The Cage of Sand

Details

Edward Rankus | United States | 2018 | 10:40

If asked to say what this work is about in one word, the answer—which is woven into the soundtrack—would be a Joycean one: it’s a “collideorscape.”

In 2016 I was asked to make an under-3-minute video based on just the title of a J. G. Ballard story, “The Cage of Sand” for the electronic music festival Moogfest. This present work is a greatly-expanded version of that short piece. The imagery is a return to material I dealt with as a young man in the video “Naked Doom” (1983). I have recycled imagery such as cages, a toy robot, and brain convolutions; newer motifs include a ballet dancer, corsets, and alchemical vessels containing birds. These elements are arranged and rearranged into different patterns.

For the audio I have constructed an electronic musique concrète soundtrack, since this piece had its birth at that electronic music festival (where it was silent, ironically).