Three Points Down to Zero

3 POINTS DOWN TO ZERO HD Video with animation 16min Dan Shipsides 2017
This work is a commission by AEMI (Artist Experimental Moving Image) in relation to the PORT, RIVER, CITY Dublin Docklands project. Utilising several methods of pata-perception the research took as a starting points the fact that in 1837 Poolbeg lighthouse (at the end of a 2.5km granite sea wall which channels the Liffey into the Irish Sea) was the datum point for low-tide sea-level zero; and that the highest point in County Dublin, Kippure Mountain (757m) forms the source of the river Liffey. Lots of other interesting, concrete and abstract points fell in and out of the project but these two points formed consistent nodes for a triangulation, or syzygy, of star installations and overnight camps. The star is a 3.5m metal frame structure which was mounted and dismantled in-situ and transported on a specially made all-terrain wheeled cart.An expeditionary journey of three overnight camps from Kippure down through the city, spending a night on a rooftop and ending on the Poolbeg sea wall activated three points down to ‘zero’. This experience generated most of the footage for the new work, much of which was shot through a variety of bespoke made kaleidoscopes, and then it was conceptually and materially added to through conversations, partly with passerby’s but mostly with Shipsides’ nine year old son, and further incidental video and audio footage. The three points occupied also triggered a set of signals, not just in the star symbol installed in each location, but also in a revealing and seeking to un-align many of the signs, signals and orientations that become evident in these environments. Throughout the process and artwork there is an unpacking of the conceptual framework, so that the work is enabled to shift across many possible unresolvable connections, exploring the concept of zero so that it touches on ideas of height, depth, lateral distance, time, possession, economy, trade, austerity, nationhood, emigrancy, immigrancy, loss and death.