by accident & sympathy, video, 03:03

by accident & sympathy combines documentation from work of wind, work of water and another project site, to present a spectrum of agency - from witness to collaborator to conductor - in our relationship to the natural world.

The short films in this work were created from photos taken at fifteen minute intervals by automated cameras. While the duration of each varies, all clips depict a day from sunrise to sunset: the first segment, taken from a camera stationed atop Pinto Mountain, depicts a day in the life of the Hexie Mountains; the second, twenty four clips from a studio site in the Hudson Valley, New York; and the third (divided into alternating collages) - clips from both sites.

Both collages are composed of vertical strips, again with each strip depicting a single day. The strips in the left collage are in chronological order from left to right, from the first day of the spring equinox to the first day of the vernal equinox (187 days) using footage from an installation within the Hexie Mountains.

187 clips chosen at random from footage at the studio site make up the strips in right collage.

Field recordings of a street market and church bells, as well as excerpts from a 1963 interview with John Cage by Jonathan Cott score the various segments.

The title comes from the last line 'The Novices of Sais', an unfinished prose poem from the 18th century polymath Novalis which follows a conversation among a group of students as they seek guidance from their mentor on how to pursue learning the secrets of nature.

Attribution: “Music Not to Read By: John Cage Interviewed by Jonathan Cott”, by Jonathan Cott and John Cage, used under CC BY-NY-ND 1.0, links here.