in the midst of this pandemic I discovered the access to live animal cams in various zoos. this seemed to me a rich source of material for something.. of course it’s sad and a strange concept to watch animals in captivity, but at the same time I can’t stop myself watching them and being fascinated at how they move, go about their day. the best I found was the panda cam at smithsonian zoo. they had many angles and it just made me think more about surveillance of course, and I loved the visuals of the low pixels and live footage. there’s something about the desire to capture the best moments too. in screenrecording minutes at a time, it was as if I’m waiting for something to happen. it felt selfish but it seems everything we do inherently is. anyway, the material I captured, I can definitely use in a video or image collage... for now, I’ve used it as almost a live model to sketch on procreate. Really enjoyed the process. also it was strange when they were in really human positions especially when they were eating (and mostly they eat and sleep) I was lucky to capture that part where it was playing. what was sad though I noticed that a lot of the times they paced back and fourth the same places. apparently animals in captivity sometimes do this. It’s sad. makes me think of he IQ84 quote again about the cage. ‘Even if you managed to escape from one cage, weren’t you just in another, larger one?
this also makes me think of fischli and Weiss’ Rat and Bear in their works THE RIGHT WAY and THE POINT OF LEAST RESISTANCE. I think they said they chose those two characters because they seem to sit at extremes, the rat being a pest, not wanted or seen, whereas the panda a spectacle and protected (mostly, arguable) and these works are them two conversing with each other, solving each problem together.. etc. i loved the visuals and concept and the way the subtitles sat. just visually, the panda being black and white and when you really think about it, has such peculiar patterns in its fur, is a strange creature to look at.. I might go back and collect more footage..
