'Close' uses a sound recording technique known a 'binaural' recording. The word binaural literally means 'two ears' and the simple technique involves the placement of two small microphones in or near the ears of a person or dummy head. When recordings made in this way are monitored on headphones, the listener hears a spatially accurate audio image of the recorded 'scene'. In 'Close', binaural sound establishes strong feelings of bodily association with an on-screen subject, merging the world of the subject with that of the viewer/listener and additionally, creating the sensation of standing outside one's self and looking back.

'Close' presents a symbolic representation of a death and merges the identity of viewer and subject using shared acoustic space. The subject wears binaural microphones and the viewer hears sound from the subject's perspective with headphones playing the sounds of his immediate experience. Actions featured in 'Close' are those of haircutting. The removal of hair has twofold significance 1) it serves to represent a loss of life and gradual transition towards death through a removal of expressive and identifying features  2) as a symbol of mourning.

In 'Close', the subject assumes a type of proxy for the viewer or an avatar role - an oft-used device in VR productions. A conflict of phenomena results from this marriage of binaural sound with a proxy. In binaural sound art, the listener is fundamentally situated at the centre of all actions and of the acoustic image. In contrast, the traditional film-sound paradigm co-locates the acoustic image with that of the visual image and sound is projected toward the viewer, outside the scene. These relationships are convoluted in 'Close' by the introduction of the proxy. The result is a projection of the self, outward, towards the image. The viewer is coerced through sound and image to perceive a second self having left the body, and the meditation on the subject establishes empathetic emotions extending from this relationship.

Close - Synopsis

The video begins with panning and dissolve footage of the walls of an anechoic chamber (a special sound proof and echoless room). After a period, the subject is revealed and the viewer becomes aware of his breathing. As the subject’s face rotates into full screen, the first brush stroke of a hairdresser is applied to the hair. The sound of these strokes, in contrast to the breath, is spatially situated on the surface of the viewer’s own head. The viewer may at first be confused about the location of these sounds, believing they are looking at a mirror image the left-to-right location of sound may appear reversed. As they watch the various viewpoints of the video however, their perception soon shifts such that the sound appears from the perspective of the subject and not a reflection.

The hairdresser continues to work the hair in a detached manner – next with water spray, next with towel and comb. He then begins to cut the hair with scissors and comb and the camera continues to change its perspective, sometimes from the left, sometimes from below and sometimes from above. These changes, linked to the rhythm of the haircutting, further reinforce the viewer’s association with the subject, as they need to constantly cross-reference the acoustic with the visual image.

Once the hair is cropped short the hairdresser shaves the scalp with an electric razor in swift strokes. The drone of the razor is in sharp contrast to the staccato snaps of the preceding scissors. The sound has a slightly nauseating effect on the listener as the hairdresser lingers with the device, tidying up the remaining hair. The hairdresser then lathers the stubble with soap after preparing the mixture at the table behind the subject. The stubble is removed with a cutthroat razor. The eyebrows are then removed in a similar fashion. During this sequence, the pace of the editing begins to slow and the shots become more distant. Finally the now ‘blank’ subject is seen motionless in a temporally extended series of long shots.

back