Seven Steps in black

Cork City Ireland, 2009 —

"Seven Steps" is a 1.4-second-long video I made of the sound of hard soles on tile.

Though it shows only blackness, the clip records a moment during the daytime. I probably had the camera in my jacket-pocket. It also records a "moment" in the story of the one year that I lived in Cork City.

Returning home in the afternoon, I was unsure whether or not I would encounter trouble, and I had switched on my camera so that if there were a hostile conversation I'd be able to capture it. Between late summer and early winter of 2009, I lived in a house on Ballyhooly Road that was owned by a business that rented out temporary housing in various properties around town. In late September, I offended one of my housemates, a guy named Dave, one evening in conversation. I dismissed something he'd said. He turned snide, and remained so. I tried to speak with him about it, after the attention of the room had turned elsewhere, but he refused my apology.

It soon became clear that Dave had made a snippy little decision to quit speaking with me.

One morning a few days later, he set off the smoke alarm in the kitchen and was pretty smug about it.

At that point I had no idea what to expect.

Ultimately, nothing happened.

But there was a time when I worried.

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