Chroma Screens –Intra-Actions, Connections and Gesturalities

Abstract

Chroma screens is a collective name for the blue and green screens that are commonly used in the process of compositing images in cinema, video and graphics. Taking into account the expanded functions of screens in the postmedia condition, screens are not merely 'container' of images, rather they emphasize, interconnect and constantly rearticulate relationships in a media assemblage. This paper explores the 'intra-active gesturality' of chroma screens, that is, screens as an enactment of material-discursive practices and analyses ways in which they sustain the relations between various parts of the media assemblage. In considering the specific instance of Sondra Perry's artwork, the paper argues that chroma screens are a performance of colour where the practices of imagemaking and racial discrimination converge.