Clinton Watkins will present a range of recent video and sound projects, discuss the philosophy of materials and process and the drivers of his artistic sensibility. Watkins investigates affect through the construction of combined immersive experiences of sound, colour and scale. His work focuses on the phenomena and processing of sonic and visual material. Installations incorporate custom-made audio and video systems that work with repetition, distortion, duration and form. The combination of scale, volume and the context of environment – play an important role in finding potential extremes and limits for an audience. Structural concepts relating to duration and sequence are addressed through the exploration of repetition, computer-sequenced forms and improvisation. Aspects of formal music composition (such as tempo, rhythm, tone, phrasing, harmony and dissonance) also act as a model for organisation. Watkins operates between categories, namely art and music and their many sub-categories. This position allows his practice to drift between both, doctrines of art and music by creating outcomes that can operate in a gallery setting and within a music performance context. The position of ‘being in-between’ allows greater media diversity and the creation of new works. Watkins regularly exhibits, both locally and internationally with a majority of exhibitions being held at significant contemporary art galleries and museums.

He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout New Zealand, Australia, Europe, Asia and the United States. Clinton Watkins is represented by Starkwhite Gallery, Auckland and works as a senior lecturer in experimental time-based media in the department of Creative Technologies at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.

Clinton Watkins