In the summer of 2013 Forma Arts and artist Mark Boulos, along with a one tonne motion tracking system named Milo, took to the heart of London’s financial district to begin shooting for Echo.
In Echo, viewers encounter a ghostly ‘reflection’ of themselves, placed in to an urban landscape. This urban landscape at the steps of the Bank of England is that which can be seen in the attached images.
The reason for such a heavy camera was the pursuit of achieving contrazoom, meaning an ultra stable shot is required. Contrazoom, the same technique Hitchcock developed to induce a feeling of vertigo, is used in Echo to create the impression of buildings receding and shrinking away from the viewer. The mannequin visible, wrapped in cling film for its own protection, was used to help Milo stabilise the shot further.
As Echo draws to a close, the rhythm of the work accelerates. The viewer abruptly finds themselves in sudden quiet; the scene is empty except for them. All of which is hinted at in the recently published trailer for Mythology, a solo exhibition of Mark Boulos’s work opening this month at Edge Arts, University of Bath (24 April - 30 May 2015).