Ekphrasis (extended)

Abstract

This article presents a mixed-media installation titled Ekphrasis, consisting of close-up videos of a heavily scarred body projected onto an elastic screen. The screen has one string attached to its centre, which is attached to a stepper motor. The motor pulls the screen in a controlled random pattern, stretching it and letting go, sometimes carefully and sometimes violently. The piece explores the relationship between the digital representation of the body and its corporeity, recreating the trauma that generated the scars on the medium itself, and proposing a new layer of abstraction that sustains reflection on the significance of the human body.