole.
18:12:91 15:35 AEST repeats the scenario of falling caravans using a large crane to lift and release them. Presented as a series of projections lining either side of the gallery, five projections each side plus one on the ceiling.
The caravans will be hoisted individually to approximately fifteen meters and released to the arms of gravity, meeting the ground in a chorus of chaos. I will be positioned on the ground, seated, similar to when the injury occurred, appearing to be directly beneath in the line of fall. This is only in appearance. I will be positioned five to six meters away from camera. The caravan will fall between myself, and camera.
The shot will be repeated five times with five different caravans. Each caravan sequence is shot from five camera angles including inside the vans, and still photographed by a high-speed military camera.
In the gallery five projections either side. The left sequence shows a shot from each angle; Above, beneath, left and right sides, and inside.
The right sequence presents all five vans shot from ground level at the left side of the van in line with my seated position. The five caravans will fall in synch, however the audio of the crash will delay by two seconds. Each shot sequence falling at the same moment.
The final projection presented within a separate space displays a final projection on the ceiling. The sequence is shot from the ground looking up to the falling caravan. This sequence utilises the strength of silence to allow the visual discovery of the projection as a personal experience to each audience member.
A series of stills is also presented documenting the frame-by-frame destruction of each van as it hits the ground. These sequences are shot using the military high-speed camera. Approximately 80 frames per second. This documentary evidence will be presented in medical objectivity. Audio will be recorded locally to each sequence.
EQUIPMENT
ONSITE Caravan Sequences
High Definition Digital Video camera. 2 / 1 day. Insurance.
Digital Video Mini DV 3
Digital Still camera.
Tripods 2
Audio recording equip.
From the depths of the calm sea two serpents emerge
High Speed Military camera.
Hire of Crane 1 Day. 5 hrs $1100. 25tonne [min] 22mtr clearance. PC Cranes Penrith Contact: Lindsay 47222121
Purchase of wrecked Caravans 5 – with return for scrap.
Transport of caravans. To site and return.
Location rent. 2 Days.
Safety crew – Ambulance, rescue 1 Day.
GALLERY Presentation
Data Projectors 10 for duration of exhibition
Or Wide Screen monitors 10 plus insurance.
Audio
Framing of documentary stills.
The initial shoot is scheduled for three days. All sequences of caravans falling shot on one day to reduce hire of equipment and services from Safety crew and crane hire.
18:12:91 15:35 AEST 2008. Daniel Kojta.