Quase Mapa/Quase Mancha

[Almost Map] [Almost Stain] 1981
Video. Color, Greenish tinged; intermittent, intentional blurring                           
Sound : Cacophony of metallic clattering
Duration : 3’22”   
Camera/production with Cockpit Studio

Summary                                                                                                                                        
The video is featured within an installation by the same name, looped and projected onto a table covered in soft fabric. Comparable, camouflage-type imagery was projected as a frieze, defining the height and dimensions of the space.

Overview
Imagery alternates focus between tight and blurred as the camera swings, spins and pans over what appears to be fabric. In turns, it evokes camouflage material used for military combat uniforms but also, guerilla garb and resistance streetwear.  Both forms of power impact how maps are drawn literally, culturally and tactically.  The patterns also imply land formations associated with mapping but also, the accidental patterns created by random stains. 
The ambiguity and confluence of interpretations bombards viewers as does the din of the assaultive soundtrack. The sensation – that all is moving faster than spectators can process — creates a disorienting, immersive, psychological-physical atmosphere.

Historical note
The installation has site-specific dimensions and has been presented in numerous iterations. 
Filmed with Cockpit Studio, this may have been among the last works produced at Robert Sandoval’s avantgarde media enterprise. Before it shut down (due to storm flooding in 1981), the space served as a hub and tech resource for several media art pioneers. 
Within the chronology of Anna Bella Geiger’s filmography, this video signifies a departure from her first, still camera and “following” camera performative works intended for single monitor presentation.  
The incorporation of moving image dimensions to enliven spectator space, recalls her first experiments with slide projection (Circumbulatio, 1972) and introduces the video-within-multi-media-installation idiom she has continued to develop in the 2020s.