Chris Sykes

Beyond Words

Responding to the power and impact of famous, emotive speeches, Sykes attempts to disrupt linear time and re-imagine these influential speeches as visual experiences. The process starts with the appropriation of recordings of Winston Churchill, Hillary Clinton, Adolf Hitler, John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Using a precious metal called Gallium, which transforms from a solid to a liquid state at approximately human body temperature, Sykes takes multiple images of this liquid metal as it reacts with the sound waves of various speeches generated by a conventional loudspeaker. The resulting photographs are then sequenced, mapped and processed using high resolution 3D modelling software – a technique known as ‘photogrammetry’ – in order to produce images that condense and encapsulate entire orations into a singular visual landscape. With the increasing use of data visualisation and digital imaging this pseudoscientific investigation attempts to challenge the boundaries of what photography can be.