 |
| How To Get From 33 To 45 And Back Again (2000) Digital video [still] |
This work springsng from a fascination with the standards and common practices of recorded music. A popular jazz song – 'Sweet Man'
by Miss Rhapsody & Slam Stewart, dating from November 21st, 1944 –
which, on my copy at least, is credited as having 'unknown author', was
originally recorded and pressed onto a 78-speed shellac disc. Over the
years the recording has undergone numerous transformative processes in
its reproduction and distribution. For this work, the recording was
transposed from its speed of 33rpm on a vinyl album to the 45rpm of a
traditional single. This was recorded and then played back through the a
car's cassette player whilst driving along. This action was filmed and
the footage speed ratio altered to match the 'original' speed of the
music recording. The resulting scene is rendered with a strange, alien
quality - multiple time variations coexisting simultaneously. But were
the ratios also oddly familiar?
The conflicting versions of one element (the song - or, more specifically the recording
of the song) within the scene served to highlight countless unknown
variables that surround us. There is no way of knowing any detail about
the original instance of this event - the initial information
being set down as the song was performed and recorded in the studio. We
are distanced from the authenticity of the work by endless degrees of
approximation.
