Dominic Francisco’s Losing the Plot is an ambitious, but flawed, surrealist project

Losing the Plot - Courtesy of Bound Unto Root

There you go again, circling dead ends. Well past your bedtime.

As a lifelong Pacific Northwesterner, I’m both drawn to and familiar with the aesthetic of the region. The foliage and routinely gray skies often seen driving through areas like the Northern Oregon Coast or Washington campgrounds mark the region as home. As beautiful as it is, it can also be fittingly eerie. This eeriness is a focal point in Losing the Plot, a unique visual and audio project from Washington-based artist Dominic Francisco.

Described by Francisco—who we interviewed earlier this month—as a “cross between an audiobook and an album,” Losing the Plot is a nine-part series of video loops. Each video features narration from Francisco along with a near seamless musical accompaniment from James Fixx. The loops primarily feature trees and powerlines under either a night sky or a gloomy, clouded day sky (though towards the end it is a blue sky). The night shots are primarily illuminated by streetlights.

Fixx’s score is effectively mood setting, and Francisco’s narration borders on poetic. But the culmination of these aspects is an experience that may be a little too personal to be grasped by everyone.

Visually, I would describe Losing the Plot as adjacent to analog horror. The video loops are seemingly intentionally grainy and low quality, mirroring the perspective from open windows on a moving car. Even with the overarching narrative, and Francisco’s assurance of individual interpretation, the project leaves us with barely a blueprint of what was just conveyed.

While Francisco’s voice helps with ambience, the meaning behind his lyrics come across as a little too abstract despite their fitting tone. It stumbles from eerie descriptions (Gloom leaks from shattered bulbs) to cryptic implications (I met an old girl, who I had wronged greatly). In my interview with Francisco, he points out how everyone’s individual emotions and experiences will influence their interpretation of the listening experience. With that in mind, it’s not outside the realm of possibilities for someone from a drier or more tropical climate to interpret this as purely dreadful and anxiety-inducing, regardless of their interpretation of any meaning. The “old girl” mentioned in the latter quote may be someone from Francisco’s past, or a metaphor for a regretful past, while a viewer/listener may be reminded of a former girlfriend or even a long-abandoned daughter. I must admit that, despite the vagueness of the spoken words, the license for individual interpretation opens several doorways in the imagination.

But the material being interpreted should maintain a certain degree of guidance to not unintentionally hide meaning, even if that meaning is individualized to the viewer/listener.

But the only way to interpret it at all would be to check it out yourself. Each of the nine parts are a collaborative fusion of sound and imagery that was the product of one man’s own experiences and emotions (check out the interview for more context). While I’m always up to interpreting art—especially when emotion is so emphasized—the medium in which Losing the Plot expresses it leaves a little too much room for it.  

My word alone should not be taken, however. You should check it out for yourself and take Francisco’s word and bring your own emotional associations to the experience.

Losing the Plot is currently available on Spotify and Bandcamp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HgJNPvyfTg&time_continue=2&source_ve_path=NzY3NTg&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehorrorlounge.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehorrorlounge.com