The first big critique was an opportunity to get a rough version of my work screened to an audience. The work is by no means anywhere near complete and is a bit of a voyage of discovery which as a control freak I find uncomfortable. I current have no 100% end goal but rather a collection of ideas, visuals, concepts but none of these are as of yet hard and fast. All I did have to cling to was the overarching ideology and message of the ideas of appropriation and sampling debates and the hook of the fact that the genius of one 6 second drum solo knocked together on the day in the studio could be the inspiration and inception for 2300+ other songs, interpretations and birth of the whole jungle and drum and bass musical genre.
I decided to do a rough version of the piece as mentioned in an earlier post of developing the first rough idea. This version was screened in the black space at the university on a white screen. the eventual aim and intention was to use three large screens (currently in flux) but due to the set up complications of this the version screened was on one screen with three windows so lost something on the scale I intend for the final piece. Also the eventual aim is to have the sound moving around the room or large gallery space from whichever of the three screens are active and this is not possible on a small scale so the sound came from only one speaker. So the screening for the critique was compromised but would do as a test/developmental screening for the concept.
AMEN COMPLETE 3 SCREEN GREY BG from Jon Saward on Vimeo.
I wanted to use the big crit as an opportunity to get peer feedback on these and see if what I was trying to communicate was really happening so composed a lot of questions I wanted answered and then the feedback I got underneath as well as how I will take this forward..
1: Did the piece make any sense? Did they get the concept of the same music in all elements?
The concept was pretty much missed no-one making the connection between the elements on the screens and the all important drum break. It was even missed by my tutor Emily who was aware of the concept as the versions are so disparate. Need to consider more how music is consumed and received (especially in a gallery environment) and link more with visual clues. Communicating the break needs to be more identifiable and communicated with more clarity. More clues musical scales on screen , repeated drummer playing the break, screens highlighted in some way when the drum break is playing. Possibly more use of the original drum break throughout. Also perhaps return to attempting to use JUST the drum break elements of the songs to see if I can get it working.
2: Did it make more sense afterwards? Was there that revelatory moment? More play on this?
Stupidly I should have re-played this again afterwards to see if there was a revelatory moment. It did make more sense to them afterwards though. This is something I would like to explore though and possibly create a revelatory moment. Play it though twice with an explanation in there so you get them to watch it twice appreciating it differently the second time. More play with doco techniques where unless re-watched this is tricky. Chemical Brother "Star Guitar" music video as an example looks like simply like an ordinary view from a train window BUT actually all the elements on screen from the window are elements of the strong a signal a drum beat etc appearing as to accompany this on the track. Possibly pulling all three screens together with the same visual to reinforce the link, possibly use of colour, graphic be it the drummer OR the musical notation.
3: Were the three screens working as a concept? Awareness of not the ideal way to screen it.
The feedback was that it lacked in cohesiveness but a few did appreciate that it would be different if screened as intended. Some thought it was less than the sum of its parts and needed a unifying element. The centre screen was highlighted as not having much going on.
4: Were they aware of the appropriation art movement and my use of it? Did they approve of none of the work actually being mine but "appropriated"?
Actually not too sure about this and I should have pushed more to see if they were aware. Some seemed to be but other less so. Possible questioning of "validity" of appropriation felt in the crit of just borrowing the elements of others from the more "traditional" artists in the room. I am not too concerned about this but more exploration of the debates and discussions surrounding appropriation as well as the ties to "sampling" and cross over of the two.
5: Thoughts on the concepts on the individual screens? AMEN, recored covers, music video, drummer, the musical notation and the song titles.
The element they "enjoyed" the most was music videos which because of their nature are very visual and enticing. The record covers do work but possibly use less of them as they do make the middle screen pretty dormant. They liked the idea of these being "clues" to the bands. These working alongside the song titles provided the clues but the song titles could possibly be more visual. The musical notation was underused and many missed it so a stronger more present and animated style would help the piece. Also the drummer was underused but I did plan to film this myself and to make more use of it anyway.
6: Did they enjoy it? What was the audience pleasure in the piece.
The pleasure I guess was a little in the understanding of the concept but obviously only once I had explained it to them. They did seem to enjoy the piece irrespective of this and did find themselves drawn towards the music video elements and less so to towards the typography. I will look at experimenting a little more with the typography, the sound directing the audience to the important screens and trying to create stronger visuals and tie the music to them more.
Moving forward
Utilize all of the feedback above as well as my own thoughts and develop the piece. A lot of the concerns were concerns I had myself highlighted. The major over-riding concern was the fact that no-one came even close to making the connection so this MUST be stronger and the visuals could be used to highlight this more. Lots more trialling, action research and testing to develop the piece.
No comments:
Post a Comment