Blokker is a purpose-built camera that uses AI to occlude faces. This project is one of a series of works reflecting on vision impairment and photographic memory.

It Took Forever to Fall Asleep by Robert Hamilton, excerpt, 2021, 1 minute, 47 seconds; stereo; black and white. 

This film methodically illuminates a ghostly cityscape at night, frozen in time; a transformative reflection of the COVID world we find ourselves in today. The film is a steady, gradual exploration of a miniature landscape constructed in the early 1960s by David Lee, a lawyer from Dundas, Ontario. Built in relative isolation in his basement and untouched for 50 years, the details are fascinating – finely fabricated buildings and streets, working lights, hundreds of hand-painted figures spread among the lush rolling papier-maché landscapes. The diorama suggests a reflection on identity and community – a fractured series of rough representations, tableaux and narratives. There is a deep sense of melancholy in these delicate and static constructions, with thematic parallels echoing events during COVID.

Pandemia by Robert Hamilton, 2021, 4 minutes, 4 seconds, colour, stereo.

This work was produced during the pandemic while isolating at home. The video follows a boy’s response to COVID-19. The boy participates in his community’s “isolate, test, treat and trace” initiative, marked by red crosses on their homes. This work reflects on COVID-19, our relationship with the environment and sustainability. This work features minor digital image manipulation where symbolic red crosses were added to trees and homes.

Produced in Denmark and Canada

An intense slow-motion video of a recreational dive competition becomes an absurd expression of privilege aboard a half-billion dollar cruise ship sailing in the Gulf of Mexico.

An ironic reflection on a theory of conscious agents – a formal theory of consciousness developed by Donald Hoffman. The video was shot in Hamilton, Ontario. Audio interview with Donald Hoffman graciously provided by the Dutch broadcaster VPRO, in their series “The Mind of the Universe.” The audio was edited and used under CC-BY-SA.