Trying Things Out

Vicki spent 4 months with "access all areas" to the BBC's million-strong archive. The result was a short film using imagery collaged from a number of documentaries made between 1951 and 1980 - featuring footage shot at the Festival of Britain, as well as other footage portraying optimistic outlooks on post-war Britain. She tells the story, through layers of A/V collage, of how the artist can bring about positive change in culture. By juggling layers of imagery and context, much like a puppeteer, the film portrays the playfulness of the artist/director, moving images and scenery around with surprising results - "Trying Things Out". It is partly autobiographical in that it reflects, by use of footage of people playing with machines and effecting imagery, that access to film archives can inspire new work, creating new dialogues where otherwise there may have been none.