A profound difference: InDialogue Symposium

Young Europeans studying at the University of Derby were invited to be filmed and speaking of their attitudes towards the outcome of the EU referendum. They were given the choice to speak in their own language or in English. A stipulation was the time duration of sixteen seconds, imposed due to the limitations of the mechanism of the camera for the production of slow-motion footage. Each loop recycles over a period of approximately one minute.

The employment of slow-motion transforms the rendering of the act of speaking into a dramatic performance, heightening the awareness of the viewer to the movements of the face, the intonation of words (e.g. as the lips purse to form the Br of Brexit) and the perceived quality of expression as the act of speaking slowly unfolds throughout the duration of the film as sixteen seconds is expanded into sixty.

The division of the face into light and dark, the silence of the footage against the mechanical noise of the projector, the cyclical repetition of the footage, allude to the social polarisation caused by this political process and the sense alienation felt by many young Europeans who live, study and work here.

The film is presented as an Installation of 16mm cine projectors with films on continuous loops.

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International