OCP (film)

OCP is a performance video project produced and directed by Mitch Stratten. The work involved an elaborate three tonne moving set which allowed a puppeteer to synchronise the space with the unpredictable movement of the three performers contained.[1]

A prosthetic headpiece supported the performers to walk like a spider.

Engineering, construction and testing took place in a North London warehouse over three months preceding the film shoot completed in two days.[2] An additional physical challenge was for the three separate bodies, supported by a special prosthetic helmet, to walk as a single entity resembling a spider. [3] The score was composed by Mitch Stratten (also known as Nodern) and mastered by Denis Blackham in the Isle of Skye.[4] The experimental project had a budget of GBP 24,000 according to its IMDb entry.[5]

OCP was first released on the Sedition distribution platform where it is curated online.[6] The reception to OCP was polarised with some critics praising it as an imaginative feat and “genius”[4] while others called it unsettling and too abstract.[7][8] OCP has further been included amongst institutional art programmes internationally. [9][10][11][12] The work integrates ideas on language and folklore.[3][13] OCP is the abbreviation for orifice conditioning plate, a piece of equipment used in the mining industry that turns the asymmetrical flow of liquid in pipes symmetrical to monitor performance.