This video was shot in 2001 on the midway during Hamilton, Ontario's annual Aquafest. In 2004 I revisited the piece of footage and created this loop.

This video references the zoetrope¹, an invention that predates Edison’s and Lumiere’s moving pictures of the 1890’s by over 50 years. A zoetrope is a circular device with slits cut vertically in the sides that has either individual drawn images or a set of sequenced photographs arranged on the inside. When rotated and viewed through the slits on the outside, the pictures are seen in rapid succession and a moving image is observed. Shot at the midway of Hamilton’s Aquafest in 2001, the video shows the classic Roundup carnival ride. The Roundup uses centrifugal force to keep the riders in place, effectively using speed to induce motionlessness.

This simple video shows human bodies frozen in a strange interstitial utopia - released from the regular pull of gravity yet caged by a new force, the bodies dangle, revolving aimlessly until eventually the ride ends and everyone returns to Earth. However, in this video I have cut out the part where the ride stops, leaving the ride to endlessly spin as it moves up and down.

In most of my video work I try to use the fast medium of digital video to immobilize movement (which inevitably leads to failure). Rooted in the history of performance and photography, where the subject was required to try and remain motionless, the real-time video-projected tableaux vivants that I call Stills are the backbone of my current practice. This video is a departure from my Stills, but maintains the concerns of bodies, time, motion, speed, and the act of recording.