RAT DIV-A

Virginia: RAT DIV-A, Welcome to Artscape

Me: Thanks Virginia.

Virginia: Your career as a video artist has taken off recently. Tell us how you got started.

Me: Well, it was by accident really. I was visiting my sister's farm, and taking a few interior shots to show our mum. I pressed the record button by mistake in the bedroom. Later I realised I had a video of the bed.

Virginia: And what were your thoughts on that?

Me: I thought it was rather creepy.

Virginia: ( laughing ) It was. And what followed from that?

Me: Nothing. I forgot all about it. But some time later, it was Halloween, I recall, I was experimenting with some night shots of Koster's Kiln, and accidentally pressed the record button again.

Virginia: Tell us a bit about Koster's Kiln.

Me: It's just down the road from our house. It's an old kiln in the middle of a reserve and at night it's lit up by an orange spotlight.

Virginia: Ah yes, these are your famous spooky Koster's Kiln sideways videos.

Me: Yes. It's funny, I hadn't meant them to come out sideways. I rotated them on Easyshare but when I uploaded them to Facebook, they rotated back to sideways-on again.

Virginia: ( smiling) A serendipitous re-rotation.

Me : Absolutely. That was when my work first came to the attention of the reviewer from Video Cognoscenti.

Virginia: Yes, let me just quote from that first review : "Brilliantly short creepy videos in which nothing happens. Innovatively presented sideways. A sensational new talent emerges in video art." That was a pretty amazing time for you, I imagine.

Me: Yes it was. I took another look at them and realised that they really were quite creepy. But even then I didn't think that I would make a career of accidental videos. Nevertheless it was about that time that I started calling myself the RAT DIV-A.

Virginia: A very clever name. Now, your really big break came after the release of your fourteen second magnum opus, ''Webbers at the Beach". I'd like to talk with you about that at length, but unfortunately we're out of time. Will you come back on the next program so that we can continue this fascinating discussion?

Me: I certainly will, Virginia. I'm looking forward to it.