A Conflict Of Interest
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A Conflict Of Interests is a multimedia installation that consists of a projection of three synchronised screens that depict still based historical images that are viewed at high speed while being juxtaposed against a stylised professional dance pole that is situated in front of the central screen. The images are colour coordinated to the colours of the French flag in an up-tempo syncopated style that is accompanied by a four-minute electro dance soundtrack Modern Feeling.
The dance pole symbolies Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic pleasure principle theory which relates to the psychic force that motivates people to seek immediate gratification of instinctual impulses. The French flag colours symbolies the 18th century intellectual and philosophical movement known as The Age Of Enlightenment or The Age of Reason that in France were the central doctrines of the philosophy of individual liberty and religious tolerance.
At the beginning and at minute intervals a message will appear stating that a performance will start in the minutes remaining alluding to the dance pole in front of the syncopated screens. At the end of the four minutes, the stated performance does not start and the work begins again on a loop.
The inbuilt looped mechanism device that curtails the promised pole dancing performance alludes to the philosophical point known as the “Useless Machine” that was pioneered by the Italian artist, designer and inventor Bruno Munari in the 1930s and expanded upon by the MIT professor and artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky in the1950’s.
The selected images relate to 20th & 21st century historical conflicts and events, political personalities, social activist’s, the global expansion of the international arms trade, the militarisation of the police force by sovereign states and private military contractors and of civilian demonstrations, street protests and riots.
The work you are viewing is a digital rendered sculptural Marquette.
Medium: Multimedia Installation.
Year: 2023
Size: Various / 7 x 6 x 3.5 meters.
Soundtrack Modern Feeling (JCB Mix) Ikara Colt.