The video installation "Dark Recordings" consists of an array of cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other. In the top box – the one resembling a house – there's a small screen (3 x 4 cm) playing a video. The video is a cut-up collage made from old super 8 mm films and cassette tape recordings that I found stashed away in a beaten old box in the freezing attic of my family home.
The collage is a structural exploration of this collection of private media. There's nothing special about this collection – its completely ordinary. You'll find similar films and tapes in millions of Swedish homes; footage of birthday parties, midsummer celebrations and family holidays, recordings of children's voices, rock band rehearsals and Dictaphone memos. I find this ordinariness quite interesting. I find this ordinariness worth exploring.
"Dark Recordings" directs your attention to the cultural phenomenon of home recording. How and why do we document our lives? Home recordings are not just documentations of events taking place at a certain space on a certain time – they are also documents of the technology of that time. I personally find it quite spooky to watch old family photos and films. I tried to emphasize that feeling in the video.