Pointing a live video camera at it’s own projection gives what is known as a “video feedback loop.” The camera reads the screen and then projects the image, in a repeating vortex. By carefully adjusting the angles and standard controls on a mid-1990’s-era video camera, Ethan Turpin isolates the self-sustaining patterns. The real-time animation can move from patterns resembling pantheistic design to microorganisms expanded to a human scale, evoking the uncanny feeling that life has emerged from within the system. Participants can move in the space between the camera and projection screen surface, integrating into the abstracted image.
Santa Barbara-based artist Ethan Turpin received his BFA from Kansas City Art Institute, MO. He has been awarded the Visions For a New California Award (2010) and the William T. Colville Memorial Grant (2006). Turpin has recently shown at the California Museum of Photography, University of California, Riverside; 18th Street Arts, Santa Monica, CA; and Kala Art Institute Gallery, Berkeley, CA.
Exhibition Publication (PDF)
Special Thanks to:
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York, NY;Casa Magazine, Santa Barbara, CA; Eric Chirnside, Santa Barbara, CA; The James Irvine Foundation, San Francisco, CA; Jensen Audio Visual, Santa Barbara, CA; Santa Barbara Independent, CA; Santa Barbara News-Press, CA; and Wayne McCall & Associates, Santa Barbara, CA.