„Headroom Video“

„Headroom Video Excerpt“

HEADROOM was produced by Paul Sermon as the successful recipient of the 2006 Taiwan Visiting Arts Fellowship award. This residency programme is a joint initiative between Visiting Arts, the Council for Cultural Affairs Taiwan, British Council Taiwan and Arts Council England, aiming to establish an exchange between artists from Taiwan and England who are engaged in contemporary arts practice. Taiwan Visiting Arts Fellowship Award


This video is an excerpt from a video of Paul being interviewed about his experiences in Taiwan. For the full video see Paul's Website

For images of the work see Paul's other contribution .

Paul Sermon had no concrete plans about what he would produce prior to the three month residency and assumed a “blank canvas” approach in order to respond to his environment and adopt an action research based method in the development of his work. This process has been comprehensively documented as part of the AHRC Performing-Presence project led by Prof. Nick Kaye from Exeter University.

HEADROOM is a juxtaposition of Paul's experiences in Taipei, between the way people live and the way people escape, as an analogy between the solitude presence in the bedroom space and the divine telepresent aspirations in the Internet space. This installation is also referencing Roy Ascott's essay, 'Is There Love in the Telematic Embrace?' (1990), where Ascott addressed a common concern amongst critics that technology would dehumanise the arts. But if telematic art had the potential to embody love, it would not be paradoxical for art to be electronic and simultaneously serve humanist principles. Reminiscent of Nam June Paik's early Buddha TV installations, HEADROOM is a reflection of the self within the telepresent space, as both the viewer and the performer of this intimate encounter. The television 'screen' is transformed into a stage or a portal between the causes and effects that simultaneously take place in the minds of the solitary viewers. Project website

HEADROOM was exhibited at Xinyi Public Assembly Hall, Taipei during the artist-in-residency hosted by Taipei Artists Village , March to May 2006

2007