Research on Laurent Terras

Laurent Terras

Terras is a digital artist, currently living and working in Serilhac. He bases his work on the world around him; questioning it in different ways.

 “Elementary Rover Mission”, 2004

 He never over complicates his work and I particularly like the way he films things – “Elementary Rover Mission”, 2004 was a series of videos recorded with a camera on a “vehicle”. He got footage using four differently designed vehicles: “Rotorover” (2006), “Transporteur” (2006), "Drone" (2008), and “MotoConfort” (2011). Terras has used these designs to capture the happenings of everyday life from different viewpoints.

“ERM, Freefall”, 2006

The video makes me think of chaos and destruction because of the way the camera is rolling around within the "Rotorover vehicle" I like the way that it has been edited with the static sounds and disrupted picture. 

“ERM, Circulars, Sunset”, 2006

This is my favourite of the ERM videos. I like the way the whole world is flipped upside-down as the camera turns in a circular motion and the way that the effects used add a certain ambiguity to the piece.

 

 “Free Range”, 2005

An appropriate title for this video! Terras has put a fake bird in a nest on top of a remote controlled vehicle and videoed it being driven towards and then past the camera. It's such a strange thing to watch, which is what I think makes it so interesting. It’s possible that he wanted to use humour to bring a viewers attention to his work. I dislike that he hasn’t used many editing techniques in this video because I think they could have made it even better but I do like the environmental sounds of the wheels going down the road.

“Untitled (Fried Chicken)”, 2008

This is a video installation of sculpted chicken feet attached to a machine that makes them move as thought they were walking. I am fascinated by this video because I believe that Terras is trying to show the cruelty of humanity and the way that we take life away from animals like chickens- born to die. However, this is just my own opinion, what the artist is actually trying to express is unknown.