Warp, 2000
Single-channel video, colour, sound, 4:13 minutes
Courtesy of the artist and BERG Contemporary
Warp marks Steina’s transition into software-based image processing in the late 1990s. The work uses Image/ine, a programme developed by Steina in collaboration with software designer Tom Demeyer, which enables real-time bending and warping of the video image through a graphical user interface.
Recorded in an empty studio, the work uses Steina’s own body as visual input, functioning as test material for the software’s capacities. Slit-scan processing renders time spatially; Steina‘s body multiplies through perspectives that accumulate with the passage of time. Image/ine was developed during her tenure as artistic director of STEIM (Studio for Electro Instrumental Music) in Amsterdam and was among the first artist-driven tools to offer direct, user-controlled manipulation of moving images. The software was later used in other works by the artist, including Bent Scans (2002). Never patented, Image/ine reflects Steina’s decision to develop tools that remain adaptable, transferable, and available for artistic use.