Ctrl + Shift + 5: Definition of Red

Ctrl + Shift + 5: Definition of Red is a video installation/visual essay that offers a semiotic and idiosyncratic definition of the color red. Considering the ambiguity of language and the complexity of its structures, it takes a single word and alludes to its infinite definitions, expressions, metaphors, and associations.

This work explores how ‘red’ has been instrumentalized historically, politically, and commercially to sell objects or ideologies, as well as its subliminal role in constructing perceptions of gender, power, and desire.

This investigation considers the bio-politics of language and how it infiltrates our collective consciousness, becoming an instrument of control shaped by the lessons we are taught and the media we consume. The rapid movement of images and information in the video mirrors the frenetic energy of the digitized era we live in, and how the enormity of data we consume makes it impossible to define any singular word, idea, or concept—even something as ostensibly simple as a color.

This is the earliest work in a line of research that investigates the ways in which constructions of power are embedded in language, images, and information. Questions surrounding how innocent things are forever being manipulated, blurred, and rendered invisible are themes that appear throughout Reid’s work, as well as her affective, feminist approach of weaving together fragments of theory, history, and storytelling in a non-linear way—constructing constellations that posit alternative ways of understanding.