BACKFLOW

Backflow combines analogue and digital processes in a play on natural and virtual landscapes. Vases full of water are positioned atop mirrors in front of digital screens. The vessels function as lenses—bending and refracting the projected image. The mirrors capture the scene above, folding three-dimensional space back into a flattened, two-dimensional image field.

The multi-channel video was filmed along Belongil Creek near Byron Bay.  Tea trees lining this waterway slowly release tannins that shift the colour of the water. The creek’s optical qualities are reflected and refracted across the installation. Collapsing analogue and digital space, Backflow constructs an illogical waterscape drawn from the creek’s material properties.

Backflow draws on techniques from early photographic experiments and ancient water lenses used in Chinese, Roman, and Greek cultures. The water-filled vessels also reference the principles of the Sutton Lens, or Sutton Panoramic Camera (c. 1860), which employed a curved wet-plate lens to achieve wide-angle image capture. Low-lying water within the landscape functions as a natural lens, while the vases of water magnify and refract this imagery in a real-time chance-driven performance. Water flows in opposing directions as the vessels capture, invert, and distort the moving image. These historical image-making techniques are used to unfold contemporary digital systems—merging digital input with analogue processes.