CONTEXTUAL INSPIRATIONS: NAM JUNE PAIK

Nam June Paik is widely acknowledged as the father of video art. He was highly influential in smoothing its acceptance into the mainstream art-world. Video Art was often viewed as an imposter in art galleries in its formative years but due to the often sculptural nature of his early work he helped to path the was. He famously said that this newfound medium would “enable us to shape the TV screen canvas as precisely as Leonardo, as freely as Picasso, as colourfully as Renoir.”

His sculptural work is exceptionally playful and he used TV screens to build, musical instruments, animals and robots fro re-appropriated TV sets and screens creating both a message through the sculptures and the screens used to construct them. This is an idea that I am interested in playing with rather than just screening the work as a projection to possibly construct forms from screens to contain the work.

His work can be multiple screen installations and often uses TV screens to force home the idea of viewing. His huge scale works are really impressive using a great multitude of screens all working to create images independently and as a whole. I really love these large scale works but maybe they may be a little ambitious for my current first installation work but are definitely something I would like to work towards. His themes and techniques are many and varied and often appropriates distorted mass media, including newsreel, concert footage, and commercials. He is happy to borrow from mainstream culture as well as high art and his work never lacks impact, power or a sense of humour. All of these are attributes i would like to pursue in my own pieces.

THE PROBLEM WITH VIDEO INSTALLATIONS!

Despite working in the medium of moving image film installations and video art in galleries are generally something I have struggled with and often seem tokenistic and pretentious outsiders to the environment. As a lover of narrative and structure these do not seem to be the foundations of much of the and are often freeform at best. I also am a lover of the traditional exhibition screening and consumption of filmic works on a screen in a cinema or on TV and never really enjoy the screening of work in a colder more clinical gallery style environment.

I am not alone in this and in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s Philip Dodd stated that the art world feared video art as an “alien force supplanting painting and sculpture” and the Tate London was accused of not representing video art properly, turning it into an “end of the pier curiosity” . However in recent years to quote Michael Nash “The “blue chip” video artists – Gary Hill, Nam June Paik, Bill Viola – have been absorbed by the traditional arts establishment and now concentrate on creating collectible video installation”.

However I am anxious to overcome all of my prejudices and concerns and have decided that in wishing to extend my practice to being more art based that I simply cannot ignore gallery installations. So the best way to deal with this is to tackle it head on and try and create some of my own starting with the "Siblings" piece. Alongside this there are many exciting avenues that video installations will allow me to explore.

Audio-visual documentary material has become increasingly prominent in the art world with more and more artists incorporating non-fiction material into their work, and more filmmakers and new media artists creating documentary film, video, and interactive work destined for a museum or gallery setting. This overlap of worlds has created a productive hybridity of forms and another avenue to pursue and explore in my own work and this blurring of art, fact, fiction, presentation and contextualisation I find extremely interesting. An apparent clash still exists between the authenticity of realism that the documentary has laid claim to-however contentiously-and the association of imagination and experimentation with art practice. I also feel that installations are a way of exploring different methods of narrative construction, and de and re-narrate as a filmmaker and an audience avoiding the tendency toward a single linear narrative that single screens impose on material.

This move from traditional distribution and exhibition associated with documentary films I have worked in to art galleries and the possibility of multiple screens I find exhilarating. I want to explore how it can be used to manupulate structure of my narrative and ideology as well as providing a more physical and interactive, interpretation and experience for the audience.

Inga Burrows comments. “It is ironic that with the advancement of technology, with the increasing sophistication of television production, that the quality of ideas informing programmes appears to be diminishing. By contrast the art gallery is growing in importance as a site for innovative media practice. Artist filmmakers have begun to borrow conventions from television as a way of articulating their ideas; and it may be that this gallery – based film work might stimulate a broader debate about television itself”. I am hoping this cross-fertilisation of practice will be a shot in the arm for both my broadcast TV filmmaking practice and also my inner aspiring installation artist.

POETIC LOVE BRIEF

One major piece I am developing utilising these influences is a short poetic documentary exploring the nature of love through the eyes of my 92 year old grandmother. Within the context of her two good marriages and lost first true love I will frame the three stages of love: lust, attraction and attainment. the documentary.

I aim to recording only audio recordings with my grandmother. The idea behind this is twofold. Firstly it will allow for a more natural state of recording my grandmother. She is not too keen about being interviewed on camera and in my opinion will lead to a more naturalistic and less forced interview. especially with some of the more delicate topics we will be discussing. Secondly it avoids the conventional “talking heads” by taking them completely out of the picture and will force me into creating more interesting imagery. This audio will then be listened to and edited to create a sound-track that will suggest imagery to accompany it. It combined with a real collage of the cinematically shot footage, animations, archive footage, re-enactments, creative audio and motion graphics. The intention is to aim for a mix of strong imagery and a flavour of avant-garde to bring images to the audio and create an abstract visual sense not merely visually showing what is being discussed but interpreting it and adding a sub-text. Initial ideas include contemporary set re-enactments by family members, use of film clips using "fair usage" policy to bring scenes to life and play on the theme of pairs. This will be coupled with lots of very cinematically shot images of my grandmother in her environments. The aim for the dissemination and exhibition of the piece is for it to be aimed at an online audience, for film festivals and potentially a TV audience. I want it to act as a calling card for my work and a documentary filmmaker and artist.

SIBLINGS BRIEF

My work Siblings will develop the areas of documentary outlined earlier but through the creation of a video installation. It will explore the theories of Austrian psychotherapist Alfred Adler, that birth order is an important factor in shaping one’s personality, psychological makeup and lifestyle. Using my three sons I will use their own thoughts and the thoughts of others (parents & psychoanalysts) to investigate the stereotypes and labeling leveled at siblings due to their positioning in the family and reality of this. I intend the installation to be a triptych either screens or sculptural with my sons responding to these areas from their own and different points of view screen interacting with each other. I will subvert the very notion of “talking head” documentaries and break down the “fourth wall” with my sons lip-synching the words of all parties contributing and themselves. I will also experiment with other styles of computer generated and animated footage to represent my sons.

Ideas Aims and Objectives

• Play with the pigeon holing of siblings, identity, nature and nurture.
• Boys central to the piece but will lip-synch words of others. Literally have words put in their mouths by parents and psychologists.
• 3 large multi screen installation or screens/sculptural installations.
• Interaction and dependency between screens and sons.
• Subvert documentary codes, conventions and style especially "talking head".
• Stylistically inventive both visually and aurally.
• Accessible for an audience and fun. Inform educate and ENTERTAIN!
• Immersive and interactive for an audience.

SIBLINGS: GENESIS AND IDEAS

Following a very productive and positive tutorial with Jane Watt whilst she found the areas I wished to study in really interesting. However her wisest words were to focus on one idea for now and develop that into a finished piece whilst keeping the other ideas developing in the background. The idea that I felt was most interesting right here, right now was the Siblings video installation piece. I have never been a huge fan of video installations all too often finding them a little underwhelming and often pretentious, lacking depth and ideas and un-visual. So armed with only a little knowledge and experience of them (alongside many preconceptions and misconceptions) as well as the fact that the notion of creating them is outside of my comfort zone it seemed to be a great jumping off point.

The basic idea for the work will be a three screen (triptych) installation with one screen representing each of my sons Isaac, Jacob and Noah. The initial basis for the piece is to explore the notion of what siblings are and how they are defined. It will consider their inter-relationships and the dynamics of this, their own self view, the view of those closest to them (parents) and the views from "experts" such as child psychologists.

I have never enjoyed the often lazy idea of readily applied labels, pigeon holing or classifying things especially people even though I am myself often guilty of it! After reading some literature on the relationships between siblings and the roles that they play and feeling that with my own boys some of this was instantly contradicted I became fascinated with the idea. Chatting with friends there are indeed similarities between, for example, the eldest child and their personality, views and character traits. The papers published on the topic do often ring somewhat true but being a parent there are always interesting contradictions too.

SIBLINGS RESEARCH

I researched plenty of sources to see what psychologists, academics and medical professional thoughts are on the importance of birth lines for determining characteristics and personalities. What are the general characteristics and personality traits of the frist, second and third born child? The consesus generally seems to be the following.

First Child : perfectionist, reliable, conscientious, a list maker, well organised, hard driving, a natural leader, critical, serious, scholarly, logical, doesn’t like surprises, a techie.

Middle Child : mediator, compromising, diplomatic, avoids conflict, independent, loyal to peers, has many friends, a maverick, secretive, used to not having attention.

Youngest Child : manipulative, charming, blames others, attention seeker, tenacious, people person, natural salesperson, precocious, engaging, affectionate, loves surprises.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_order

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-gail-gross/how-birth-order-affects-personality_b_4494385.html

http://www.parents.com/baby/development/social/birth-order-and-personality/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/01/17/birth-order-personality/

http://www.bestpsychologydegrees.com/birth-order/

http://www.medicaldaily.com/pulse/birth-order-effect-how-siblings-may-influence-personality-traits-family-327346

http://apps.cignabehavioral.com/web/basicsite/bulletinBoard/birthOrder.jsp

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1351567/First-born-Piggy-middle-Or-baby-How-place-family-rules-life.html

INITIAL IDEAS FOR PIECES OF WORK 2

Following on from my earlier post here are some other ideas for pieces of work I can look into developing to explore and develop my arts practice as laid out in my aims and objectives for my MA in Arts Practice.

Residue: An experimental documentary
Currently at early stages it will be an exploration into the notion of memory and it’s selectivity. I would like to work with alzheimers patients creating bespoke personal documentaries about the key events in their lives to act as memory triggers. I want to see if a documentary has to be for an audience or if it can be incredibly subjective and created for a lone viewer in tandem with the filmmaker and from there possibly find an audience.

Climate Control?: A video installation
Climate change and global warming is an issue which although I have been aware of have not fully appreciated the seriousness of until very recently. One of my closest and oldest friends is one of the key players at Greenpeace trying to publicity and therefore change on this issue. He has been instrumental in getting global warming acknowledged and then acted upon by all of the big players on a global scale. Finally getting tuned in to the debate I have started to realise the grave seriousness of the problem and as a race that we have just tipped over into the point of no return. With the Greenpeace resources hopefully at my disposal I want to create a video installation highlighting the problem and the hypocrisy, politicking, lies, spinning and that successive governments and big business have used to misdirect and create smoke and mirrors around the debate. This in an issue that has only just started to be acknowledged as for real in the public arena.

Test Card: A video installation
Having a career in film and TV there are certain artefacts and devices associated with the job that I use often without thinking and if you stop to think about it I am fascinated by. One of these is the test card used to balance and attune colours in TV both in production and post production. These are recognised by perhaps all (especially the BBC one) but often overlooked, unconsidered or not understood. Working in a visual art colour is hugely important too me and something that I appreciate everywhere and this overlaps into my love of the natural world. I am amazed by the colours apparent in the world around us and their often vibrancy and want to try and bring these two elements together. I want to explore the relationship between the two one being now computer generated and the other natural. I aim to try and collect moving video footage of the colours in a test card as represented in the natural world use them to replace them for the colours on  a test card, with slowly moving images so subtle that the audience will hardly notice them moving at all until up close.

INITIAL IDEAS FOR PIECES OF WORK 1

Following on from the areas I wish to explore technically, stylistically, thematically and from the point of view of form, distribution, screening and exhibition here are some initial ideas about and projects which I am considering. These will help initiate pieces of work to investigate these areas of interest.

Siblings: A multi screened video installation
An exploration of theories and reality on the nature of siblings and how they view themselves, the nature nurture debate, stereotypes, how others view them and research. Using my three sons (aged 8, 9 and 10) I want to use their own thoughts, theories and the thoughts of others on the stereotypes and labeling leveled at siblings due to their positioning in the family. The eldest is the cleverest, the middle one is more introverted, the youngest the funny one. Is it true or a self fulfilling prophecy? I aim to film my sons responding to these areas and more from their own and different points of view. It will be a triptych each screen having one of my sons but the screens will interact with each other.

The Nature of Love?: An experimental documentary
An experimental documentary exploring the nature of love in all it’s facets through the eyes of my 92 year old grandmother. She has had two very successful marriages one lasting until middle age and then she remained single only re-marrying in her late 70’s. However she still carries a torch for her first and true love a pilot who she only went out with a few times but never made it back from one of his missions. Within the context of these three relationships I want to try and frame the three stages of love lust, attraction and attainment. I want to try and avoid the conventional talking head and record interviews which I will then cut together and use shot footage, animations, archive footage, re-enactments, creative audio and motion graphics over them. I aim for it to be a short piece aimed at an online audience and for film competitions online and physical.

INITIAL INFLUENCES AND INSPIRATIONS

Contextual Awareness.
I have a profound interest and cultural awareness of a huge variety of filmmakers working in the field of documentary film today and also those from the past. Far too many to mention here but here are some pieces of work that I greatly admire and have drawn inspiration from.

 The Possibilites Are Endless; James Hall & Edward Lovelace. (2014) A fusion of high art and delicate storytelling about the rehabilitation of Scottish singer Edwin Collins after a life threatening stroke. Always inspirational, never taking the obvious tabloid route.

 The Arbor; Clio Barnard. (2010) A mesmerizing and beautiful documentary fusing narrative and documentary on the tragic playwright Andrea Dunbar.

 The Kid Stays in the Picture; Nanette Burstein & Brett Morgan. (2002) A stylistic and creative documentary on infamous Paramount studio head Robert Evans. A real raconteur he is only on screen through clever use of archive materials from layered and moving photos tand archive film clips and footage.

 The Filth and The Fury; Julien Temple. (2000) A wonderful documentay extracting often painful rememberances from the Sex Pistols against a mismatched collage of image and sound with a punk style aesthetic.

 My Winnipeg; Guy Maddin. (2007) A crazy free-wheeling and intriguing documentary of the filmmakers formative years growing up in Winnipeg. Re-enactments, archive footage and dreamlike camera-work create a compelling and beguiling docu-fantasia.

 Night Mail; Harry Watt & Basil Wright. (1936) A pioneering documentary and subtle propaganda of a postal train travelling from London to Scotland. It fuses poetry from W.H. Auden a score by Benjamin Britten to fascinating effect. Alongside this I am a huge devourer of the moving image, cinema and TV in all it’s guises.

As well as it forming a huge part of my job as a media teacher in a FE college, I endeavor to keep abreast of developments as well as actively appreciating the history and background of these fields. I draw inspiration from a multitude of aspects, genres and disciplines. These range from feature films to animation, music videos to video installations and popular TV to experimental film. Studying art and design at college and having gained a BA in Electronic Media and History Of Art I also appreciate and have an awareness of all of the other areas of art and design. As a filmmaker I often draw as much inspiration from sculpture, painting, graphic design and photography as I do from moving image texts.

MA PROPOSAL: AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Trying to narrow down and add some focus to the areas I wish to explore and why I have decided to base my MA Arts Practice in developing and investigating the following areas.

1: Explore Factual Film-making and Hybrids with Fictional and Avant Garde Film
When does a factual film become a work of fiction? When does it become avant garde? What happens to fact when it is mixed with fiction and an approach with an art aesthetic. Can documentary dil exist comfortably in a gallery environment.

2: Create a More Visually and Aurally Creative Documentary Films. 
I wish to explore the possibilities of the reflexive documentary style borrowing from other areas of the arts and moving image with more emphasis on the aesthetic to tell the story in a more emotive way. I want to investigate ways image can be used to tell a factual story and move away from simple expository documentary formula of talking heads and GV’s to a more and imaginative, inventive visual and aural style. This may include the fusion of animation, abstract images, use of music, motion graphics, sound design and sophisticated camerawork styles.

3: Examine the Possibilities of Character Based Factual Storytelling and Representation
“There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each differently”. Taking the quote from Robert Evans, Ex-Paramount Studios head as a starting point I want to see how subjectivity and objectivity can be treated individually or as interesting bedfellows. Is bias necessarily a bad thing? How far can the factual film-maker go when creating representations of characters, places and events before the piece is no longer based on truth?

4: Utilize New Documentary Formats, Exhibition and Distribution
 I am also keen to challenge the documentary form and distribution to try and find new audiences and audience consumption. How much does the venue or exhibition method change the content? The starting point for this will be the exploration of micro-docs, mini serial documentaries, installations, interactive documentaries and online formats that challenge and develop the conventional documentary.

5: Develop a Body Of Work Exploring the Aims Outlined Above
Following the areas I wish to investigate all mentioned above create a body of work 3-4 pieces exploring the possibilities with documentary form.

PECHA KUCHA PRESENTATION: INFLUENCES & WORK

As the first session for the course proper we were asked to bring in Pecha Kucha style presentation of 20 slides of my work and influences. This was a really interesting start as it made me really consider my own work, experiences, what inspired and influenced me and obviously start an internal (and external) dialogue of possible directions for my MA in Arts practice. The presentation I made was a moving image one and it is below with a list of what the influences work were underneath.

1. Collective cinema going experience. Still from Cinema Paradiso
2. A Life Illuminated. Clip from a documentary I made on country's oldest cinema projectionist.
3. John Alton cinematographer. Wrote seminal book "painting with light" and still of his work.
4. Night Mail clip. Hugely influential genre busting documentary by Basil Wright & Harry Watt.
5. High Rise. Interactive on-line documentary exploring 13 cities around world from their rooms.
6. Fallen Angels. Film by inspirational Wong Kar Wai and cinematographer Christopher Doyle.
7. Oliver Jeffers. Childrens author and illustrator. I am a huge fan of his mood, tone and style.
8. Animation clip from A Life Illuminated. I work in multiple styles and this is an animation.
9. The Possibilities Are Endless. Amazing poetic documentary about Edwyn Collins.
10. 3 Stages of Love. An idea for a documentary about the nature of love through my Grandma.
11. Lets get Lost. Beautiful and heartbeaking documentary by Bruce Webber about Chet Baker.
12. Siblings. Idea for a documentary/installation I am developing on my sons sibling relationships.
13. My Winnipeg. Bonkers, creative and highly stylistic documentary by Guy Maddin.
14. The Door Into The Dark. Immersive, bespoke, installation documentary about getting lost.
15. Type faces. I come from a graphic design background as well as TV and love fonts.
16. Graffitti. I have made documentaries on the art form and couples my love of art & typography.
17. Walter Murch. Clip from apocalypse Now. An editing hero as well as film sound designer.
18. A Life Illuminated. A Re-enactment scene from my most recent work. see earlier.
19. Henri cartier Bresson. Photographer influence and his capturing the everyday philosophy.
20. The Arbor. Amazing & pioneering documentary by Clio Barnard on the life of Andrea Dunbar.

NIGHT MAIL (1936)

One text that really inspired me and that I used as stimulus for the direction I am taking is Night Mail Night Mail by Harry Watt & Basil Wright (1936). The film was overseen by John Grierson who is widely acknowledged with coining the term "documentary film" and godfather of British documentary. As head of the GPO film unit he created many genre defining documentaries and the Night Mail is an archetypal film from the British Documentary Film Movement John. It was a pioneering documentary of a postal train travelling from London to Scotland.

The film was a huge collaborative effort drawing on a variety of styles and talents fusing poetry from W.H. Auden a score by Benjamin Britten and a mix of real life, purpose built sets and re-enactments to fascinating effect. It combines elements of many documentary modes Watt’s ethnographic observatory approach showing the human side of the workers sharing jokes and sipping beer. Wright brought the poetic elements through it’s use of expressionistic camera and lighting techniques borrowed from experimental European cinema, the interesting score and of course W.H. Audens poetry. Finally the expository approach and exposition through Griersons’ own narration. This groundbreaking cinematic approach to documentary created a performance from the language of film manipulating it and the using subjectivity to create an emotive reading of the film. these are all areas that greatly interest me.

Grierson believed in the social responsibility of the filmmaker and the potential of film in helping society achieve its democratic ideals and in the case of Night Mail uses aesthetic to help create this “good propaganda” and Grierson’s position on the function of documentary film is descibed as “representing the inter-dependence and evolution of social relations in a dramatic and symbolic way”. These are ideas and sentiments I wish to explore further in my own work.

DOCUMENTARY STYLISTICS

ANALYSING DOCUMENTARIES
The following are all illustrations of the conventions and different types of documentary. There are also examples of the styles and techniques used in documentaries and factual Films and TV programmes. These will prove invaluable for reflecting on during my practice as I look to experiment and stretch and push the limits of these possibly subverting them also.


OBJECTIVITY
Is the film/programme presenting a fair balanced view of all sides represented?
Is there any bias towards any particular sides of the piece?
Are all of the events accurate and truthful?
Are the events objective (impartial and not biased) and not subjective (based on personal feelings).


STYLES AND TECHNIQUES: PICTURE
Action Footage: People doing things work, play etc. Also landscapes,
GV,s. Usually shot for the purpose of the programme.
Library Footage: Archive material or footage recycled from other films etc.
People Talking: To each other unaware of, or camera not paid attention to.
People Talking: Aware of camera, carrying out action for the camera.
Interviews: One or more people answering structured questions.
Questions may be edited out and interviewer can be in or out of shot.
Re-enactments: Accurate portrayals of situations that cannot be filmed.
Still Photos: May be static or camera may move over them to add action. Documents: Titles, headlines, graphics, cartoons etc.
Blank Screen: Causes us to reflect on what have seen and highlights sound.


STYLES AND TECHNIQUES: SOUND
Voice-Over: Audio interview to accompany pictures on the screen
Narration: Could be a narrator, the director himself or one of the participants.
Synchronous Sound: Sound recorded on tape during the filming. SOT
Sound Effects: Could be sound effect or atmosphere added during the edit.
Music: Great for establishing mood, tone and tempo of the film.
Silence: No sound can really draw our attention to the pictures on screen.


POINT OF VIEW
From who’s viewpoint is the story, events, facts told?
Omniscient: Film moves around in time and space, different viewpoints.
Character within the Film: Film seen from the viewpoint of one character.
Multiple characters: Unlike above a group of different viewpoints are used.
Personal: The opinion is solely that of the director.


TIME DEVELOPMENT
Event Centred: A central event that makes up the backbone of the film.
Process Film: A chain of events or stories building up to an ending.
Journey Film: A story with a beginning a middle and an end that we follow.
Walled City Film: Focuses on an individual institution or social group.
Historical Film: Bringing alive and demonstrating a historical event.

MISSION STATEMENT: BEGINNINGS

This blog will act as a for all of my reflections, explorations, research, musings, experiments and ramblings concerning my MA in Arts Practice I am undertaking at University Campus Suffolk.

I have worked in the mainstream side of TV but found the industry limitations and often formulaic nature of this somewhat confining. Due to my training and conditioning from my populist broadcast TV output I can also play it too safe and I want to stretch my practice, influences and approaches to factual filmmaking. Using this prior practice as a starting point I want to move away from my fallback position of a formulaic methodology and to study and move towards the creative end of documentary and factual filmmaking. My aim is to see how far I can push the boundaries of factual, character-based narrative films whilst retaining the narrative and character based subject matter I love. Stylistically I am looking to subvert the notion of “documentary film” and create a blurring between it and fiction and avant garde approaches to filmmaking. However my work will always be within the service of the “factual” subject matter and the fascination boundaries and confines that this puts upon the factual filmmaker.