Brandon Morse
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Though my work relies on digital technology as a staple component of its making, its content does not seek to tie itself to modernist explorations of traits bestowed on this recent addition to artistic practice. The conceptual focus of my work is instead the development and portrayal of situations of a specifically vague nature. To this end, I create computer generated sequences of video and audio which situate themselves somewhere between a specific narrative, and a non-event. These video components are then integrated into sculptural or installation settings to exist as multi-channel video objects. Frequently the video portion of my work revolves around the depiction of sets of objects of an ambiguous scale, which seem to have a specific relationship to one another. This relationship often revolves around simple acts of touching, pushing, poking, or pulling. For example, one object may sporadically tug at another object, dragging it around the image plane. Specific roles for each object emerge, yet the rationale, setting, and history of these actions are never made clear. The important thing is the action, not the narrative surrounding it. They are the examination of interaction; stripped from context, plot, and history. To me, this in some ways parallels the way I perceive human interaction: as a series of instinctual actions or reactions stemming from the cellular level, oftentimes immediate and isolated from memory, and reason. I feel our higher reasoning functions are often steered by these low-level binary reactions of like or dislike, trust or distrust... These decisions are made immediately and are as unpredictable, irrational, and unmanageable as acts of nature. A key vein of my work revolves around the depiction of that place and time at which these judgments are made: an exploration of this process playing itself out on a level that can be nothing but instinctual. Will we listen to and appreciate what someone is telling us? Is this someone we can believe in? We ask ourselves these questions each and every time we meet someone, but the answers precede the questions due to instinctual guidance. True, these decisions are frequently overridden, but my interests lie in those first instants where our cerebrum is preempted by more basic, and perhaps clearer, instinctual reaction.
A second vein of my work revolves around environmental processes: the depiction of weather is of particular interest. At its base, my attraction to weather phenomena is simply an interest in the sheer volume of action and reaction taking place simultaneously and constantly. While not a mathematician, I have a fascination with the equations involved in the forces at work which create phenomena such as tornadoes, pressure fronts, and precipitation. Other natural processes such as erosion, and plant growth hold this same fascination. I use the computer and basic algorithms to create extremely low-resolution versions of these processes. At a higher level, I believe there are many procedural and physical similarities between the instinctual judgments made in our subconscious, and the processes which determine weather, or govern things like plant growth, and erosion. While erratic and unpredictable at first glance, there are base survival issues common to our instinctual processes and those determining how and where a tree grows, for example. I also find similarity between the unyielding, predetermining force of instinct, and the forces in play on a much larger scale in the landscape. In some ways, weather phenomena represent the opposite end of a spectrum. Where the instinctual reactions are singular and immediate, the environmental work attempts to recognize actions and reactions happening en masse and over a sustained period of time. In this way, the environmental pieces can be seen as analogy to our higher consciousness in that our higher reasoning functions are resultant from countless iterations of singular reactions. Masses of binary reactions, working with and against eachother coalesce; when critical mass is reached, consciousness, with all of its contradictions and precariousness emerges.
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