Sketch-Tape
/8
- Sketch-Tape
- 1975
- video, b&w, sound
- 21min, 24sec
Ernst Caramelle produced “Sketch-Tape” together with the Spanish architect and painter Juan Navarro Baldeweg at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1975. Its fictional narrations accompany performative acts with which they do not necessarily correspond. This incongruence between visual and auditory components makes for impromptu situations with a humorous twist, giving rise to “sketches” in a literal sense. A mix of spoken languages à la Esperanto serves to deliver nonsensical information of a seemingly scientific nature from the self-proclaimed Drs. Têtes Vides (Empty Heads) that is mocked by the performers’ actions. Chalkboard drawings recall geometry lessons and classroom situations evocative of the atmosphere at MIT. As an early example of deconstructing video as a medium, this work questions the simultaneity of acoustic and visual representation. W.S.