EVAN TEDLOCK
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, VISUAL ARTS - ANIMATION & INTERACTIVE MEDIA, UMBC

Occam's Frame, 2021
Mixed media

“Occam’s Frame is an analog interactive media installation. Two prepared screens attached to metal pipes and cinder blocks sit perpendicularly to each other, both with plastic text adhered to their surfaces reading ‘WHITE’ surrounded by the bright white LED backlight from the screens. As the viewer moves around the piece, placing the suspended frames between themselves and the screens, the media content will become visible. The content on each screen is virtually the same (generated by the same method and utilizing the same visual elements) but there is one key difference, the text on the content of the left screen reads ‘TERRORISM’ while the text on the content of the right screen reads ‘HEROISM’. The images were achieved by sequencing footage documented from the Capitol Riots on January 6, 2021, and then running them through a custom video mixer controlled by a midi device, performed and recorded in a meditative state. Additionally, data collected by the Center for Strategic & International Studies listing terrorism incidents on U.S. soil from 1994 to Jan. 2021 is used to augment the visuals. The data is playing on a 10-minute loop and is triggering the flashes according to dates on which terrorist activities occurred so that when you see multiple flashes in quick succession you can assume a concentrated uptick in terrorist activities for that time. The picture frames are placed to visualize the way in which one of these perspectives is easier to view than the other.”