Artist's Statement

re|cord is a looped video work nearly 20 minutes in length which explores the relationship of internal monologue to quotidian events.

The piece utilizes documentary as a means to capture the majority of the scenes, and employs attributes of slow cinema, structural film, and art film to impart to the viewer an observational perspective of social realism.

The development of re|cord began in November 2014 at the international conference INFINITE RECORD: Archive, Memory, Performance, which was hosted by Jay Scheib and Anna Koehler of MIT Music And Theater Arts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and convened by Dr. Karmenlara Ely and Maria Magdalena Schwegermann of Østfold University College/Norwegian Theater Academy.

The perceptions of and approaches to “archive” shared during the conference expanded my comprehension of the concept. Through this evolved lens, I began to consider a series of images or scenes which had been developing in my mind organically, merged with the philosophy that words and phrases said to one during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood contribute to and influence one’s lifelong internal monologue.

In March 2017, I participated in the Woods Hole Film Festival Script Writers Symposium, which introduced to me the fundamental constructs necessary to write for a variety of screen-based media and potential methodologies to use the image sequences I had been experiencing.

Preparation for re|cord required the development of a formalized screenplay. Practicing an iterative screenwriting process enabled me to identify only those elements necessary to the work and codify the project as a looped video installation.

This work was funded in part by the Shawna E. Shea Memorial Foundation, Inc. Women in Film Fellowship and premiered at the 2018 Shawna Shea Film Festival. As a recipient of the fellowship, re|cord is my first work completed in the medium of video. Past works include the site-specific, live performance installations Contemporaries | Contemporary for the Eero Saarinen-designed MIT Chapel, with four world premiere commissions; and An Evening with the Zimmermans for the Frank Lloyd-Wright-designed Zimmerman House at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Alecia Batson
September 2018

Installation Inquiries

To inquire about the installation of re|cord for an exhibit, please submit a request through the contact form.