Natural History Primer suggests material collection from specific geographical regions. These materials include super-8 film, digital video footage, sound recordings and photographic stills.

The primer format is a direct reference to Frampton’s Zorn’s Lemma (1977), a 60-minute film that makes use of set theory as its basis. Specifically, Frampton’s engagement with linguistic and abstract structures in the organisation of filmic materials is a major influence on Natural History Primer’s use of the English alphabet as its principal structuring device.

An early iteration of the video makes explicit use of language by allocating one letter to one object captured in the footage (animal, plant, rocks, minerals, natural mechanism, geographic feature, or location) by labelling it using a scientific, common, or colloquial name. This mapping plays with the idea of knowing through naming when the act of naming itself is arbitrary. Each letter precedes a piece of silent footage (of an object), which is then followed by the word that denotes the object. This primer organises the fragments into a recognisable but unpredictable pattern that can be disaggregated into 26 separate segments.

In this final iteration, objects are arranged in a similar sequence, but the absence of letters and words obscures the structuring device. In doing so, the focus is brought back to the materials. The silence that accompanies these sketches (often shot as close-ups and extreme close-ups) draws attention to the materiality of the objects. In the linear sequence, an object is placed in a relationship with another in a temporal diorama that is separated by a single transition. These transitions (such as wipes, flips, and focus shifts) are created using analogue animation. These visible seams of construction emphasise the ever-present frame, camera, and the human eye. The work calls for attentiveness to the materiality of objects through the film medium while at the same time acknowledging human presence in the community of things.

Jo Law is an artist, researcher, and scholar who investigates the transformative potential of art, science, and technology in response to our changing sociocultural and political environments. Jo works with divergent media to develop a materialist aesthetic engagement with everyday experiences. Her award-winning screen works have been exhibited in international programs.

Through her media art practice and scholarly research publications, Jo explores how the textual imprints of media and materials in artworks shape human experience. Jo teaches at the University of Wollongong.