I like the subversive idea of the documentary subject being anonymous and not appearing except possibly a voice and working backwards finding a subject(s) to whom this would be appropriate. The use of ECU, silhouettes, lighting, focus and other images will obscure the actual full physical identity of the subject from the audience. It will keep the audience guessing as to if the interviewee is or is not the character they are pretending to be.
Sunday, 4 June 2017
GW: ANONYMOUS
As part of the raft of works for the Global Warmning installation piece I thought it may be possible to combine another of the ideas i have been playing around with on the course. This was to embrace the idea of creating a documentary back to front as trying to shoehorn creative style and formats onto documentaries has been to the detriment of the idea. So this will be a back to front approach on deciding the styles and formats I would like to use and then finding an appropriate subject. Whilst the the piece will not essentially be a documentary I will be able to create it as it is a fictional piece and to apply the stylistics to the idea to keep the characters identity a mystery.
I like the subversive idea of the documentary subject being anonymous and not appearing except possibly a voice and working backwards finding a subject(s) to whom this would be appropriate. The use of ECU, silhouettes, lighting, focus and other images will obscure the actual full physical identity of the subject from the audience. It will keep the audience guessing as to if the interviewee is or is not the character they are pretending to be.
I like the subversive idea of the documentary subject being anonymous and not appearing except possibly a voice and working backwards finding a subject(s) to whom this would be appropriate. The use of ECU, silhouettes, lighting, focus and other images will obscure the actual full physical identity of the subject from the audience. It will keep the audience guessing as to if the interviewee is or is not the character they are pretending to be.
Saturday, 3 June 2017
GW: REPRESENTATIONS OF THE TRUTH
Many of the works I have taken inspiration from have also been playful with the notion of documentary being purely a factual representation of the “truth”. However the Global Warmning idea really will be blending fact with fiction and creative a fictional narrative based on actual facts. The Global Warmning creativity is in the content and the storytelling and its adhearance to the creative stylistics of the documentary modes I am using to my own ends. What will be more important is the mimicry and use of the codes and conventions of the modes to create pieces that feel like types of documentary that the audience are familiar with.
I will be working in the realm of a hybrid of the docu-drama which uses documentary form to tell an invented but plausable story and drama-documentary which is based on real events but uses conventional fictional forms (scripts, actors, narrative and structure) to tell the story. I need the audience to feel that the documentaries are right so an excellent understanding of the form is essential. We have all seen the disclaimer at the start of a film "this film is based upon real events" for fictional works and also "events and all persons portrayed in it are fictitious". In order to understand the ethics of manipulating this in a word sold to the audience as factual I decided to dig up some research on documentary form and see how far "the truth" can be bent twisted or subverted ethically.
The Collins dictionary definition of a documentary is “a factual film or television programme about an event, person, etc, presenting the facts with little or no fiction”. When dealing with the notions of factual and truth in cinema it is a huge can of worms and at the very centre of debate in documentary. It has been present from the inception of documentary and Robert Flahertys Nanook of the North’s (1922) staging scenes in through to the same being levelled at Sir David Attenborough Frozen World (2007) zoo staged baby polar bear footage.
No documentary can be real as all are representations. Even observational “cinema veritie” documentary modes are not 100% truthful. Do or can people act naturally whilst aware of the scrutiny of a film crew and the potential audience for the text. The moment a shot is framed, and edit is made then a decision has been made and the subject is being re-presented to the audience by the cameraman, editor or ultimately the filmmaker. Semiotics and the meanings to individual audience members of the representation will differ. The intended representation may create with the audience preferred dominant reading, professional, negotiated or oppositional readings in what Stuart Hall termed reception theory. The notion of the truth and distortion of it can be a good or a bad thing obviously. The pro Nazi propaganda of the work of Leni Riefenstahl such as Olympia (1938) and Triumph of the Will (1935) are the most obvious examples. However propaganda is not always a negative and such works as Night Mail (1932) promoting society and co-operation and more recently the campaigning work against the global domination and the effect on societies health of McDonalds in Morgan Spurlocks’ Super Size Me (2004).
Representation of the truth in film is just that RE-presentation of what is there. So if there can be no real depiction of the truth and no black and white there are a lot of shades of grey to play around in. EWhy not experiment in the outer reaches of this and see how far a fiction can be used to sell facts. there is still the truth in there but and subjective and manipulated one.
Throughout my work on the course I have been interested in this notion of "the truth" in documentary and I want to see how the fact and fiction, subjectivity and objectivity can be treated individually or as interesting bedfellows. Is bias necessarily a bad thing? Can the notion of "truth" be subverted to create new meanings? Acclaimed documentarian John Grierson considered to be the father of British documentary film, (who many believed coined the term “documentary” in 1926) faced criticism for his definition of documentary film, that ‘the creative treatment of actuality’ was somehow oxymoronic but I love this idea of taking actuality and being creative with it to create meaning. Werner Herzog as I have mentioned previously in my work said there was an "ecstatic truth". In this artisits use creative artistic licenses, aesthetics and the languages codes and conventions of their chosen medium from the creator to create THEIR version of the truth.
This is what I am aiming to do in my piece but not through the creativity of visuals and sound to create mood and be emotive. Greater emphasis this time will be in the construction of these not pushing the boundaries of style but working within them and using these to create the realism. the creativity will be as I mentioned earlier in this construction to create the reality. The acting, scripts, editing, cinematography, sound and mise-en-scene must ADHERE to these conventions to pull it off.
So just how far can I as factual film-maker go when creating representations of the actual FACTS but with fictional characters, places and events and still call the film a documentary? The facts are the truth but the characters and the narratives are not in my piece. What I am aiming to do is convince the audience that the piece is real though and the "based on true events" is just that factually but that drama is built in to hook the audience. The realism of the piece and representations have to be believable so the performance, mood, tone, codes and conventions used MUST mimic the real documentaries in order to pull this off. With the odd little slip as i want it to feel 99% right but i do want the audience to question and be puzzled by the piece in order to make them think about and talk about it afterwards.
I will be working in the realm of a hybrid of the docu-drama which uses documentary form to tell an invented but plausable story and drama-documentary which is based on real events but uses conventional fictional forms (scripts, actors, narrative and structure) to tell the story. I need the audience to feel that the documentaries are right so an excellent understanding of the form is essential. We have all seen the disclaimer at the start of a film "this film is based upon real events" for fictional works and also "events and all persons portrayed in it are fictitious". In order to understand the ethics of manipulating this in a word sold to the audience as factual I decided to dig up some research on documentary form and see how far "the truth" can be bent twisted or subverted ethically.
The Collins dictionary definition of a documentary is “a factual film or television programme about an event, person, etc, presenting the facts with little or no fiction”. When dealing with the notions of factual and truth in cinema it is a huge can of worms and at the very centre of debate in documentary. It has been present from the inception of documentary and Robert Flahertys Nanook of the North’s (1922) staging scenes in through to the same being levelled at Sir David Attenborough Frozen World (2007) zoo staged baby polar bear footage.
No documentary can be real as all are representations. Even observational “cinema veritie” documentary modes are not 100% truthful. Do or can people act naturally whilst aware of the scrutiny of a film crew and the potential audience for the text. The moment a shot is framed, and edit is made then a decision has been made and the subject is being re-presented to the audience by the cameraman, editor or ultimately the filmmaker. Semiotics and the meanings to individual audience members of the representation will differ. The intended representation may create with the audience preferred dominant reading, professional, negotiated or oppositional readings in what Stuart Hall termed reception theory. The notion of the truth and distortion of it can be a good or a bad thing obviously. The pro Nazi propaganda of the work of Leni Riefenstahl such as Olympia (1938) and Triumph of the Will (1935) are the most obvious examples. However propaganda is not always a negative and such works as Night Mail (1932) promoting society and co-operation and more recently the campaigning work against the global domination and the effect on societies health of McDonalds in Morgan Spurlocks’ Super Size Me (2004).
Representation of the truth in film is just that RE-presentation of what is there. So if there can be no real depiction of the truth and no black and white there are a lot of shades of grey to play around in. EWhy not experiment in the outer reaches of this and see how far a fiction can be used to sell facts. there is still the truth in there but and subjective and manipulated one.
Throughout my work on the course I have been interested in this notion of "the truth" in documentary and I want to see how the fact and fiction, subjectivity and objectivity can be treated individually or as interesting bedfellows. Is bias necessarily a bad thing? Can the notion of "truth" be subverted to create new meanings? Acclaimed documentarian John Grierson considered to be the father of British documentary film, (who many believed coined the term “documentary” in 1926) faced criticism for his definition of documentary film, that ‘the creative treatment of actuality’ was somehow oxymoronic but I love this idea of taking actuality and being creative with it to create meaning. Werner Herzog as I have mentioned previously in my work said there was an "ecstatic truth". In this artisits use creative artistic licenses, aesthetics and the languages codes and conventions of their chosen medium from the creator to create THEIR version of the truth.
This is what I am aiming to do in my piece but not through the creativity of visuals and sound to create mood and be emotive. Greater emphasis this time will be in the construction of these not pushing the boundaries of style but working within them and using these to create the realism. the creativity will be as I mentioned earlier in this construction to create the reality. The acting, scripts, editing, cinematography, sound and mise-en-scene must ADHERE to these conventions to pull it off.
So just how far can I as factual film-maker go when creating representations of the actual FACTS but with fictional characters, places and events and still call the film a documentary? The facts are the truth but the characters and the narratives are not in my piece. What I am aiming to do is convince the audience that the piece is real though and the "based on true events" is just that factually but that drama is built in to hook the audience. The realism of the piece and representations have to be believable so the performance, mood, tone, codes and conventions used MUST mimic the real documentaries in order to pull this off. With the odd little slip as i want it to feel 99% right but i do want the audience to question and be puzzled by the piece in order to make them think about and talk about it afterwards.
Friday, 2 June 2017
1-1 TUTORIAL: GLOBAL WARMNING
A productive tutorial and I can now see the wood a little bit clearer for the trees. I have lots of elements of other projects on the go and they can continue but I have lacked a focus and a topic and piece of work to get me enthused and excited and I have been struggling with pulling all of the loose threads together on a few of these especially the Global Warmning one which has been the one I have devoted the most time to.
With the Global Warmning project so far I have not been heading in the direction I want to go in. The issue revolves around whilst the issue is a serious one, muddied waters, spin, apathy for the issue and obviously no hard facts as no-one can predict what may possibly happen in the future. Also my work has been lacking a narrative story and characters that I enjoy working with. So I have decided to list (below) all of the areas I am interested in exploring and then will outline how moving forward I can try and encompass them in my work.
Action Plan
With the Global Warmning project so far I have not been heading in the direction I want to go in. The issue revolves around whilst the issue is a serious one, muddied waters, spin, apathy for the issue and obviously no hard facts as no-one can predict what may possibly happen in the future. Also my work has been lacking a narrative story and characters that I enjoy working with. So I have decided to list (below) all of the areas I am interested in exploring and then will outline how moving forward I can try and encompass them in my work.
- Character and narrative to tell story.
- A multimedia approach to telling story and communicating ideas.
- Climate change and pieces of work that are a warning and a call to arms.
- Highlight the media, spin, "fake news" and manipulation of facts and data on global warming debate. Both mainstream media and online.
- Playing with the notion of "the truth" and the Werner Hertzogs "ecstatic truth".
- Inform educate AND entertain.
- Experimenting with different media, materials and technologies to create pieces and extend my skill base.
- Investigate different methods of delivery, dissemination, exhibition and platforms for my work.
- Consider the notion of audience for the work. Targeting individual content at specific audiences whilst also working as a whole campaign
Action Plan
- Come up with a list of areas and keywords that are the foundations and building blocks for my Global Warmning campaign raft of work.
- Research into myth and truth. Traditional mythology.
- Find examples of artists, advertisers, writers who have created and spun myths. Blair Witch, Donnie Darko, urban myths, sleeper films.
- Research into Stealth advertising, sleeper films and advertising campaigns to get messages out.
- Look at artists who have dealt with these themes and consider their preoccupations, inspirations and ideologies. Then look for papers on them (Tate papers good starting point) and see what references they have and who influenced them.
- Consider and investigate the mood and tone of the project.
- Consider individual pieces that could be created and look at style and tone of these if going to be re-created archival pieces.
- Make sure outline WHO the piece is for. Narrow targeted audience. Multiple pieces for a vast audience art installation, viral, doco, short film, advert, each one of them targeting a specific audience. Scattergun approach?
- Consider ethics if looking to hoodwink the audience.
- Consider WHY anyone should CARE about MY work! What are my influences, ideologies, messages, values and stylistics etc. Narrative, character, storytelling, representation, notions of "the truth", media spin and fake news and communicating a message.
Thursday, 1 June 2017
JOHN AKOMFRAH
Following on from seeing Akomfrahs The Unfinished Conversation 2012 in the Tate modern I was inspired to find out more about him and his work.
Artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah discusses how he navigates between the gallery and cinema, what compelled him to make his 2015 work Vertigo Sea, and the influence of Andrei Tarkovsky.This link has Akomfrah in conversation about his work.
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/john-akomfrah-tateshots
First seen at the 2015 Venice Biennale, The Vertical Sea is a three-screen film work. The Arnolfini gallery describe it as "a sensual, poetic, meditation on man's relationship with the sea and an exploration of its role in the history of slavery, migration and conflict."
John Akomfrah Vertigo Sea Trailer from Arnolfini on Vimeo.
Trailer for The Nine Muses a film by John Akomfrah. Opens in the UK Jan 20 2012
Artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah discusses how he navigates between the gallery and cinema, what compelled him to make his 2015 work Vertigo Sea, and the influence of Andrei Tarkovsky.This link has Akomfrah in conversation about his work.
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/john-akomfrah-tateshots
First seen at the 2015 Venice Biennale, The Vertical Sea is a three-screen film work. The Arnolfini gallery describe it as "a sensual, poetic, meditation on man's relationship with the sea and an exploration of its role in the history of slavery, migration and conflict."
John Akomfrah Vertigo Sea Trailer from Arnolfini on Vimeo.
Trailer for The Nine Muses a film by John Akomfrah. Opens in the UK Jan 20 2012
Wednesday, 31 May 2017
REVERSE ENGINEERED CINEMA?
Idea development to remember. Big apparatus and screen but tiny projection to reverse the cinema experience to that of one viewer. Question the notion of cinema going etc.
Sunday, 28 May 2017
GW: DOCU-DRAMA AND DRAMA DOCUMENTARY
I am experimenting with documentary form and modes I the documentary but also with the type of documentary I am making. In Sarah Casey Benyahia's excellent book Film & TV Dcoumentary she outlines the different types.
These are not to be mistaken for Nichols 6 Modes (Expository, Observational, Participatory, Reflexive, Performative and Poetic), which I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog. I am using a variety of these in my piece to construct my narrative and message. These modes, are defined with reference to documentary techniques rather than subject matter like their feature film counterparts.
Types of documentary are more like sub-genres of documentary and have a great breadth and depth from direct (fly on the wall) cinema to docu soaps about airports for example through to reality TV and shows like Big Brother. the two types or sub-genres that interest me for my current piece though are drama documentary and docu drama.
The Global Warmning piece I am creating is a move away from my last piece where the creativity was in the marriage of aesthetic style and ideology. The creativity in the Global Warmning piece is in the content and the storytelling less on the creative aesthetics and stylistics. What will be more important is the mimicry and use of the codes and conventions of the modes to create pieces that feel like types of documentary that the audience are familiar with.
The Global Warmning piece is going the a fictionalised piece but it will be grounded in fact. I am creating imaginary characters, narrative and events but these will be grounded in fact and interlaced with real events and characters referenced throughout. It will be a combination of pieces of filmed content to build this multimedia narrative including a TV News package, possibly online Vlogs and an interview to tell the story in unison.
So I am working in the realm of a hybrid of the docu-drama which uses documentary form to tell an invented but plausible story and drama-documentary which is based on real events but uses conventional fictional forms (scripts, actors, narrative and structure) to tell the story. I need the audience to feel that the documentaries are right so an excellent understanding of the form is essential. I decided to look again at the documentary modes and to see how I could use them in the construct of my Global Warmning piece.
Below I have outlined the codes and conventions of these two types of documentary to help me understand how to utilze and mirror their codes and conventions in my work
DRAMA DOCUMENTARY
Definition: A dramatised television programme or film based on real events. They use documentary techniques and interviews alongside narrative techniques such as re-enactments. They are basically a documentary with some use of fictional film storytelling techniques.
DOCU-DRAMA
Definition: A television programme whose story is based on an event or situation that really happened, even though it is not intended to be accurate in every detail. It is technically a narrative piece of cinema but uses documentary stylistics. They are basically a fictional film that draws upon factual source material but dramatise it.
These are not to be mistaken for Nichols 6 Modes (Expository, Observational, Participatory, Reflexive, Performative and Poetic), which I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog. I am using a variety of these in my piece to construct my narrative and message. These modes, are defined with reference to documentary techniques rather than subject matter like their feature film counterparts.
Types of documentary are more like sub-genres of documentary and have a great breadth and depth from direct (fly on the wall) cinema to docu soaps about airports for example through to reality TV and shows like Big Brother. the two types or sub-genres that interest me for my current piece though are drama documentary and docu drama.
The Global Warmning piece I am creating is a move away from my last piece where the creativity was in the marriage of aesthetic style and ideology. The creativity in the Global Warmning piece is in the content and the storytelling less on the creative aesthetics and stylistics. What will be more important is the mimicry and use of the codes and conventions of the modes to create pieces that feel like types of documentary that the audience are familiar with.
The Global Warmning piece is going the a fictionalised piece but it will be grounded in fact. I am creating imaginary characters, narrative and events but these will be grounded in fact and interlaced with real events and characters referenced throughout. It will be a combination of pieces of filmed content to build this multimedia narrative including a TV News package, possibly online Vlogs and an interview to tell the story in unison.
So I am working in the realm of a hybrid of the docu-drama which uses documentary form to tell an invented but plausible story and drama-documentary which is based on real events but uses conventional fictional forms (scripts, actors, narrative and structure) to tell the story. I need the audience to feel that the documentaries are right so an excellent understanding of the form is essential. I decided to look again at the documentary modes and to see how I could use them in the construct of my Global Warmning piece.
Below I have outlined the codes and conventions of these two types of documentary to help me understand how to utilze and mirror their codes and conventions in my work
DRAMA DOCUMENTARY
Definition: A dramatised television programme or film based on real events. They use documentary techniques and interviews alongside narrative techniques such as re-enactments. They are basically a documentary with some use of fictional film storytelling techniques.
- Dramatic Documentary
- Uses conventional documentary techniques (interviews etc..)
- Combines these techniques with narrative techniques, such as reconstructions to engage and attract its audience.
- These techniques can help the documentary deliver its message
- Verisimilitude is incredibly important to make the reconstructions look authentic.
Examples of drama documentary include Touching the Void (Kevin MacDonald, 2003), and very recently Tower (Keith Maitland 2016)
DOCU-DRAMA
- Documentary Style Drama
- Technically a narrative piece of cinema but shot in the style of a documentary
- Can use the same conventions as a documentary film (hand-held camera work, interviews etc…)
- Verisimilitude is key to create a realistic environment for the film.
Examples of doc drama include Battle of the Algiers (Gillo Pnotcorvo, 1966) All the Presidents Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976), Cathy Come Home (Ken Loach, 1966) and very recently Spotlight (Thomas McCarthy, 2015)
SARA PROJECT: ART WALKS POST-PRODUCTION
With all of the footage from the shoots on location and from the studio at my disposal I set about editing a test clip of the piece.
As there were several layers workflow was important so I started in Permiere Pro and cut all of the clips. Firstly the shots with audio and picture of Sara shot on a green-screen in the studio a variety of sizes. Then I edited the images of the footage that was shot on location and found clips that reflected what Sara was talking about that were the right length to match the variety of shot sizes talking about the stage of the walk.
From previous attempts in After Effects where I was going to composite the images and sound this was the best way to do it in tracks all then individually exported. This made sure all the timings on all of the pieces of content were the right length and this is easier to do in Premiere than After Effects.
Next I imported them into After Effects where I composited them all together. This is always a time consuming and fiddly job especially as i am still learning the software although I have grasped the basics. It involved lots of scaling, re-framing, animation paths to get it right so was process heavy.
Once all of this was done it was then the creative tuning. Inverted titles with images underneath, backgrounds, opacity, grading and effects on the footage. This was trial and error as it needed something to marry the images on location and the studio green screen elements. I tried a multitude of colours, textures and filters but I am still not all that happy with the result.
Overall the piece seems a little flat perhaps due to Saras delivery but it also looks a little too 80's TV. There is a style in there but I have not nailed it yet and it seems a little cheesy and not in keeping with mine or Saras original intentions. I have included area I think need developing if we decide to take the piece forward.
SARA TEST STUFF BEST from Jon Saward on Vimeo.
Things to consider moving forward.
As there were several layers workflow was important so I started in Permiere Pro and cut all of the clips. Firstly the shots with audio and picture of Sara shot on a green-screen in the studio a variety of sizes. Then I edited the images of the footage that was shot on location and found clips that reflected what Sara was talking about that were the right length to match the variety of shot sizes talking about the stage of the walk.
From previous attempts in After Effects where I was going to composite the images and sound this was the best way to do it in tracks all then individually exported. This made sure all the timings on all of the pieces of content were the right length and this is easier to do in Premiere than After Effects.
Next I imported them into After Effects where I composited them all together. This is always a time consuming and fiddly job especially as i am still learning the software although I have grasped the basics. It involved lots of scaling, re-framing, animation paths to get it right so was process heavy.
Once all of this was done it was then the creative tuning. Inverted titles with images underneath, backgrounds, opacity, grading and effects on the footage. This was trial and error as it needed something to marry the images on location and the studio green screen elements. I tried a multitude of colours, textures and filters but I am still not all that happy with the result.
Overall the piece seems a little flat perhaps due to Saras delivery but it also looks a little too 80's TV. There is a style in there but I have not nailed it yet and it seems a little cheesy and not in keeping with mine or Saras original intentions. I have included area I think need developing if we decide to take the piece forward.
SARA TEST STUFF BEST from Jon Saward on Vimeo.
Things to consider moving forward.
- Greater clarification of the intentions of the piece. Jane Jacobs, walks in general or Saras walk specifically as this is a little confused.
- More grading and time spent refining..
- Smoothing out of the images and backgrounds a little contrasty.
- More footage shot backgrounds, pieces of work against the green screen etc.
- Sara does come across a little cold more coaching in delivery as she is not a presenter.
- Quotes work OK but need more.
- Graphics style close but too clunky and 80's TV the elements need refining.
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
JANET CARDIFF: 40 PART MOET
Janet Cardiff: 40 Part Motet (2001)
40 Part Motet by Janet Cardiff is a audio only piece installation but is almost structural too in it's presentation on a multitude of speakers. 14 minute 40 track immersive contemporary sound installation playing polyphonic choral music written in the mid-1500s by Thomas Tallis. The installation consists of 40 speakers arranged in a large oval turned inward. Sung in Latin and a cappella by the Salisbury Cathedral Choir, one singer’s voice comes from each speaker. The audience are allowed to move amongst the configuration of speakers to discover what the artist describes as “walking into a piece of music.”
I wrote about the piece in earlier posts when unfortunately I had to do it from reviews and not from being able to experience it myself. However the piece was on exhibition at the Tate Modern
Reviews of the piece include “Achingly beautiful” by the New Yorker and “Transcendent” by the New York Times. Even from the video clip below you can get a sense of the immersive qualities and impact of the piece. I love the way that it is also structural with the 40 speakers and can only guess at the tech needed to create the installation.
As far as installation audio pieces go it is reminiscent of Nam June Paiks early works where in order for video art to be more pallet able to the gallery curators more structural video installations paved the way which combined sculpturesque qualities with the vide art work. The all embracing immersive quality of the piece is also a really interesting idea. Cardiff says ‘I am interested in how sound may physically construct a space in a sculptural way and how a viewer may choose a path through this physical yet virtual space.’ Sung in Latin, the first line ‘Spem in alium nunquam habui …’ translates as ‘I have never put my hope in any other but in you, O God of Israel’. Although Tallis wrote his music for a Christian setting, Cardiff has shown her audio installation in a variety of spaces, both religious and secular. The artist is interested in the ways in which music can evoke different emotions.
It is these last two points that I will take forward to my piece the immersiveness and the uses of multiple speakers. I want to use multiple tracks of music so could a similar technique be used to move the different music one piece to the next around the room thus directing their focus and attentions and interpretations of the piece.
40 Part Motet by Janet Cardiff is a audio only piece installation but is almost structural too in it's presentation on a multitude of speakers. 14 minute 40 track immersive contemporary sound installation playing polyphonic choral music written in the mid-1500s by Thomas Tallis. The installation consists of 40 speakers arranged in a large oval turned inward. Sung in Latin and a cappella by the Salisbury Cathedral Choir, one singer’s voice comes from each speaker. The audience are allowed to move amongst the configuration of speakers to discover what the artist describes as “walking into a piece of music.”
I wrote about the piece in earlier posts when unfortunately I had to do it from reviews and not from being able to experience it myself. However the piece was on exhibition at the Tate Modern
Reviews of the piece include “Achingly beautiful” by the New Yorker and “Transcendent” by the New York Times. Even from the video clip below you can get a sense of the immersive qualities and impact of the piece. I love the way that it is also structural with the 40 speakers and can only guess at the tech needed to create the installation.
As far as installation audio pieces go it is reminiscent of Nam June Paiks early works where in order for video art to be more pallet able to the gallery curators more structural video installations paved the way which combined sculpturesque qualities with the vide art work. The all embracing immersive quality of the piece is also a really interesting idea. Cardiff says ‘I am interested in how sound may physically construct a space in a sculptural way and how a viewer may choose a path through this physical yet virtual space.’ Sung in Latin, the first line ‘Spem in alium nunquam habui …’ translates as ‘I have never put my hope in any other but in you, O God of Israel’. Although Tallis wrote his music for a Christian setting, Cardiff has shown her audio installation in a variety of spaces, both religious and secular. The artist is interested in the ways in which music can evoke different emotions.
It is these last two points that I will take forward to my piece the immersiveness and the uses of multiple speakers. I want to use multiple tracks of music so could a similar technique be used to move the different music one piece to the next around the room thus directing their focus and attentions and interpretations of the piece.
Tuesday, 23 May 2017
DAVID HOCKNEY: THE FOUR SEASONS
In 2010 Hockney began making multi-screen video works by fixing a nine cameras to the outside of a vehicle which was then driven along a road at Woldgate, near Bridlington, Yorkshire. Each camera had a slightly different viewpoint that was to correspond to a screen in the completed work and he filmed over the four seasons capturing them all. The effect exploits the notions of Cubism explored in his earlier photomontage works all showing different aspects of the same scene but this time incorporating time and movement for the audience. The images perspective, angles and shots overlap so when viewed as individual screens it makes some sort of sense but in its full complement of 9 screens per season it creates a bizarre wholeness. The videos explore the way a subject is seen over time but obviously also celebrate the miracle of the seasons.
The film was originally designed to be shown in sequence but later he reconfigured them as a four wall immersive experience encompassing the audience from the north, south east and west.
I found the piece incredible fascinating. the mix of time, movement perspective but the same subject and place mesmerising. It is indeed immersive and the feeling of being surrounded by the screens both enveloping and confusing due to the whichever way you looked you were missing a screen. I liked this choose how to consume conundrum for the audience though. Do you consume one screen at a time, walk around partaking in them all
The film was originally designed to be shown in sequence but later he reconfigured them as a four wall immersive experience encompassing the audience from the north, south east and west.
I found the piece incredible fascinating. the mix of time, movement perspective but the same subject and place mesmerising. It is indeed immersive and the feeling of being surrounded by the screens both enveloping and confusing due to the whichever way you looked you were missing a screen. I liked this choose how to consume conundrum for the audience though. Do you consume one screen at a time, walk around partaking in them all
- Consider resurrecting my own multi screened idea made up from TV screens and a sculptural tree but showing the four seasons reflected in its structure on the screens.
- The immersive experience was really invigorating and a great method of dissemination. It really made the audience interact with the piece. I may experiment again with multi-screened immersive installations for some of my work.
- Possibly use the technique but shoot a subject from multiple angles and shot sizes at the same time (ECU, CU, MCU, MS) but saying the same thing to show the different facets of their characters . This could then be shown on four big screens enveloping the viewer like Hockneys Four seasons and then letting the audience be their own director and choose which which screen to watch. This is also a bit like Ugo Rondinone's THANX 4 NOTHING, at the infinite mix.
Monday, 22 May 2017
DAVID HOCKNEY: PORTRAITS
Throughout his career Hockney created portraits although as opposed to many artists most often these were of couples or two subjects. Their composition, proxemics, staging and colours attempting to show the relationships between the characters.
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/david-hockney
Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) 1972
The storytelling in the image is huge and the anguish, solitude and isolation of the characters is exquisite. Separated by water, look (familiar profiled figure), tone, composition, clothing and foreground and background shape a line. Is the character under water free or constricted, is the character looking forlornly on wanting to be the character or projecting a possible underwater fate? The paining is loaded with meaning and emotion. Painted at the time of their break up Hockney's then boyfriend the artist Peter Schlesinger looks on at Hockney's assistant swimming underwater. The composition and profile look of the main character of the portrait using proxemics and profile staging position to alienate the viewer somewhat leaving the subject unaware of being observed and lost in their own thoughts. These are techniques I can employ in my own work.
American Collectors (Fred and Marcia Weisman) 1968
This picture has the clean lines, pure blue LA sky and sparse composition of much of Hockney's work of the period. Surrounded by a few sculptural pieces from their collection the couple are apart and distanced and separated composed almost as statues themselves. It has the one character in profile one straight on used in a lot of his portraits. They are held together in the frame but it portrays them more as two individuals rather than as a couple. The colour and composition are fascinating.
Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy 1968
Similar to the above "Collectors" in terms of sparseness and composition the characters are held together in the frame but it portrays them more as two individuals rather than as a couple. This separation is a techniques that could readily be applied to my own work. Even in a green screen shoot and two chairs to add an artificial background relevant to the subjects. Split screen possibilities too.
Henry Geldzaher and Christopher Scott 1969
Again the composition is fascinating and follows the full on and profile composition of Hockney's double portraits. In this paining though the composition definitely favours Geldzahers seated figure as Scott looks forlornly almost on much like Peter Schlesinger in Portrait of an Artist mentioned earlier.
My Parents 1977
A much more sympathetic composition allowing more closeness to Hockney's parents but still allowing that degree of separation depicting them as individuals but a couple. Hockney's mother appears to have the strength in the relationship as she is afforded the intimate full on gaze inviting out intimacy. His dad is not quite in profile but between this and three-quarter making him a little more accessible but given a book prop to look at to allow his lack of engagement and distracted pose.
The five works above helped me to consider a different approach to shooting a documentary echoing the together but alienated style of these paintings. The use of proxemics and staging position one character full front offering the viewer intimacy and inviting complicity with them. Then the second in profile making this subject more remote, unaware of being looked at and lost in their own thoughts. This could be re-created and applied to filming interviews with two characters in a manipulated frame sometimes both in the original frame sometimes a composite of two halves of the same frame shot at different times to create this isolation. they could talk about each other in the same frame aware that the other person it there but also independently to see how their revelations may differ.
What I have learnt and will take forward.
- The use of proxemics and profile staging position to alienate the viewer somewhat leaving the subject unaware of being observed and lost in their own thoughts. These are techniques I can employ in my own work.
- Consider a different approach to shooting a documentary echoing Hockney's portraits of couples together but alienated. The use of proxemics and staging position one character full front offering the viewer intimacy and inviting complicity with them. Then the second in profile making this subject more remote, unaware of being looked at and lost in their own thoughts. This could be re-created and applied to filming interviews with two characters in a manipulated frame sometimes both in the original frame sometimes a composite of two halves of the same frame shot at different times to create this isolation. they could talk about each other in the same frame aware that the other person it there but also independently to see how their revelations may differ.
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/david-hockney
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