Watching a video from TATE shots below of artist Charlotte Prodger, we discussed how video is everywhere in our culture and that for most of us, we have access to powerful cameras, our phones, that we can carry around with us all day, everyday and have the means to catch moments throughout the day, its like an extension of our bodies. Phones could be a sculptural, a material in and of itself. Touching and rubbing the phone the interact with it and alter the exposure. How when taking a static image there is the motion of breathing captured and how it registers the body. As Prodger explains 'there's a symbiosis but also a grappling'.
As artists we can also use it to document our work; sketches, progression, development, not just create videos.
We also discussed performance, now when I think of performance, I think of performing arts that I did 12 years ago, acting, singing and dancing. Today I learnt that performance can be anything really, it's the idea of performing an action. We looked at Cornelius Cardew's scratch orchestra 1968, and his instruction of performing 6 deep breaths and how this is experimental music. We did this as a group. We considered how we would document this in different ways; take a video, hold the camera against our bodies to capture the motion of the breath on the stomach, tell somebody we had done it, have the different videos playing at different times. We realised there are many ways to do this.
Another artworks that were mentioned was Florence Nightingale's watercolours of diseases she made.
Watching a short introduction to John Cage 4"33 was also interesting, how he captured the audiences attention through not playing music, forcing them to listen to the sounds around them and seeing that there is never silence.
We mapped the sounds in the room once everyone was silent,
- Heater
- creaking of tables
- water bottle clinking
- chairs creaking
- wiping tables
- ruffling of jacket
- Andy & Monika talking
- laughing
- pens and pencils writing
then spoke them all at once as a group which created a collective sound.
We went outside and mapped sounds of the outside of the pod by walking round it slowly writing down all the sounds we heard.
- footsteps
- crunching of stones
- van reversin
- cars
- leaves
- stones
- beeping
- humming
- thoughts
- hands rubbing
- dryer
- shuffling
- coats ruffling
- digger
- air con
- talking
We got into groups and decided on how we would perform these coming up with a start, an end, the speed of how we would perform and then how we would document it.
My group decided how we would perform it begin with, where we would situate ourselves and what we were going to say. One group member, Leilani had written down the sounds as letters rather than words. Myself and the other group member, Baz had written down words. We decided to say them all at the same time. With Baz and I varying speeds in which we said them. We put the camera phone on the floor to give a perspective of looking up at us and stood facing each other to intensify the sounds.
We developed this further by walking round in a circle to create confusion and to bring in the motion of walking around the outside of the pod. Leilani had written down a couple of things the tutor, Andy had said whilst we were walking round the pod, so we decided to use these as start, middle and end points. The starting point was 'off you go'. Baz and I stopped when we thought it was right to do so, and Leilani used the middle point of 'carry on' as a prompt for us to start again. This created space for Leilani's sounds to be heard no their own. Then we started speaking ours in varying speeds again, with the prompt of 'alright' as the ending point.
When viewing the video back, we decided it that all 3 of us walking around was too much. It was too confusing and thought that Leilani standing on her own in the middle would work better, creating a separate element to her sounds.
The above video was the final documentation of when we performed it to the group. We found that Baz and I stopped at the same time in the middle which was interesting and worked well. The video creates confusion and chaos in varying levels. Stops in the middle to emphasise the sounds of the sounds and then comes to an abrupt ending. It gives a disturbing feeling to it, but also expressive.
In the afternoon workshop we explored formal qualities of video which are something inherent to a medium, for example, colour and dimension. For video we considered the framing, duration, types of camera movements, speeds of movement, volume, intensity, perspective and how they film and how they are separate to what we film and the interpretations of the results and also how these are connected to one another. We made videos using different short instructions.
- Film an object you are drawn to
- Record its sound
- Film movement across a surface, as slowly as possible then as quickly as possible
- Film a frame within your frame
- Film from a low angle looking up
- Film something 3D to make it look flat
- film from the prespective of an insect and lion
- Be CCTV
- make a 360 degree panorama
- Film something at the bottom left of your screen
- Film lightness
- Film density
- tell someone else what to film
- pick a random work from a dictionary and film like this
- Film the end of the universe
- record silence
- film the most beautiful shot you have ever seen
- film the ugliest shot you have ever seen
- film something that can't be seen by the naked eye
- film someone else without them noticing
- film the camera you are filming with
- film everyone filming
- 10 seconds freestyle
Through these short instructions we considered video in terms of representation, abstraction, movement, angle, composition, opening up of animal or machine perspectives, documentary, the poetic and elusive, the imaginative and speculative, control and power relations, relations between sound and image, aesthetics, voyeurism, and so on, all ideas embedded within the video material.
Below are all the videos I filmed wrapped up into one film that I made in Premiere Pro.
Reflecting on this workshop, I realised I was most attracted to the in between of objects, the hidden objects or spaces we don't take much notice of. I was also drawn to close ups of objects and using video to change the viewers perspectives of objects. These are things I will look at in my experiments following on from the workshop.
In the studio...
Filming close ups in the studio of objects/surfaces I was drawn towards.
I was drawn to the colours of the plastic box after it had been used over time for marbling inks. The build up of paint had created textures that i wanted to try and capture using video to explore the surface.
Again with this video I wanted to capture the textures of the inside of cardboard after it had been ripped.
Both of these explore textures and capturing something hidden/unnoticed and after something had been done to the material or materials had been used. It shows to me there can be beauty in the world that we over look and evoke feelings in us throughout the day but maybe are too busy to really feel, take notice of or explore. This is something that interests me; exploring how humans interact with the world around them. We are so busy with our schedules, meetings, work, social media, we miss beauty that exists within super simple things such as cardboard being torn, or the leftover paint left in the box. It has certainly made me see things differently and want to create using video to emphasise these hidden gems and bring them into focus to share for everyone else.
On Location...
The experiment was to record 5 sounds and broadcast them somewhere surprising.
I collected sounds around my kitchen; a toaster popping, chopping on a board, a quiet washing machine, a loud washing machine and water running from the tap. I particularly wanted to capture the loud washing machine as I had an image in my head of a washing machine being in the woods. I was looking at bringing everyday sounds that we hear and inserting them outside in nature to see if I could draw something from them and see how they reacted or changed the scene. The loud washing machine is a sound that me and the people I live with, hear everyday and it shakes the entire flat, so this sound is quite prominent in my life; it makes us all really frustrated!
Below is some documentation images of the walk down with my housemate, concentrating on the trees, the leaves and looking at scenes where I could possibly broadcast the sounds. One idea I had was to broadcast them to passer by's to see what their reaction would be, however it is lockdown and I think we saw one person the whole time we were out. Maybe this is something to think about for another project, to go somewhere more public. There is also the issue where it may be causing a public disturbance so maybe think about what kinds of sounds are playing and how loud they're going to be.
My housemate hid behind the tree with speaker to begin with.
Reflections after watching back this first video back:
- The speaker is behind the tree which made it hard to hear the sounds.
- Tried moving closer but it still wasn't working.
- The speaker needed to be behind the camera.
- Wanted to try it looking up into the tree canopy instead for a different composition
Reflections after filming tree canopy:
- I am liking the perspective of the camera - it makes the trees look huge, it also gives a perspective of an animal or insect looking up.
- The sounds could almost be a human cutting down trees so theres a relationship here with how inside sounds could actually sound like outside sounds.
- I like the motion of the camera that I gave with each sound, playing around with movement and giving similar motions to what the inside object would be doing.
A lady did walk past whilst we were laying on the floor filming the canopy so I jumped up to see if there was a reaction, however there wasn't.
Reflections from lady walking past:
- Due to there being no reaction from the noises coming from the speaker, this didn't work at all.
- I couldn't keep the camera still either so i think for the next video I shoot I will use a tripod.
With this one I wanted to portray someone meditating and using the washing machine sound as the sound of what's going on in a person's head; that even when we try to have peace and quiet in the woods, we are still left with our thoughts and they can be overwhelming sometimes, almost like a washing machine head.
Reflections on Ffion meditating:
- It worked well and definitely portrayed this.
- Its quite obvious though and I'm not quite sure having the speaker in the image works.
I wanted to try some experimenting with walking through the woods, showing the beauty of nature but having the loud washing machine sound playing over the top, which sounds like a tree cutter.
Reflections on walking with the washing machine:
- This worked ok.
- I could have taken my time a bit more and done more close ups of the trees and leaves.
I wanted to try the same kind of imagery but with the chopping sound playing over the top.
- Again this was ok but something was missing.
- I feel I could do more close ups on the trees.
Reflections on the close up:
- I like how you don't know what it is to begin with.
- The perspective of shooting up the tree is effective.
- Still there is some camera motion that I'm not keen on.
I then saw a broken tree branch which I wanted to experiment alongside the toaster sound.
- I panned around too much in this video
- but I do like the effect of the toaster with the branch - its like its been chopped down and then its about to spring back up again.
So I tried it staying still and focusing on the tree branch.
- This works a lot better
- Again the toaster actually sounds like a tree being chopped down which is interesting as it wasn't until I brought the sounds into the woods and put the imagery of the trees alongside it that I made this connection.
I wanted to further this footage and take it into Premier Pro to edit it and change around some of the sounds.
Below is what the result.
Reflecting on this experiment, I realised how I have turned it into a narrative around deforestation using sounds found inside the home. Its like saying, this is going on out there, yet we do nothing about it being sat in the comfort of our own homes. To me its prompting introspection, for the viewer to look deeper within themselves and to see how do these sounds make them feel within this setting. Sounds can effect emotion and they are a direct way of engaging with art, I want to explore this further by exploring the psychological effects sounds have.
Document something useful
This was an experiment set to document something useful. I had a think of what is useful to me and yoga is something that is super important for me, for me mentally, physically and spiritually. So why not!
Reflecting on it though, it just looks like any old video of something doing yoga thats been posted on Instagram!
I think I will focus more on documenting my artwork, the processes and objects that evoke interest.
"Throwing up" Documentation
This experiment was inspired by Lee Lozano's instruction of 'Throwing up piece' in which she through 12 recent issues of ArtForum into the air.
From all the attempts I made I realised I was trying to make throwing up magazines look good, and how could you make that look good I wondered. You can't really. Its a simple instruction and its documenting it. Im not really sure what I make of it to be honest. I understand why Lee Lozano did it. She was symbolising her relationship with the art world that she had become disillusioned with. She became quite solitary after this and took herself away from the art world claiming she didn't want to be a part of it anymore. So I suppose the magazines represent the art world itself and the act of throwing them up in the air and letting them drop represents how she feels about it. From this I interpret she felt fed up and like she didn't care for the opinions of critics, curators, etc.
I used any old magazine. If I were to do this again I would use a brighter room and not so much stuff behind me in the background. I would wear plain clothing and I would use something other than random magazines I had found lying around. I would have more of a concept behind it like Lozano did.
Ideas that first come to mind are using glossy magazines around gossip and celebrities. These I find are damaging to young women of today due to the way they either, present celebrities in a bad light, the way they slam the clothing they wear, or the way they use photoshop to clear any sign of natural beauty and create fake images of women that younger women/girls end up comparing themselves to and try to live up to some pre-conceived idea of beauty. It's wrong, therefore this would be an ideal candidate magazine for the 'throwing up piece'!
The Inbetween
Looking back on the first MaP workshop I did, I remembered that I was drawn to the in between/hidden spaces that go unnoticed. So I took my phone around the campus at Uni and started noticing and capturing the spaces in between. I also remembered an artist that I came upon during my time on Foundation last year; Rebecca Whiteread. Her artwork takes the form of sculptures that make the invisible, visible. Some of her work includes castings of invisible spaces, such as the inside of buildings, bookshelves, the underneath of chairs. She really interested me as she draws the viewers focus to the spaces around us that we don't see or notice. The Inbetween. I wanted to use video doing just this to see if it would spur on come more inspiration.
This space is in-between the ventilation unit and the wall. It goes unseen everyday, other than maybe if something goes wrong and that big red button behind needs switching for some reason. Its quite a modern space that has no meaning behind it other than it gives space for a pipe behind. It makes me wonder about spaces that do have meaning, or memory, that evoke nostalgia or emotion.
This space interested me due to the fact that its a ramp. Another useful space thats needed for disabilities or for people that aren't disabled to be able to get into the pod. Its a space that goes unseen everyday however people are constantly walking over it. Do they think about it? Do I think about this space when I walk over it? It makes me wonder about all the spaces that go unseen, what nature is living there? What has been there? What purpose the does the space have? Does it even have a purpose?
The one above in particular drew my attention as it is a space between the building and the outside. Looking at inside outside again. This space is neither inside, nor outside, its in-between, which I find interesting. The light passing through the holes is effective and brings in my attention towards light again, which is something I have looked into before but possibly need to look at again. I am wondering what use this metal casing has for the building and why it has been designed this way? Does it even have a use? Or was it just a design? In which case there is a lot of metal used for this design. It kind of reminds me of armour or protection from the elements, something you would find in parts of the world where you would extreme whether such as cyclones, hurricanes or tornados. I chose this perspective too so I could capture that in-between space, but it feels like this is a perspective that shows up in my work quite frequently; the looking up , I am always looking up but is anybody else? Do we spend a lot of time in our heads, looking at the floor and not taking notice of whats around us? It also reminds me of a spaceship!
This image in particular reminded me again of Rachel Whiteread's work of looking at invisible spaces. People come and park their bikes here everyday, its a useful space to have, but do they see that? Do they see the symmetry I see when looking at the space from a different perspective or angle?
On reflection, I would like to explore further the possibilities of space, finding spaces unseen, unnoticed, beautiful or that have history, nostalgia or possible memories.
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