On slow violence

'On Slow Violence' is the third in a series of experimental pieces created by Andy Hurst. The research examines how light projected through haze can be used to create manipulable spaces and performative objects for live performance and installation work. The phrase ‘Slow Violence’ was first coined by Rob Nixon (2004) as a way of describing the persistent yet almost imperceptibly destructive nature of large-scale cataclysmic ecological events. He argues that both the physical and the societal impact of events such as deforestation, the accumulation of greenhouse gasses or large scale oil spills can never have the same immediate affecting impact as media friendly, high shock atrocities such as the graphic images of terrorism that seem to form the mainstay of current news broadcasting.

On Slow Violence is an artistic response to that point of view. The installation gives visitors the opportunity to play with a changeable environment – one that reacts immediately to the touch of a screen. Sounds change and warp to accompany this physical manipulation and create the sense of both natural and unnatural atmospheres. Five people can work together to control the solid light scene, almost as a visual instrument, or the space can be explored as an individual, simply observing the landscape. The outcomes of such interactions on the light environment can be at once unpredictable, engaging, destructive, amusing and visually intriguing.

The short documentary submitted here gives viewers an insight into the development of the piece and the some of the thinking behind the use of light as a manipulable object