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Case Study

Present Absence
Digital Art Installation

Launch Date: April, 2024

Present Absence is a five-channel video installation that individualizes and personalizes the lives of 5 people killed by Chicago Police. These stories, generated from long-form interviews with family members, invite viewers to experience those murdered not as closed cases or dry statistics, as sensational media stories or police cover-up tales – but as unique human beings who made life-changing contributions to others, who are loved and mourned.

INVOLVEMENT

  • Website Design
  • Website Development
  • Video Post-Production

TECHNOLOGY

  • Jekyll + GitHub Pages
  • Adobe Premiere

Present Absence Preview

presentabsence.github.io
Portfolio

A Physical Installation

— Stories Told in the Round

For every story, five family members are in virtual conversation, each featured in their own screen to offer their piece of the completed picture. Present Absence uses multichannel storytelling in an intimate living room setting to facilitate deep listening and proffer paths to radical empathy.

To Digital Composition

— Reenvisioned for a single screen

Working from the original edits, I reimagined the installation to create a digital video composition that would function online to expand the reach of the work. We incorporated additional information from the gallery exhibition to facilitate a legacy for these family's stories.

Choosing green and blue, I wanted to visually speak to the installation's message of life over loss from police violence.

GnarWare Workshop
Ultra Trading Ltd
A Chicago based digital media studio.
  • Website Design & Development
  • Photography
  • Video Editing
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Digital Marketing + Management
  • Content Management System Migration
Happily working with
  • Squarespace
  • Shopify
  • Github Pages (Jekyll)
  • CraftCMS
  • Webflow
  • Wordpress + WooCommerce
  • Wix

Websites don't have to be alien technology.

© 2025 David Ball. All rights reserved.
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