Conjuring up the dark spaces of the séance room, Pull Down intimately observes the repeated collapsing and slumping of a girl (the artist) through the viewing lens of a camera. This silent video continues MacWilliam’s exploration of the phenomena of spiritualism. It draws attention to the mechanics of looking and recording and to the role of the camera as the observer of the spirit medium within historic psychical research studies (the study of paranormal, especially parapsychological, phenomena).
MacWilliam works with video, photography and installation, investigating obscure and overlooked histories and cases of perceptual (interpreted through the senses) and paranormal phenomena. She has worked closely with prominent parapsychologists, psychical research institutes and historical archives as both an observer and a participant. Her interests lie in exploring activities and experiences that exist at the peripheries of conventional fields of science and psychology.