“Triggers” a term possibly first coined by Eric Fournier to describe some of his short spasmatic Shaye Saint John pieces, can also be extended to describe other Absurd Video Artists who have been employing this style for years.

Neither “short film” nor “sketch piece”, these triggers tend to exist somewhere between “test clip” and “stand alone visual art”.

To the archaic alternative and even experimental film purveyor, Trigger pieces have been discounted and swept aside as their lack of label have confused and agitated the alter-establishment (of course showing 20 seconds of mundane 16mm leader film is acceptable in the usual avant garde circles and considered part of a risk taking experimental film.  “Ooooh, he showed leader!”  Pathetic, par usual).

But Triggers can also be seen as “releases”.  Similar to a gun enthusiast feeling the heavy urge to pull a trigger and unload a few rounds, the video artist similarly experiences the necessity to unload using whatever creative arsenals on hand.

Triggers are performed without the restraint of the usual mundane burdens of visual coherency, plots, titles, credits etc.  They’re meant to trigger off some creative energy for creativity’s  sake;  the necessary high that a quick heroin street fix brings to the junkie, the video creator locks, loads,  and spews forth a premature ejaculation through the visual medium.

Here are  some random triggers from American Films, Heck Boyd, and Shaye Saint John.