Jay Gilligan and Matias Salmenaho
experiments in technique
Technique is nothing without something to say. These words we are writing have no meaning if all they talk about is how to write words. Fingers striking keys on a computer, the up and down motion of the button, sending electrical impulses to form little collections of dots on the screen in the shape of letters- all this tells you nothing about what we want to say. The craft of turning a physical action such as moving a finger into words on a page that you can read has nothing to do with the art of expressing something of value, something you cannot find anywhere (or anytime) else in the world.
Also, to show that we can type these words really fast, or really small, or different colours does not help to convey our message. Your computer can probably do tricks ours cannot. Alternatively, the craft of language, being written by the arrangement of dots in the shapes of letters, letters into words, words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, also fails to meet our needs. Of course the more words you know of a language, the better your chance is of expressing yourself successfully. However, using eloquent language for the sake of it, gratuitous technique just because you can, does not talk about anything more than the craft of speaking. The content is still missing.
It is in the editing and selecting of the correct techniques that will result in the unique arrangement of the letters on this page (in this show), which will give you an experience you have not had before, an experience that will move you, that will make you stop and think, not only about how we said it but what we said. We cannot tell you on paper what our show is about. The techniques we had to use to write our message were movement, time, and humanity. These tools’ capabilities were beyond our currently available technique to communicate our thoughts by simply hitting a few keystrokes. (Jay Gilligan & Matias Salmenano)
NTSC
DVD All Regions
61 minutes
wise words
