Experiencing Interruptions?

Flicker

Last year marked 100 years since Britain, and therefore Ireland, adopted Daylight Savings Time. The rearrangement of public timekeeping resulted in a sudden loss of twenty-five minutes and twenty-one seconds of what was previously understood to be Dublin Mean Time. Taking this temporal elision as a starting point, ‘Flicker’ tests the possibility of unfolding infinite moments of unrealised potential into the dramatic setting of Cobh Village.

An Irish language voice-over offers a text that has purposely been scrambled and misinterpreted, telling the story of the Cork medium, Geraldine Cummins. In 1955 Cummins wrote a book from the perspective of Colonel Percy Fawcett, an acclaimed British cartographer who was once stationed in Cork Harbour but had since fatefully disappeared into the Amazon jungle in search of an ancient, lost city. Both chasing an intangible hidden potential, Cummins successfully co-opts the voice of the famous explorer at a time when physical journeys into the jungle were rarely undertaken by women. In consideration of the colonial re-appropriation of Irish language and place-names, absurd automatically generated subtitles are used to phonetically mistranslate her story back into English- the Irish language text becomes yet another lost, indecipherable potential.

A flickering refrain shows two hands traverse a circular board. This anchor point is set up to evoke visions of sea navigation, remote communication, psychic planchettes and tv noise.

  • Ruth Clinton & Niamh Moriarty
    Director
  • Ruth Clinton & Niamh Moriarty
    Writer
  • Ruth Clinton & Niamh Moriarty
    Producer
  • The Arts Council of Ireland (funding and support)
    Producer
  • Sirius Arts Centre, The Old Yacht Club, Cobh (funding and support)
    Producer
  • Ruth Clinton & Niamh Moriarty
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Visual Art, Art, Romance, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Post-Colonial, Experimental, Art House, Underground, Historical, Contemporary Art, Short, Paranormal, Occult, Tragedy, Atmospheric, Scenic, Site-Specific, Irish, Irish Language, Irish Language Short, Fantasy, Animation
  • Runtime:
    25 minutes 32 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 1, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    2,500 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Ireland
  • Country of Filming:
    Ireland
  • Language:
    English, Irish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital HD
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9, 1080p
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Time (Ireland) Act -solo/collaborative exhibition
    Cork
    Ireland
    October 1, 2016
    Irish Premier 1/10/2016 - 31/10/2016
    Produced as part of the Arts Council of Ireland's Next Generation Emerging Artists Award
Distribution Information
  • N/A- Independant
Director Biography - Ruth Clinton & Niamh Moriarty

Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty are visual artists who have been collaborating since graduating from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 2010. Throughout their work, they use video, performance, sound installation and storytelling, along with a detailed research process to convey visions of transience and resistance. Through mimetic acts of communication and repetition, of resurrection and preservation, they investigate humanity’s struggle against overwhelming natural forces and ask how we can look beyond our limited perception of infinity.

Clinton and Moriarty are both recipients of the Arts Council of Ireland’s Next Generation emerging artists’ bursary. These awards are granted to innovative young artists, in a special initiative of the Arts Council and the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme. The same year, they were also selected by Temple Bar Gallery and Studios to receive a Project Studio Award. Recent exhibitions of their work include: Time (Ireland) Act, Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, 2016; Amid the Deepening Shades, Deer Park Hotel, Howth, 2014 and Wound with a Tear, Trinity College Dublin in association with The Douglas Hyde Gallery, 2014.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Both born in 1987, Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty are currently living and working in Dublin. As visual artists, they have taken part in over thirty festivals and exhibitions together since 2010.

For more information, please see: ruthandniamh.info