Artist interview: Laura Campbell

Writing by Sylvia on Tuesday, 3 of June , 2008 at 10:30 am

Can you describe how you have used mobile technology to respond to the Glocal Project?

LC: I set my mobile to take 12 multi-shots as I poured red paint onto a canvas. By the time my action was complete, there were 60 mobile photo shots. A selection are illustrated here.

The writing and the final pictures are at odds with each other? What does it all mean?

LC: First of all, I have written “I like writing in blue paint” but have used red poster paint on a canvas. I am interested in the psychological effects that occur between recognising an event and understanding its output.

In psychology the Stroop effect is defined as the a delay or interference between an event happening and a post action recognition. In the case there is an interference in the reaction time of what the viewer sees, and what the participant has to do.

For instance when a word such as blue, green, red, etc. is printed in a color differing from the color expressed by the word’s semantic meaning (e.g. the word “red” printed in blue ink), a delay occurs in the processing of the word’s color, leading to slower test reaction times and an increase in the mind’s own motor actions making a series of mistakes in undertaking the action. This effect is named after John Ridley Stroop in the 1930s.

What have you done with the images?

LC: I have transfered my mobile phone files at a photo store and had these printed out as a series of snapshots. The shots have been re-assembled as a flip book. I have made a ‘paint stroop.’

I also loved how someone saw the book and thought the title referred to the work as being a film strip. Stroop after all could be slang in broad Scots or Irish for strip. What a perfect misreading of the piece! And what a fab way for new value to be assigned to it.

I am thrilled with the piece. Since individuals can flip through the work and experience the stroop effects within the palm of their own hands. It is the perfect cross-over of an immediate and intimate experience happening all at once. Isn’t this what the Glocal project was about? About changing people’s perspectives and expectations of interactivity ?