Video installation with sound
37 minutes, 4:3 aspect ratio, 1080p resolution, stereo
Shot on low-resolution digital camera & DV cam, sound composed on virtual & digital synthesizers
2001-2005 / final edit 2020

"5 seconds" is a video installation composed of a stream of very short daydreams.
Intended as a small wall projection, the 37-minute loop strings together two hundred 5-second videos. There is no requisite beginning or end. 
The videos are separated by barely perceptible “phosphene” interludes, like literal and figurative breaths. Reminiscent of our shared embodiment and imagination, these transitions are themselves manipulated videos.

In 2001, I bought one of the first still digital cameras with video capabilities. This added a twist: ultra-short recording time and ultra-low video resolution. These constraints became my canvas, and the city where I was living at the time, Paris, my subject.
Each day I shot a video, and each day I used computer synths and sampling to edit source audio and create visceral soundtracks. I imagine the marriage between image and sound in “5 seconds” as a critical part of the experience.

“5 seconds” was initiated just before the advent of smartphones and ubiquitous video. Juxtaposed against the performative videos flooding social networks, “5 seconds” is ever relevant as an experiment in short-form expressionism. Something like a long series of lucid dreams, or a sensorial invitation.