Capture investigates the materiality of a digital video camera body catalysed by the dissection of a Blackmagic Cinema Camera from 2012. Enveloped by a text from Himali Singh Soin and sections of stop motion animation created with hand-mixed and painted earth pigments, the film reveals the apparatus of its own making as a complex geological item and a product implicit in global resource extraction. Via a series of mirrors that reflect images of the device back onto its sensor, the camera records itself as its body is systematically dismembered. The component parts are analysed to construct a complete elemental portrait – 74 chemical elements are found contained within the camera, representing 63% of the periodic table.

Capture (2021)
Two channel 4K video installation, stereo, colour
16:25 minutes

Capture (2023)
Single channel 4K video, 2.39, stereo, colour
16:30 minutes

Dissection: Stephen Cornford
Text: Himali Singh Soin
Cinematography (analysis): Gotaro Uematsu
Cinematography (dissection and landscape): Sam Smith
Editing, visual effects and sound design: Sam Smith
UNSW Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, Solid State & Elemental Analysis Unit: Rabeya Akter, Khorshed Chinu, Christopher Marjo, Anne Rich, Helen Wang, Karen Privat

This project is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body and supported by the UNSW Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, Solid State & Elemental Analysis Unit.