i will have call you [sic]
Audio-Visual 4.05 minutes (no longer available), text and photography (2018)

i will have call you [sic] was made to honour my friend, Jennifer Baylis, who died early in 2018. 

The last time Jenny was able to communicate with me using symbolic linguistic signs via a messenger app, she said, ‘i will have call you maya deren’ after watching another experimental short video I had made. And so this work references Deren's first film, Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). The missing word and lower case letters in the title of my film, implications of language being lost, may also be seen as commentary on society's evolving relationships with writing and digital technology. Relying on eyegaze software, Jenny blinked the message to me roughly six weeks before her death after I told her I had received positive feedback for the earlier project which also incorporated some of the ideas she explored in her thesis.

Jenny and I met when her son and one of mine were babies, and I instantly recognised a kindred spirit. My son, Alfred Field, kindly agreed to be in the audio-visual element and plays the role of Future/Youth.

The audio-visual element of i will have call you [sic] was made with a phone camera and proprietary mobile phone apps.

Installed in an empty office space in South London in November 2018. 

Music by Simon Gwynne 

Featuring Alfred Field

Thanks to Brendan Conway and Workspace for the use of the venue.

In memory of Jennifer Baylis 1972 – 2018

Thanks to Newspaper Club for sponsorship of the printed material. Their generosity helped to raise money for Royal Trinity Hospice, London