Catalogue > At random

Set Theory I–IV explores every corner of flat screen space and corresponding illusions of depth. Part I (2mins) involves dissolving surfaces. Part II (2mins) adds alternating planes and the numbers 0 and 1, as graphic components. Part III (12mins) slowly takes the screen into depth, evoking architectonic principles of the video frame. Adding another dimension, Part IV (2mins) introduces pure, constantly changing colour fields. In the first instance, Set Theory involved producing and collating different sets of vertical, horizontal, diagonal and curved graphic transitions. These were subsequently combined or sequenced by way of different rules that keep the conflict of planes, forms, tonal values and colour foremost.

Simon Payne studied at the Kent Institute of Art and Design, Maidstone; Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee; and the Royal College of Art, London. His work has shown in numerous festivals and venues including. He has also written widely on experimental film and video. He co-edited the book Kurt Kren: Structural Films (2016) with Nicky Hamlyn and A.L. Rees and is currently editing a posthumous book by A.L. Rees, entitled Fields of View: Film, Art and Spectatorship. Simon Payne is Reader in Film and Media at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge and lives and works in London.