ROUND | Daniele Wilmouth

Digital Video, Experimental, 11 minutes, 2002

Co-Directed by Hiroshi McDonald-Mori

ROUND is a research project on analogue and digital myths of creation. In consultation with scientists, folklorists and theologians, we study the sterile white digital world of replication; a virtual breeding farm. Turbulent floods and disembodied hands sculpt figures with uncertain identities. Bodies roll chasing their own shadows in an infinite stream.

A human race speeding along the fragile demarcation between object and subject, questioning the danger, or benefit, of becoming a thing amongst the things we produce.

ROUND by Danièle Wilmouth and Hiroshi McDonald-Mori examines the body in relation to technology and contemporary concerns of cloning. Indeed through editing, the bodies in ROUND multiply on screen, passing by like so many mass produced commodities on a conveyor belt. Here video functions as a tool of replication, and mirrors in some regard, current debates surrounding biotechnology. Through camera angle and framing, bodies morph into abstraction, creating a fictive space for the viewer wherein the human form is translated into virtual image. Through repetition and accumulation, the bodyís unique physicality is simultaneously inflated in its complexity and reduced to spectacle and visual motif. Individuality and identity are compromised, producing a tension between surface and representation where the body resonates as mere object."

- Trevor Martin, Executive Director of Exhibitions School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Cast & Crew

Produced, Directed & Edited by

Danièle Wilmouth & Hiroshi McDonald-Mori

Sound Composition & Mix Lou Malozzi

Performers Joseph Ravens

Alyssa Miserendino

Hands Bill Fride

Mayumi Hamanaka

Gretchen Hasse

Taro Hattori

Grace Park

Rebecca Reynolds

Charissa Tolentino

Thu Vu

Production Assistant Daaimah Mubashshir

Recorded & Mixed at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago

All images & text property of Hiroshi McDonald-Mori & Danièle Wilmouth.