Thomson & craigshead - Several Interruptions

'The Arts Council of England’s commissioning of Thomson & Craighead’s piece Several Interruptions for the relaunch of their website in 2009 . Thomson & Craighead, artists famous for their work on bringing Internet art to a gallery space, are known for creating pieces from appropriated online material, to ‘explore how technology changes the way we perceive the world around us’ . That the Arts Council sought the support of Thomson & Craighead’s reputation to promote the council’s own activity can be considered proof that Internet art is gaining acceptance as a legitimate artistic practise, even if it is not widely known as an art form by the public.
Several Interruptions (2009) utilises the popular Internet art tool of video collage to comment on the individual’s relation to the culture of Youtube. The piece is composed of three screens of individuals holding their breath underwater, with each set of videos interrupting the one before, until the fifth set where the subjects are shown finally breathing. Several Interruptions ‘make reference to the large-scale, three-screen projection installations of internationally-known video artists.’ This formal composition allows the ‘seemingly mundane and numerous’ Youtube videos , to be ‘made back into something unique and original.’ The artists’ transformation of the footage allows the name of ‘art’ to be given to performances made by individuals on the internet'