Conversations: Intimate moments with random strangers


Non verbal forms of communication between disparate individuals are revealed through video footage captured over the course of an afternoon in the city of Sendai, Japan.

Fleeting moments that often go unnoticed in our day to day social interactions are extrapolated to reveal the strangely intimate connections that occur in a society in which physical spaces are progressively dissolving and our interactions are becoming ever increasingly electronically mediated.

Wendy Haslem writes in Realtime 77

"In Conversations, Intimate moments with random strangers, Alex Davies explores the dual impulse of connection and alienation in an environment of dislocation and surveillance. Communication is at the centre of this exhibit, but Conversations is less about verbal discourse and more focused on investigating the possibility of connection through the eyes of anonymous people. Individuals are singled out from a crowd as they glance towards the camera/viewer. In elongating the duration of the moments of visual connection, Conversations seems to promise imminent contact. But because these intimate moments are fleeting and finally fail, ultimately this exhibit emphasizes unrequited desire."


Installation View, Sendai Mediatheque 2006, Perpetual Loop, 5.1 Surround Sound


Video 1 : Click on the image above for a compressed version of the video with stereo audio...
Duration 12.20 - Size 80MB - Format MPEG1 (.mpg)
Video 2: Click on the image above for video documentation of Re:Search produced by Sendai Mediatheque.
Duration 02.48 - Size 19MB - Format MPEG1 (.mpg)