Jim Drain

In P.opular S.ky (section ish), a character played by Trecartin informs us that she wants ‘to live in a world where narration is the devil’. The ability to script oneself is an inalienable right, and anything that opposes that right must be rejected.

In ZMTRX, extremely rhythmic editing and pulsating, synthesized music create a hypnotic effect reminiscent of some of video's earliest analogue synthesizer experiments. The artists write: "Using a zooming motif, ZMTRX is the most optically violent of the four tapes and shows Forcefield going from physical form to oblivion."

Forcefield Video Collection features the group's earliest videos. These loosely-wrought narrative vignettes combine Forcefield's shrouded figures, handmade props, and a range of evocative backdrops, brought together by hyperkinetic editing, video effects, and vivid electronic soundtracks.

These short video works by Ara Peterson – filmmaker, artist, and a founding member of the art collective Forcefield – emerged from an installation centering around a large-scale glass kaleidoscope. The kaleidoscope functioned both as a sculptural element and as a kind of screen reflecting Peterson’s manipulations of a feedback loop created with a handheld video camera, resulting in endlessly morphing abstractions.