Video Practices of Knowledge and Technology

You are on the C train near Paris—the yellow line. You know you are going to a wealthy suburb because the train is here on time and there are still covers on the chairs and see-through windows to contemplate nature while you ride. You hold on to your train ticket and your professional invitation. You also have your self-written authorization explaining why you are on this trip. If some surveillance agent asks, you have a speech ready in your head. You can explain why it is an essential activity to go see Kitso Lynn Lelliott's video installations in Chamarande. It is March 2021, and the French government is prescribing what counts as an essential activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. You are on your way nevertheless, and an hour into the ride you arrive and walk the village-like streets. You enter the Domaine Départemental de Chamarande—a park with a seventeenth-century castle. A sign on the Orangerie cottage building and an open door invites you into a dark room. A woman sitting at her desk is expecting you and asks to scan your QR-code. You observe the space while she reminds you of the sanitary measures.