Transmission Test – by Becca Smith | Prestbury

ink drawings of Ian Curtis

Transmission Test – an art project by Becca Smith

Transmission Test was an experimental art project (installation) by local artist Becca Smith. It was set up and trialled at Prestbury railway station on the 1st July 2017. The art project was a homage to local musician Ian Curtis of Joy Division and was conceived as a kind of zoetrope installation that would create a sense of animation when viewed from a passing high speed train. The animation was essentially a clip from Joy Division’s famous TV performance of the song Transmission which is reputed to be the first instance of Ian parodying his own epileptic seizer movements from a pervious gig as deliberate dance moves.

The work was comprised of a number of paintings by Becca with each ostensibly manifesting a ‘frame’ in a film strip and with incremental changes to manifest the sense of animation. There were a number of problems with this experiment including the onlookers (passengers) visual field. The animation effect may have been noticeable for someone looking strait out of a Pendolino window from the opposite side of the carriage — maybe?

I’m not sure what happened to the individual drawings but I imagine these were re distributed to collectors or sold? The portraits were very good.

Main pic exif :-