The Blindspot Variation I

The Blindspot Variation II

The Blindspot Variation III

The Blindspot Variation IV

The Blindspot Variation V

The Blindspot Variation VI

The Blindspot Variation VII

The Blindspot Variation VIII

The Blindspot Variation IX

The Blindspot Variation X

The Blindspot Variations XI

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                       

                                   

                                                                                                             

 

                  

 

Show Description

The Blindspot Variations (2013-present)

This work is an ongoing exploration of the blindspot. The blindspot can be conceptualized in many ways (from the unrepresentable to the impossible), but is usually understood as something missing, as something to be exposed or concealed. I argue that this dominant ideology of the blindspot (from culture to politics, psychology to quantum physics)—is the deadliest weapon used by those in power today. To develop this critique, I have built a "Blindspot Machine" that, instead of exposing blindspots...produces a new theory of the blindspot itself.

The Blindspot Machine (BSM) includes different components: 1) A portable filmmaking apparatus (consisting of multiple video cameras, rotating head, etc.) that I conceptualized and built; 2) the films that the apparatus generates (so far, I have made five long form films, and have experimented with live projections of the BSM in a gallery space, interviews, music-videos, and installations); 3) the live over-narrations that I perform and that accompany every screening of a film (each film variation has several—significantly different—over-narrations, over twenty-five different narratives thus far); and 4), a monograph that is about twenty percent completed (which is not about the BSM, but is part of the machine in which I make claims about the relation between writing, researching, documenting, performing, and filmmaking); and the concepts central to the project (such as the concept of the blindspot itself as well as surveillance, temporality, disclosure, futurity, praxis, revolution, and the Japanese category of Ma, or negative time-space).

The Blindspot Variations (BV), Live-Film Performances

1. Los Angeles (UCLA). The Blindspot Variation 1: Participation, Nov. 14, 2014 (BV1)
2. London, Ontario (UWO). The Blindspot Variation 1: Future, Nov. 2014 (BV1) (video)
3. Florida (University of Florida, MRG). The Blindspot Variation 1: Revolution, March 26, 2015 (BV1)
4. Toronto (U of T). The Blindspot Variation 1: Survival, March 12, 2015 (BV1)
5. Toronto (GIPPEC). The Blindspot Variation 2: Terminality, October 2, 2015 (BV2)
6. Toronto (OCAD). The Blindspot Variation 2: PostAtomic, October 23, 2015 (BV2)
7. Toronto (Array Music, Tuning Speculation). The Blindspot Variation 1: Deafspot, November 23, 2015 (BV1)
8. Toronto (Gallery TPW). The Blindspot Variation 2: Movement, January 14-28, 2015 (BV2)
9. Toronto (Gallery TPW). The Blindspot Variation 3: Live Projection, (BV3)
10. Berkeley (U of California). The Blindspot Variation 2: Aftermath, Feb, 2016 (BV2)
11. Toronto (UTSC). The Blindspot Variation 2: Hope, March, 2016 (BV2)
12. London, UK (Forms of Criticism). The Blindspot Variation 2: Conceptual Art, June 30, 2016 (BV2)
13. Oslo (National Academy of Art). The Blindspot Variation 2: Political Art, November 21, 2016 (BV2)
14. Vancouver (UBC). The Blindspot Variation 4: Migrancy, Feb, 2017 (BV4)
15. Vancouver (SFU). The Blindspot Variation 4: University, Feb, 2017 (BV4)
16. Toronto (Rev Time). The Blindspot Variation 5: Time, March 25, 2017 (BV5)
17. Toronto (York). The Blindspot Variation 4: Migrancy, March 2017 (BV4)
18. Mexico City (La Esmeralda). The Blindspot Variation 4: Migrancy, April 4, 2017 (BV4)
19. Los Angeles (Cal Arts). The Blindspot Variation 4: Taking and Giving April 8, 2017 (BV4)
20. Los Angeles (UCLA). The Blindspot Variation 4: Movement, April 10, 2017 (BV4)
21. Chicago (University of Chicago). The Blindspot Variation 5: World, May 12, 2017 (BV5)
22. Toronto (Canadian Film Studies keynote). The Blindspot Variation 4: Vanishing Spot, Feb. 15, 2018 (BV4) (video)
23. San Diego (UCSD). The Blindspot Variation 2: Japanese Studies, Feb. 21, 2018 (BV2) (video)
24. Toronto (EAS). The Blindspot Variation 2: Map, April 6, 2018 (BV2)
25. Durham, NC (Duke U. Critical Theory Inst.). The Blindspot Variation 4: Future, April, 2018 (BV4)
26. Stuttgart, Germany (Solitude). The Blindspot Variation 5: Affordances, June 7, 2018 (BV5)
27. Toronto, (U of T). The Blindspot Variations X, January, 2019.
27. Limassol, Cyprus (NeMe Gallery). The Blindspot Variations XI River, September 2019