Jack Williams

Jack Williams, Companion

Companion

Poland 2020 // 8.55 min. // HD 16:9


Companion is a video poem which examines the very contemporary issue of computer-mediated intimacy, exploring issues such as touch hunger, parasocial interaction and the affective power of audio-visual media. The video focuses on the tension between being completely immersed and captivated by on-screen personas, and that moment of self-reflexivity when we realise that our actual companion is the screen itself.

Computer-mediated intimacy has become increasingly normalised, especially during the Covid 19 crisis where many of us were indoors by ourselves and were reliant on screens as a means of providing companionship. Do we spend an inordinate amount of time in the company of  screens and media? Or has screen technology become so ubiquitous that intimate relationships with them are inevitable, natural, and even preferable to instances of intimacy which involve physical co-presence?

Jack Williams, Observations On News Media

Observations On News Media

Poland 2019 // 1.02 min. // HD 16:9


Observations On News Media uses the experimental writing technique of blackout poetry and translates it from a page-based medium into an animated format. The video features screenshots of individual words which were extracted from headlines from various news websites. These words were then recontextualised within the video so that they formed six statements which served to provide a broad critique of contemporary news media practices. The massive amount of black within each frame is designed to accentuate the dominance of narratives and agendas which are spread through news media outlets, as well as a paucity or complete absence of divergent views. The artist does recognize the importance of news and journalism, and that is why this particular work is a critique of tabloid journalism, as opposed to more factual and objective models of journalism and news reporting.


CV

Jack Williams is a cross-disciplinary artist who specializes in media art and text-based art. His artistic and academic interests include: contemporary screen culture, authenticity within film and video, internet culture and experimental writing techniques. He graduated from Falmouth University in 2012 with a First Class BA (Hons) in Writing. In 2014 he achieved an MA with Distinction in Film and Screen Studies from Goldsmiths College, University of London. In 2020 he graduated from Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts, Wroclaw with an MFA in Visual Art. His video work has been shown publicly at art events in Belarus, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Montenegro, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela and in online exhibitions. His text-based art has been published both online and in print.

https://jackwilliamsvideoart.com/