Coffee Can Claymore

About

A series of short film loops illustrating the assembly stages of an improvised claymore, as taken verbatim from a resource describing the process used by the Vietcong in the Vietnam war. Each film features a different person (filmed from the neck down, camera focused on hands) as one part of the assembly line. The films should be presented separately to reflect the distribution of labour within the production process. Collectively, the series of films question how abstracting a production process enables complicity. Furthermore, it explores the point at which the individuals involved in the production process can be described as being participants in an unethical/illegal act. Is the final person in the assembly line more responsible than the first, owing to the fact that the object produced becomes less abstracted further along the assembly line? Is the facilitator/overseer of the assembly line responsible? Does payment for the labour of the line workers suggest an alternative agency/complicity in the process, and alter the distribution of responsibility?

Series

There will be six loops, each film following verbatim the step-by-step process described by the resource. Each film will be shot in a minimalist style, with no stylistic intervention. The shot will be square with the assembly line worker, focused on their hands and with their face out of shot. The image should not appear staged (no obvious set lighting). Location is indoor, should have minimal background features, and appear anonymous. The films should loop to simulate mass production.

Each video should be displayed separately. Not on one machine, or on one account if online, as by doing this it becomes a unified collection. The distributed series of video loops become a puzzle in isolation.