“The freest human being is not one who acts on reasons he has chosen for himself, but one who never has to choose. Rather than agonising over alternatives he responds effortlessly to situations as they arise. He lives not as he chooses but as he must. Such a human being has the perfect freedom of a wild animal - or a machine. As the Lieh-Tzu says: ‘The highest man at rest is as though dead, in movement is like a machine. He knows neither why he is at rest nor why he is not, why he is in movement nor why he is not.”

John Gray, Straw Dogs, Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

Introduction

David Pringle’s utilises, and in turn makes comment on, the prevalent use of the ‘machine’ and the ‘lens’ as a mechanism for exposing us to the connection between the physical and the visual. His sculptural film making apparatus create a reproduction of reality or occurrence utilising reference to techniques of cinematic film making. By re-appropriating the context of ‘human’ experience using mechanical form a questioning of our perception of ‘true’ vision or thought is implied. This examination of an incident leads to a shift in the context of our experiences and preconditioning which in turn impacts upon our contemplation of our reality or ‘self’, of the authenticity of our experience of who we are or what is real.

‘The Drifter’ is a vision machine that repeatedly records and presents a pre-programmed action and image. The machine has a live feed camera with is linked to a monitor so as it repeats its programmed movements we see what it sees. By repeating the idea of ‘the drift shot’ the machine could be seen to be performing or seeing in a more enlightened way. In cinematic terms: this type of shot breaks from a films progression of character narrative and becomes a meditation - self reflective, drifting or dreaming, transcending the plot. The irony of the machine’s vision, though it is seeing in a more expansive or apparently freer way, is that it is still programmed to do so and cant escape its own programming. Like the use of these types of shots in cinema, edited and placed within a film: It can never truly transcend itself or its narrative. The notion is a metaphoric one.

Joseph Clarke, 2010