Fak'ugesi Festival, Johannesburg

2019
4-channel video installation, sound
_Screen capture video, website, synthetic voice, _
found data, found text, found images

The March/April 1997 issue of Photo Technique magazine introduced the concept of ボケ (“boke”) to English speaking photographers. The Japanese term was used to describe the quality of the blur in the out-of-focus areas of an image. Editor Mike Johnston added an “h” at the end of the regular transliteration of the word to prevent mispronunciations.

The added letter did not have the intended effect: To this day the pronunciation of the term, as well as it’s meaning, are controversially discussed - “an excercise in sillyness” as a forum user called it. Screens 3 and 4 are monitoring 20 years of Bokeh on the internet, up to the arrival of AI “Fake Bokeh” effects on today’s smartphones.

The installation is complemented by found macro photographs of water droplets sitting on flowers and plants in front of a blurry background. From the abundance of droplets found on the internet only those are selected who appear to be in a bad mood: weary, annoyed, depressed, confused and so on.