Or Degrees (the grafter) is a video installation comprised of 5 - 7 videos (dependant on the space provided) transmitted either by projectors or television monitors situated roughly opposite one another. Each video begins simultaneously and exhibits the recording of a randomly chosen participant deciphering the Morse coded text “without enough constraints to make possible contingency is a circumstance that cannot be predicted with certainty” using a wooden boat oar. Without any other given direction, each participant interprets the code differently, takes different lengths of time to do so and when each has finished their screen is rendered black. Presenting each interpretation simultaneously generates a competitive atmosphere and herein lies the debate, not only of personality and creativity, but of interpretations found in the sound of the multiple layers of banging which with no authoritative voice reveals the democratic realm in which the degrees or location of “or” is found. A momentary “x” made from the oar hitting the floor and the shadow it casts marks a point in the process of “contingency” described in the code spelled out. Through translating the inscription of the text, these variations transform the objective rhythm Morse code is dependant on to reveal language a tool of pure subjectivity, whilst the positioning of each screen opposite one another further troubles the relationship between signal and miscommunication. As the sound of irregular banging evokes those working in mines, “the grafter” refers to the burden of the inability to escape the need to constantly resolve or de-code contingencies in order to understand them, whilst the ridiculousness of the oar, which if used to get anywhere will only lead one round in circles and help of a dead pan face ridicules any attempt as mere guesswork. 

Or Degrees (the grafter)