Joseph Winchester
Oscillator 2, 2008
monitors, video loop

catalog essay by Ariel Evans:

In Joseph Winchester's video, Oscillator (2008), a white outline changes its shape across a black background. This white line is a closed curve (with neither a beginning nor end), but the outline takes on a number of complex shapes as the video's tone becomes higher or lower in pitch.

To oscillate is to alternate between two states. An oscillator is a device, like a pendulum, that does so. This is similar to sound waves (or any other wave): the movement back and forth between two points is the essence of sound. In fact, Oscillator is also an oscilloscope, a device that displays waves visually. In Oscillator, the shape changes more quickly as the sound becomes higher in pitch. The white outline serves as one representation of a wave while the sound is another.

Oscillator 2 (2008) is a sculpture & video project where the Oscillator video plays on three seperate televisions. Winchester places these three televisions sideways & stacked vertically. Winchester intends the televisions to appear as a kind of scientific instrument reading memories or thoughts & translating them visually & aurally. Though Winchester synched all three videos, the image loses color & clarity as the signal runs up from the lowest television to the top. Each reproduction of the Oscillator video loses something of the original. This forms a second aspect to the visualization of sound implicit in the video itself. It is not just a mapping of sound, but also of signal decay, or "generation loss," in how each reiteration of Oscillator degrades.

As televisions stacked within the gallery, Oscillator 2 is both a sculptural object & a video image. The sculptural quality of Oscillator 2 is similar to other works by Winchester, like Film Machine 4 (2008), where the equipment that presents the recorded image is part of the image itself. In Film Machine 4, Winchester spooled clear film onto a film projector. The film runs across a table in front of the projector. The can of markers on the table invites the viewer to mark up the film as it rolls back towards & into the projector. In this way, Winchester presents a machine that connects the viewer intimately with the creation of the work itself.

In Film Machine 4, Winchester makes apparent the mechanics of the work's creation. In Oscillator 2, however, the image-making process is not so clear. We can see that shape & sound relate to each other in the work but cannot tell exactly how. Winchester has removed the machinery from Oscillator 2, making the image-making process less transparent. However, as a visual mapping of sound, Oscillator 2 implies how sound is assembled. Although the works, at first blush, seem antithetical to each other, they also complement each other. Film Machine 4 explores construction through allowing the audience to participate in its construction, while the Oscillator 2 produces media & explains its assembly.