By: Suzanne Mooney
Medium: Single channel video with sound by Giles Packham.
Duration: 5:33 mins, looped
Date: 2022
Lenses are optical devices which focus and disperse light by means of refraction. The lens helps us see beyond human vision, expanding our worlds at both macro and micro levels. However, these ground orbs of glass can also warp, distort and create illusions to deceive our eyes. Mediated through many layers of screens and lenses, SCOPE (2022) is an exploration into optical focus, without providing much clarity.
Central to the work is a 1980s space kit, produced by the National Geographic Society. A box containing star charts, a telescope assembly kit, a vinyl record and transparency slides. The illusory graphics of this collection are pivotal within SCOPE, while the soundscape takes its form from the record. The work is created with multiple lenses (microscopes, loops, cameras, magnifying glass and the Nimrud lens) and screens (computers, phones, scanners). A single channel video with voiceover, employing the ever-evolving technologies pervasive in our daily lives.