Kevin McCourt - Research and Production

2005 Mexico City

video 21 minutes

This ongoing project forms part of a series of works about the 'city' and can be seen as a continuation of the earlier City Virus project. Activities commonly seen in the streets but peculiar to this city are shown. Their cultural significance, however, is not limited to the local.

Several sequences from this video could be visualized as separate works.

Photos

2002 to date The XYZ010 Project

This project is an ongoing international and cross-cultural investigation which gathers evidence of creative processes and the use of metaphors in scientific research. Contributions to the project can be submitted by scientists, through an information-gathering web page or by email.

Further collaborative research, using methodologies more commonly associated with art practice, explores links between this evidence, contemporary art debates and the wider social context. Resulting hypotheses are presented in the form of installations, as web pages or as video and film works.

The project thus explores ideas of objectivity and subjectivity with regard to scientific method and art practice as it attempts, through interdisciplinary collaboration, to link unconnected bodies or sources of knowledge or methodologies.

We have presented the ideas behind the XYZ010 Project and discussed its current progress at various international conferences and events in Spain, Mexico, Germany and Japan.

Currently, we are developing ideas for installations and DVDs. The context for the multiple video works presented will be provided by interactive maps (spheres) of nodes and links exploring possible relationships which might exist between them.

Scientists are invited to complete and email a short questionnaire to the project.

This questionnaire, responses and further details are available on the Project Development website: http://www.xyz010.org

2003 - 2005 City Virus

An installation of three synchronized videos about the city and its relation with the concept of 'virus'.

These works talk of the cultural currents which ebb and flow between different urban and rural spaces, affecting the nature of these spaces as they develop. While the specific cultural phenomena experienced in each place may be particular to the local environment, certain underlying global and uncontrolled patterns and influences have emerged, creating perhaps a new form of provincialism.

The recordings were made in Madrid, Tokyo and Dalian (China).

Presented at the Párraga Centre, Spain, 2006.

City 3 minutes (loop) Video file: City (Screen 01)

City forms one of three parts of an installation, consisting of three screens, along with Skin Snow and Virus.

The location is Dalian, China. In this instance, we may regard the city as a viral receptor.

Dalian is a city under construction.

The official town council report (2002) details an impressive list of new or improved infrastructures, renovations and property development projects: A new Light Railway, a new Conference and Exhibition Centre, a new Business Centre, a new container terminal in the port, more or improved roads, a renovated and expanded railway station, improved water, gas and public transport services.

In the building industry, 8100 projects were under construction in 2002 and labour productivity increased 16.1% compared with 2001. GDP increased by 14.1% over the same period.

The economy is growing. Large transnational companies are expanding their production or setting up there.

Enormous new gleaming office blocks dot the city centre and surrounding neighbourhoods. Most of these are empty. Why? Is this corruption, speculation or simply preparations for the future?

Huge billboards announce new luxury flats for sale or new commercial centres to visit.

Upmarket shopping centres selling only exclusive (western) brands are opening at street level, while stalls selling cheap goods continue their trade in the market below street level.

Ariston sponsored high-street performers spin plates one moment then give way to others reciting rap verses the next.

And steadily everyday, the port, the traditional source of Dalian's wealth continues its trade.

Skin Snow 12 minute loop Video file: Skin Snow (Screen 02)

Skin Snow forms one of three parts of an installation, consisting of three screens, along with City and Virus.

The location is Cotos, Sierra de Guadarrama, Madrid Province, Spain. In this instance, we may regard the city as a viral node or the country as a viral receptor. (Viral Spread.)

Every Saturday and Sunday of the winter, whenever there is snow, large numbers of people, of different ages and countries of origin, travel to Cotos in the Sierra de Guadarrama.

They make their way in train, car and coach.

On one side of a hill, families and friends recycle plastic bags and doors, using them as sledges on improvised slopes.

Further evidence of this human activity exists in the form of footsteps, slide marks and discarded objects.

The majority are economic immigrants. They arrive by train and then walk 2km to their spot.

On the other side of this hill, skiers, some in organised groups, others with friends or family, practice, take lessons or simply enjoy a day on the slopes. The majority is clearly Spanish. They mostly arrive by car or coach to the amenities at the foot of the piste. The car park is full.

City patterns: the position of the economic immigrant and the urban poor, are thus reflected in the temporary scenario of the countryside.

Another question: Who is having more fun?

Several long sequences from this video could be visualized as separate works: The ant-like descent of skiers from the mountain and the young boy attempting to climb the hill.

Virus 21 minute loop. The images repeat in a short loop of 1 minute 45 seconds, while the sound repeats in a longer loop of 21 minutes. Video file: Virus (Screen 03)

Virus forms one of three parts of an installation, consisting of three screens, along with Skin Snow and City.

The location is Tokyo, Japan. In this instance, we may regard the city as a viral node.

The most striking aspect of Tokyo's central squares is the sound. This video is intended for very small-scale projection with the sound forming its most important element.

The sounds that you hear in this video were recorded continuously in Shibuya Square and have not been remixed.

These sounds are often familiar: Digital bleeps and clicks, sound effects, songs (classics and pop).

In such squares, entire sides of the surrounding buildings form video screens and the amplified sounds emanating from these screens intermix, producing a symphony - sometimes rhythmic sometimes discordant, depending on the sounds themselves or where you happen to be.

Various collections of sounds repeat in loops of different duration, producing a kind of random performance or lottery of possible permutations.

The spoken words in this concert, I don't understand; only the occasional phrase in English. But this seems less important. From the images and the frequent mention of brand names, it is obvious that the main function is to advertise: a product, a concert, a blockbuster film.

What is strange and what interests me is the context; that this is a public space.

Generally we think of public space as designed or at least controlled space.

In most western cities this digital symphony does not (yet) exist in public spaces. Why? Is this a question of design or control (resistance)?

These sounds somehow seem to entice me and I start to feel that this unusual concert is somehow natural.

video files:
City (Screen 01)
Skin Snow (Screen 02)
Virus (Screen 03)

2003 Deadwood (War) Two versions: 40 seconds or 3 minutes 07 seconds. This work was commissioned as a temporary public artwork for the metros and airports of Madrid and Barcelona and formed a part of Microespacios, Madrid ’03, curated by the artist Fernando Baena. video

Deadwood (War) is a visual poem which plays with the multiple possible meanings of the word "deadwood" in English.

It talks about the relation between three basic concepts: life, function and value.

A certain number of trees are planted only to make matches.

A homage to the artist Joan Brossa.

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2002 Padres Maridos Hijos Fathers Husbands Sons 90 seconds. Kevin McCourt / Gabriel Martínez. video

Fathers, husbands, sons / padres, maridos, hijos is a documentary portrait of domestically abused women.

Violence against women has been defined as any act which has resulted or could result in physical (including sexual) harm or psychological damage to a woman, including threats to cause such harm, coercion or the arbitrary denial of her liberty.

The title of the video reminds us of the aggressors (a large part of the violence suffered by women is at the hands of those with whom they share their lives.)

The video tries to reflect the psychological aspect and the state of mind of the person who lives in fear.

It is a portrait of the harm experienced, from emotional fragility to emotional crisis, from depression to silence, from hatred to terror of the aggressor, from the destruction of the idea of home to fear and rejection of life.

We have used Spanish and English to emphasize that violence has no language. So, while the Spanish places the narration in a "local" environment, the English projects it into a cross-cultural, more "universal" context.

This video attempts to communicate in a more direct way through the use of everyday language in the spoken (and heavily distorted) soundtrack, the bold typography and the blurred images of women employed. These design elements do not only contextualize the work but also reinforce its emotional content. The subject matter is thus reflected in the design used and the lack of resolution offered. In this way, the work could be seen as interrogative.

This work has enjoyed a great deal of diffusion, having been shown at prestigious and popular venues across Spain, including the Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, Caixaforum, Barcelona and in Latin America. It also featured on the nationally broadcast Spanish television programme Metrópolis on RTE2.

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Exhibition web page: "Cárcel de Amor"

Catalogue text :
Non-fiction arguments: Gender, Representation and Forms of Violence - Virginia Villaplana

1992 Southbank Photography Open

A series of four images: Mixed media on black and white photographs.


Untitled Family