Black Box Investigations

2023
3 minutes 6 seconds
Single channel video with audio

Few people understand the inner workings of cameras — or the human body — but Black Box Investigations literally travels inside both “black boxes” to attempt to document the inside of both the human body and the camera body. Filmmaker and performer Paige Smith uses a disposable camera to explore the inside of her own body, revealing how little we know about how these complex systems work.

After unwrapping the disposable camera, Smith consumes the device, trying to document the inner workings of her own body. The grainy photos are then displayed, revealing how illegible the black box system of her body truly is. She then turns to the inside of the camera itself, smashing open the plastic body with a hammer and revealing its electronic anatomy.

Exhibition History:

• 2024 Open Wide Experimental Film Festival, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, USA

• 2024 Dieppe Canadian Film Festival, Dieppe, France

• 2024 Festival Impulse, curated by Severine Gay Degrendele, Arles, France

• 2023 “VIFF Short Forum: Program 2", Vancouver International Film Festival, curated by Casey Wei, Vancouver, BC

PRESS:

The Peak, “Paige Smith Explores Unknown Insides in Black Box Investigations”, Petra Chase

The Goods Film Reviews, “Black Box Investigations (2023)”, Dan S

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I wanted to create a work that viscerally conveys the excitement of the game between photographer and camera — and that makes the viewer aware of how these apparatus influence how we imagine and see the world.