Landmark, 2003
Single-channel video installation, black and white, sound
4:50 min, projected on continuous loop
Dimensions variable

Landmark Project Description

Landmark is a computer animation in which what is represented (the static object) and the way it is represented (the camera's movement) originate from two completely different contexts.

The object is a representation of the rock formation seen behind Osama bin Laden in his first video communique following the 9-11 attacks. Using stills from the propaganda video for reference, I sculpted, in miniature, a plausible reconstruction of the formation behind bin Laden. This clay maquette was scanned to yield a 3D computer model.

The camera movement in Landmark was derived from improvised video shot in my studio. With camera in hand, I explored the far wall of my studio with equal parts distraction and obligatory curiosity, as a tourist in a foreign country might inspect a monument or an attraction. Using software developed for the film industry, I isolated the hand-held camera movement from the video and used this information to animate a virtual camera. The resulting 3D computer simulation was synchronized with unedited sync-sound from the shoot in my studio.

For a brief moment, bin Laden's video, and the location where it was shot, held the collective attention of the west. His choice of setting seems to taunt the west with a hint as to his location: he appears not hidden indoors, but outdoors, before an unusual—and potentially identifiable—rock formation. The video was in continuous rotation in the news cycle for several weeks, until the US government, citing security concerns, asked news organizations to voluntarily stop replaying it.

I wondered if it be possible that, after numerous viewings, this site might become lodged in collective memory. I anticipate that upon seeing the object in the video, some viewers may have the uncanny sense of having seen this object before. While not being able to name it, they might still experience a dreadful sense of the familiar. Landmark attempts to give this media event a tangible, concrete form—to lend it a presence that can be experienced bodily—while at the same time underscoring the artifice of the reconstruction.