Experiencing Interruptions?

Picky Eater

In a continued mission to incorporate play and live-making into their practice, artist Kay Slater filmed a short live narrative using ready-made game tiles and no script. In a burst of inspiration, upon spying their frying pan on the rack, the story starts innocently with elements of childhood play and kitchenettes. Once the letters are cooked, the story becomes a melange of the artist's thoughts and anxieties when eating out in public. The soundtrack is made up of colour filters and static to express their frustration towards obnoxiously omnipresent “background music” in public eateries and the now ubiquitous call to “put on headphones” to “better” enjoy a game, mobile app, or interactive experience,” and to share their own experiences with synaesthesia, hearing loss, and mental illness.

The artist states that the video uses colour for sound expression and does not include captions. Video is meant to be played with sound off or sound painfully loud. The soundtrack does not enhance the experience. Wear headphones at your own risk.

  • Kay Slater
    Director
  • Kay Slater
    Writer
  • Kay Slater
    Key Cast
    "Unnamed diner"
  • Project Type:
    Experimental
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 48 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 4, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, iphone X Pro Max
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Kay Slater

Kay Slater is a multidisciplinary artist. Their artistic practice explores value as it relates to process and expectations. Multidisciplinary means that they work in a variety of ways to make and produce work; such as illustration, paper and cardboard sculpture, photography, videography, writing, and discussion. They are the co-founder of The Papercut Arcade artist collective.

Kay is queer, white, and hard of hearing. They are passionate and reclusive and identify as mad -- both angry at ableism and as a survivor of mental illness. They cannot hear you in busy spaces and prefer to communicate in writing.

Kay subscribes to the philosophy of the New Sincerity, which is a philosophy or trend that tries to expand upon and break away from concepts of postmodernist irony. It also strives to “be more awesome”.

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Director Statement

“I grew up loving play kitchenettes. It didn’t really reveal itself as a gendered experience for me until I was much older because my mother loved to cook, and there was genuine love and respect in my imitation cooking play - I wanted to have the same skills. When my eventual failure to become a competent cook was pitted against assumptions that my mimicry and eventual assistant role in the kitchen would produce a culinary master, it manifested feelings of failure for not being a competent adult and later life partner. Garnish these feelings with a sprig of hearing loss, a side of ritual communal eating, and a blend of unattainable beauty standards and body dysmorphia, and one can see how easy it is to lose one’s appetite.”