cassie normandy white

Seeing any group of birds in flight momentarily seizes my attention and is call for pause. Making these prints is an attempt to extend their movements, excavate the complexity of these moments and to reveal that which is normally hidden.

I began capturing video footage of birds in flight with my cell phone. The video was slowed down and projected at an enlarged scale so that I could use a dremel tool to create continuous tracings of each individual’s flight patterns across large aluminum plates. These were then printed using an intaglio process: the abrasions on the plate hold ink that can be transferred to paper with the aid of a printing press. The results show vastly different motions, both individually and collectively, from three species of common birds: fish crows, black bellied whistling ducks, and laughing gulls. I am most interested in translating their gesture to study the unique ways they move through the world to initiate admiration and reverence. These beings lead the image-making process, demonstrating lively, vigorous way of existing within their environments. Engaging with their movements through technology, I become intensely aware of the limitations of human perception: new sounds emerge when calls are expanded by slowing the video down; environmental tones morph into unfamiliar, other-worldly depths. Film allows a new appreciation for the nuance and efforts of their flight, uncovering altogether new movements that exist within ordinary experience, but are typically invisible to the human eye.