Tim Meacham

Overlooked Skirtingboard Exploration Probe, OSEP. 2020
 

A miniature wireless video camera circumnavigates a room with a live projection back to the space. Like a startled mouse looking for an escape hole, a small powered probe mounted on rails takes the viewer on scurrying journey into the overlooked recesses of a domestic space via the skirting board. Tiny surface details and occasional glimpses back into the room are projected on a huge scale, filling the walls of the room. Designed to be viewed through exterior windows the probe will stop if anyone enters the space. The exchange one for the room alone, and giving prominence to the humble skirting board in its often overlooked role as seam between floor and wall. Like the view from a moving train and its links to early cinema, as the landscape unfolds, the linear movement of the skirting board somehow facilitates the telling of stories, its unrolling drawing the eye in a journey around the edge of space. A journey punctuated by doors/tunnels like a line of text. Trains and skirting boards both skirt space giving a privileged view back into the centre.