I place the camera on a turning kitchen-organizer-tray. You wind a tied-together shoe lace around it and attach a small motor to it. Turn it on.
The camera spins, its gaze slowly glides over what is around. The mechanism is set to continue [keep going], it’s built on endurance and repetition. Soon, I am a little dizzy. A little dizzy but comfortably so, for there is comfort in predictability.
Now stop. Withhold the camera. Do not let go. Do not let it avert its gaze. He, the motor, will [keep going], will continue its perfect circles, mercilessly and mechanically. Now spinning nothing but itself, its efforts only perceptible in a slight but adhesive panning - back and forth, back and forth.
The force of gravity acts as a pull on the body [downwards]. Combined with inertia, this can lead to the feeling of being stuck, or blocked, or unable to move, if there is no countering force strong enough to break this [fixation].
It is only a third element, momentum [change of direction], which gives the impulse to movement. Immobility turns to motion, turns over, turns between, turns inwards, turns eyes, turns shoulder blades, turns right now, turns slower, turns off.
SPIN is part of an ongoing research into the mechanics of emotion and violence of sensation. It was developed in collaboration with Mira Jochimsen.