“Diverse and Universal Camera” is a video installation that searches for footage from about 300 titles in Encyclopedia Cinematographica (EC) using keywords related to behaviors such as dancing, laughing, and spinning. The results will be displayed as a collage of footage on two screens that loop playback.
Because the combination of footage changes each time, it becomes possible to observe the connections and differences between various images that were filmed at different times and in different regions. It is a work that reinterprets and visualizes characteristics of EC as an encyclopedia, enabling both the serendipitous discoveries that a traditional paper encyclopedia facilitates and the spread of knowledge through modern Internet searches that emphasize the relevance of each article they search.
Considering many countries national exceptionalism and immigration debates, it could be said that a conservative and intolerant atmosphere has been spreading around the world in recent years. However, this is all the more reason for us to consider the fact that the behaviors of the living beings filmed by EC offer not only “diversity” but also “universality.”