Movin’ On

Movin’ On, an installation piece by Michelle Given, is one of my favorite projects out there. Imagine walking into a dark room with only a 16mm projector. Nothing is playing, but there is a button for you, the viewer, to press. When you do, the projector sputters to life and reels of old family videos begin to play silently on the wall in front of you. After the film passes through the projector, it is fed methodically into a shredder, which tears it into tiny pieces. As the movies play, piles of film scraps start to form on the ground around you. The only sounds in the room are the hum of the projector and the rhythmic clicking of the shredder.

As you stand there, in that dark room, there is an intense desire to press the play button. There is an overwhelming sense of curiosity to see the film, to bring it’s precious contents from darkness to light. At the same time, this makes you the executioner. You simultaneously take on the tender and intimate act of becoming the final witness to another family’s memories, while being the very one to destroy them. Knowing that you are last person to see these films gives them extra poignancy. You want to hit the record button in your own mind before they are erased.

In an age where we have seemingly limitless clouds to store and preserve our videos, chats, pictures and emails, we have created a paradox. We can hit record and save every moment of our lives. And yet, with such ballooning storehouses of data, we are less likely to wade through the backlog to look at them again. We are taking pictures of everything, but looking at very little. Perhaps the only way to truly get our attention, to make us sit and watch these films with an intention to remember, is the threat of destruction that Given has built into the viewing process.

The experience that Given creates in Movin’ On leads us into an emotional landscape that is so completely conflicted. It is fragile and bittersweet. It is violent and destructive. It is beautiful. It is lonely, but for a split second, it connects us, in the most unexpected of ways, to a complete stranger.

- Mia


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