Autocavalcade

Auto-cavalcade addresses the relationship between live performance and video recording. The project captures an event-spectacle, a procession of cars combined at night to interact with two cities in the UK, Sheffield and Hull, over one weekend. Each vehicle was equiped with a temporarily customised sound system, so every car broadcast an individually composed sound track; the tracks were then combined to create one mobile soundscape.

Auto-cavalcade was first realised as a live event, when commissioned for ART SHEFFIELD 03, a city-wide contemporary art event (March/April 2003). A synchronized multi-channel video installation was exhibited at S1 Artspace for the duration of the art event. This project was later expanded and re-edited into a single channel film that was selected to represent S1 Artspace in the international touring exhibition 'Old habits die hard', originating at Sparwasser HQ, Berlin and travelling to twelve venues worldwide.

The event was documented; all the cars were fitted with video cameras, which created a video record in sequence. As Auto-cavalcade travelled around these cities, it was interacting and recording simultaneously; every vehicle was fitted with a fixed video camera. The event existed as a host for the film document, and the film, in turn, interpreted the event.