Electron (1987)

Synopsis

Electron was originally an installation commissioned by TSWA for Bellever Forest on Dartmoor and comprised a circle of seven monitors encased in steel boxes. Its images are of pylons, the Thames bank with its "seats of institutional power" including Big Ben (Goddard's early work often contains public clocks): a fly caught in amber and an electrical spiral. She describes the piece as "a combination of mythology and technology" relating ancient objects like stone circles, and on the soundtrack are Blake's Jerusalem and a Celtic lament to the physical means of relaying electricity. An apocalyptical view of society and its discontents is underpinned by her idea of an invisible force - this time a physical one - the charged particles of electricity, a kind of natural chaos.