dogwatchingtv
52 min., mini dv, 2003
A mute toned tapestry of seduction and attention. A dog, from a living room floor, looks up at a television that stands atop a home entertainment center a foot or so above its head. The James Bond movie, "Goldfinger", dubbed in German, plays on the screen. The dog, in continual engagement with the unfolding dramatic action, paces to and fro over the carpeted floor with a plant bedecked windowsill for backdrop. As the screen tension increases the dog reacts appropriately, bites at its rubber toy, moves close to the screen, totally entranced. When action subsides, it moves back to a couch, lying down but still watching from afar. A climax is reached as Bond defuses a bomb's timing device, which the dog nervously observes with an ever-closer proximity to the screen. It ends with the dog watching with interest as the credits roll by.
It's a 60-minute video broken up into (approx. 5 min) segments following the attention span of the dog. The piece presented here is taken from the end of the video when the dog seems to be drawn in by the threat of the impending conclusion of the movie.
The video has been presented at:
Kunst Berlin, Galleries at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst
1st New Media Art Festival Chiang Mai (Thailand)
trampoline, Berlin
Ulrike Solbrig, Germany: Chausseestr. 110-I, 10115 Berlin, tel.: +49 1557 43 5656 3 ulrike@solbrig.de