Dreaming of the Tender Earth - Dubrek Studios

Dreaming of the Tender Earth

16mm cine film with guitar and amplification

Performed at Dubrek Studios, Derby, UK
6’ 50”

This work was made during a visit to Nevada during January 2024. It is a visual and sonic meditation on the delicate balance of the eco-system of the desert, the impending crisis of water due to unchecked consumption, underpinned by the ever-present threat of the consequences of human invention. Footage of the environment and flora of the desert are woven between glimpses of the Hoover Dam, the Las Vegas Strip, and fragments of a public information film, Duck and Cover, made in the USA at the height of the Cold War.

The use of 16mm cine film requires a very tactile and physical approach to the acts of filming, processing, editing and screening. The physicality and delicacy of the medium is emphasised by the visible marks of wear brought about by repeated cycling through a film projector. Combined with an interpretation of Elvis Presley’s Love Me Tender, performed on electric guitar with an ancient valve amplifier, the work evokes a sense of dream-world referring to the essential need to handle our environment with care.

The work extends my research into ‘cranky media.’ This being the use of physical media that is, by its physical qualities, delicate, prone to damage, wear, failure, and unpredictable behaviour. The sense in which the media pronounces its own agency through the outcomes of process and experience of performance is a central theme of current research.