Classified Digits

2016 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

5:27 minutes

Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader


Indexes that either allow or inhibit the establishment of communication exist in both signed as well as spoken languages. Some differ radically depending on a variety of social, economic and geographical factors, while others are universally understood. Seemingly small and fleeting gestures can determine a sense of affiliation or a feeling of rejection. American Sign Language (ASL) is a language in which nuances like face markers (eyebrows, lip movement, etc.) can radically alter the context of one sign or re-contextualize meaning entirely. The commonly recognized hand shapes that are typically used to show different classes of things, shapes, and sizes are called “classifiers”. The index finger is a classifier for “person”. This single finger is enough to identify every possible individual and also for the observers to recognize themselves in it. It is a placeholder that can be manipulated at will. For the video Classified Digits, by Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader, this finger is hurled into a series of awkward yet commonly experienced social situations.


Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader have been collaborating for the last 5 years, covering communication in a variety of formats such as recording an overnight shipment from Berlin to New York ( Recording Contract , 2013), compiling 24 hours of invited contributors’ studio time ( Busy Day , 2014), and using the arm game, a combination of body and face, in order to describe a series awkward situations ( Classified Digits , 2016).


Colors:


Related works sharing similar palette  
» see more

Five-Hundred Twenty-Four
© » KADIST

Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis

2022

Five Hundred Twenty-Four, a single-channel video installation by Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis, features singers from over twenty Cleveland-area choirs counting numbers in an iterative process: one person sings “one”, then two people sing “two”, and so forth, to 524...

Royal Velázquez Portrait Expected to Shatter Auction Records
© » OBSERVER

Royal Velázquez Portrait Expected to Shatter Auction Records | Observer A portrait of a Spanish queen painted by Diego Velázquez, the 17th-century artist celebrated for his depictions of Spain’s royal family, is expected to shatter his auction record when it goes up for sale early next year...

Leading art collectors put pressure on Balai Seni Visual Negara
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Leading art collectors put pressure on Balai Seni Visual Negara | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles February 15, 2020 by Kathy Rowland In a first for Malaysian art history, a Collectors’ Petition signed by 55 private art collectors have warned Balai Seni Visual Negara that they will no longer be lending works from their collection to Balai in future unless Balai reinstates pieces removed from Ahmad Fuad Osman’s exhibition immediately ...

In The Studio With Jakub Kubica: Between Minimalist Design And Sci-Fi Archeology
© » IGNANT

In The Studio With Jakub Kubica: Between Minimalist Design And Sci-Fi Archeology - IGNANT Name Jakub Kubica Images Clemens Poloczek Words Marie-Louise Schmidlin With a portfolio that spans minimalist furniture, functional design objects, and futuristic artworks, the practice of Jakub Kubica meets at the intersection of various disciplines...

Related works found in the same semantic group  
» see more

Hand Palm Echo 1
© » KADIST

Christine Sun Kim

2022

Hand Palm Echo 1 is a digital animation based on Christine Sun Kim’s staircase mural at The Drawing Center in New York (10 March – 22 May, 2022)...

Sign series, #1, #2, #3
© » KADIST

Bjorn Copeland

2009

Sign #1 , Sign #2 , Sign #3 were included in “Found Object Assembly”, Copeland’s 2009 solo show at Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco...

DROPSPIKE
© » KADIST

Leticia Ramos

2021

Leticia Ramos’s film DROPSPIKE is the second of a five-part film project entitled STORIES OF THE END OF THE WORLD ...

White Minority
© » KADIST

Juan Capistran

2005

White Minority , is typical of Capistran’s sampling of high art genres and living subcultures in which the artist subsumes an object’s high art pedigree within a vernacular art form...