Production history around: Bug Video on my Phone

This article will be going over my mini film ‘Bug Video on my Phone’.

I have been experimenting with making films of ‘things that just happen’, spontaneous moments. The PHA that will come after this, of an unlisted film called ‘Film the Light’, is the same. A moment happens in the world, and I have the sudden jolt of ‘this could be a film’.

Though, this has the issue often of meaning I make something not very polished. I am stuck within the boundaries of many domains and external opinions. For one, I don’t think my films need to be ‘good’, and I mean that aesthetically or narratively, because their purpose is research and play. They are fun to make, and I use them as an excuse to think and generate insight.

However, I also submit my work to galleries, publications, and exhibitions. So, when I create a piece like this, I feel that its purpose is more research oriented than ‘art’ oriented. And a second however, I think ‘bad’ art is still ‘art’. I actually often prefer ‘bad art’ to ‘good art’. Then we get into the minutia of subjectivity, as well as external expectations, and playing the game of ‘appearing good’ for grants and recognition, and so on and so forth. Politics.

This is another one of my pieces that looks into non-human agency (like Doggy Style, diaDOGue, liCe, and Tinguely Feeling, among others). I noticed that when I moved my mouse across the screen, the insect reacted to it. It’s funny, because I often call the on-screen cursor a ‘bug’ too. This was similar to liCe in the sense that an insect moving around affects pace, however this film has no cuts in it, meaning the bug has more agency.

Because of said agency, some really cool moments happened which I would never have anticipated. I also really like that within the film, where the bug ran on the Word document affected the improv dialogue. Items I highlighted in site in order to ‘block’ the bugs movements were read out when I did the voice over.

For the voice over, I had no plan other than ‘I am going to voice the bug’. I set up Audacity, clicked record audio, then played the video, and just winged it. It was one take, with my voice pitch shifted.

I do feel empathy for the bug now after giving them a voice. Also, even though it looks like I crushed them, they got away safely. They then had a happy life, a wife, and kids.

The text on the screen is my reading notes when reading ‘An Anecdoted Topography of Chance’ by Spoerri and co. — a really interesting book.

When I read an academic work, I write down my thoughts whenever something comes up in my mind, which means it usually takes me forever to read one to completion.

It’s funny that my notes are an annotated, anecdoted topography of chance. For this book, I ended up with 7,327 words worth of notes and reflections. It is a fun practice. Because of the notes on the screen, I can tell that this video was filmed on the 27th of November, 2025. I am lucky, to be honest, because there were some deeply personal notes one scroll up, and I did not read what the screen said when I filmed the bug.

The song that plays in the background is ‘Tribal Sci-Fi’ by Mark_Murray. This is my first time incorporating some of their stuff into my work.

When I asked my wife what her thoughts of the piece were, she said it was ‘scary’, ‘upsetting’, and ‘deeply uncomfortable’, which I found both funny and disconcerting.

I sent the film around to see what others thought. Minim from the Post-Graduate Research Hub Discord said it was “delightful and joyful”.

My most divisive work yet.

…

Here is the dialogue transcript of ‘the bug’, so it is saved somewhere:

I’m just a bug. I’m just a bug. What… What is this? Get away from me. A title? Heading 2? Oh my god. About? Fluxus? Reproduction? What is any of this? What is this thing following me? I see you. Yes. My films. Oh oh… Lol. You picked the wrong thing. Okay. Yep. Yep. I- I see you’re trying to trap me. You’re trying to trap me. This isn’t fair. This isn’t fair. This isn’t fair. Oh, story walls. I should pursue this further. Hahaha I’ve gotten past you! Oh, Oh Get us out of me. Get this away from me. I’m just a bug. I’m just a bug. Why do you need to be so mean to me? Interested? Yeah. Okay, cool. I didn’t ask. Leave me alone. Just leave me alone. I’m just a bug. I’m just a bug. You don’t. You don’t need to do thissssss.