Dear Reader,
After the success of my self portrait Now you see me, now you don’t: A sculpture of Alice Crane, my classmate Klaudia suggested that we record what I had done on a video. With Klaudia’s assistance we set up in the creative lab with a camera and tripod.
We recorded exactly what I had done off camera, which was me stepping out of my wheelchair and leaving the label on the seat. It was very powerful to re-enact this moment and see it on film. Seeing the impact this had on video led to further experimentation. We took a few short videos of me sitting in the chair deep in thought and another of my chair after I had left.
In this video of just my chair, Klaudia inadvertently captured a conversation between me and one of my peers as I spoke freely about the experiences I have faced as a wheelchair user. Although this wasn’t intended it added further depth to the recording. The words held more power as you couldn’t see me saying them, in my absence they had a greater impact. Although I had indended for this film to be a silent one, after hearing the audio of myself talking, I have decided that I would like there to be a monologue.
I really enjoyed this collaboration with Klaudia, and hope to work with her again.
