jasper johns response - shoe drop

The object I chose was a shoe falling onto the ground. The two actions I performed sequentially were shooting it as it hit the ground and shooting it as it fell past the camera frame. When placed alongside each other through editing, the two falling motions are connected visually in spite of the different angles at which they fall. On the one hand, this demonstrates that the sequence in which actions are performed on an object (the shoe) need not determine their ultimate sequential relationship as an objective representation (the video) or even whether they express themselves in sequence. The sequentiality of the Jasper John's quote may not exist in a finished work. It also demonstrates the underlying instructive power of Jasper John's words. The pattern of doing one thing and then another is meant to be repeated without a necessary end. Each change creates a new object that provokes new actions. Realistically I had to perform more than two actions - I changed the shoes displacement from the earth, I composed its image within the frame, I shot multiple takes of each fall, eventually I edited the two shots to create a radically different object altogether, and so on. Johns refers to this production of difference when he reminds himself to simplify his process into a series of doings. The object is in a state of difference from itself and its history from the moment the artist begins to imagine and produce visual alternatives to its original state. Every action produces the possibility for new actions, making the two actions Johns refers to the latest (or earliest) in the chain. The object - the video - becomes a by-product of this process.