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Between the Blur – 2022

Between the Blur is a 6 minute art video that utilizes publicly listed data of coordinates of 3405 orphaned oil and gas wells within the province of Alberta, Canada. Through a fast, generative process the data is illustrated geographically and translated to other locations in an attempt to view what is generally not viewable. Translations include the city of Calgary, its downtown core, the Athabasca oilsands, the revolving coordinates around a wellhead, and to the actual locations of orphan wellsites. Patterns of movement bridge in similarity across these locations according to the original layout of orphaned wells that traverse approximately 70% of the land area in Alberta. A meditative cascading rhythm of locations occurs through an operation of scale and frequency. The video is a poetic geographic journey visually calling into question the notion of the oil and gas industry, pondering this relation to land and cityscape to which it is irrevocably tied. Between the Blur is closely related to The War Room, but is much more condensed with its approach aligned with video art rather than a hybrid of documentary and video art.

Between the Blur, Greg Marshall, 2022, 4K, stereo, 6:00