Referencing the recording and reading of responses embedded within a series of fabricated standardized test sheets, the techno pop graphics of Scan-Tron become mentally charged with viable questions and patterns of decision-making. During the months of November, December and January 2003, Jennifer Schmidt responded to a series of test forms - filling in answers with a #2 pencil - according to a given set of rules and unknown objectives.
A process-based performative artwork, Scan-Tron seeks to draw attention to the relationships between graphic design within a cultural vernacular and the directives for human response. Specifically, as it pertains to the format of American standardized test forms and its rules and methods for recording information. A disconnect exists between the artifact of the printed test answer sheet, the individual act of reading and thinking about the separate test questions, the individual act of recording test responses according to a given mark-making procedure, and the subsequent scanning or fact checking of these responses by a programmed machine.
I am most interested in what can be thought of as the "in-between" - the identification, reconciliation and abstraction of the thing itself (meaning). What is ephemeral becomes lost in translation.
The sounds for Scan-Tron were recorded within Jennifer Schmidt's workspace while she responded to the test forms by filling in answers with a #2 pencil.
The video animation is a pseudo processing/reading of these sounds and test form responses using technological means.

Jennifer Schmidt

Scan-Tron Tests: designed and offset printed by Jennifer Schmidt. Video Animation of Scan-Tron Tests: Jennifer Schmidt. Sound co-produced by L. Contra.