See the cat? See the cradle.: February 2011

Friday

Tuesday

Bridget Jones Claire Swift

every time I watch this is makes me smile. My friend Jason as Colin Firth....priceless!

Kate Love's current research is concerned with questions posed by the concept of experience, as it is interpreted in the context of the production and the reception of art in general and art education in particular. The research takes the form of examining particular experiences of art, specific examples of the representation of personal experience in art, the construction of the meaning of experience through art, and what it is to experience art (ie. What it is to have an actual experience in the sense of what does 'having an experience' actually mean in terms of gaining knowledge and/of evidence for the understanding of subjectivity). The major outcome of this research is to further an understanding of experience in the context of both art and subjectivity, which does not reduce the interpretation of experience entirely to one of discursivity or self-presence as in 'an immediacy of sensation and affect'. The current research attempts to think through some of the questions posed by the category of experience, as it is interpreted in the context of the production and the reception of art. The research investigates particular experiences of art, specific examples of the representation of personal experience in art, the construction of the meaning of experience through art, and what it is to experience art. The major outcome if this project is to further an understanding of experience entirely to one of discursivity or self-presence as in 'an immediacy of sensation and affect.' Rather the aim here is to locate and project a reading of experience, "which has its fulfilment, not, in definitive knowledge, but in the openness to experience that is made possible by experience itself."

Elizabeth Price: Sidekick (exert)

"sidekick is a descriptive text which annotates the incremental progression of a labout-intensive activity. This activity is fairly straightforward: packing tape is wound from the roll upon which it is commercially distributed, onto itself, to form a sphere. I call this sphere boulder. boulder was started in 1996 and is ongoing. It was initiated with a simple task, yet the repetition of this task incited certain material inevitabilities. As the sphere became larger and its surface area increased, the process became slower because the tape had a gradually decreasing relative impact. Each roll added to the sphere lessened the value of the next and after a while the addition of a roll was impossible to detect. At the present moment of time the ratio of time-spent to visible result is so protracted, that it is difficult to perceive the effects of my action. One of the critical problems of this work, has been knowing how to conclude it – the slippage of the labour out of the range of visible cause and effect, has made it difficult to know how to act. I have resigned myself to continuing it indefinitely. sidekick was initiated in 1997. It was started when the boulder began to slow down. It is ongoing."

Tutorial with Henry

immersive installations, deconstructive elements, experience, effect & affect, layer

encounter - aware

double experiencing: what am I responding to?

EXPERIENCE

ownership - issue (work), artists intention, audience interpretation engagement

ENCOUNTERING, site of intensification (experience)

How do we negotiate that?

How do we think of art work?

Intensified experience: generate meaning "become"

Barthes: readable/writable?

Whose gaze is it anyway?

.....thought of a working titles... encountering an experience, experience "2", experience (insert power 2)

Art Review: Philippe Parreno

Philippe Parreno (Serpentine Exhibition 2011)

denaturalising cinema, theatrical, visual, art forms or experience

interrogating politics of presentation

tautological loop, between reality, fiction, staging, visual images, physically present viewer

reality & cinematic distance collapse

technique: didatic pedagogical

we are being TAUGHT something about our implication in the hidden ideology of the gallery

distance between fiction, social, realism

reflexivity - pleasure

expression of the system

manipulates contemporary signs in all of their hallucinatory reality

New Documentary (Narration) Stella Bruzzi (notes)

Voice over - insights, information

'Immediately a voice begins to speak in a cinema, the sound apparatus takes precedence over the camera, thereby doing violence to natural instincts' Rotha 1930:406 (p40)

'The one legitimate use of the dialogue film' - topical newsreel

Purity of film: visual impacts alone

'No power of speech is comparable with the descriptive value of photographs' Rotha 1930: 405 (p41)

utopian realm

'Beyond reason. Beyonce explanation. Beyond words' Robert Drew 1983:271-3

Visual Analogy: Barbara Stafford (notes)

trucanted story 2 main themes

disanalogy - failure of analogy - a relationship of resemblance/equivalence between 2 situations, people, objects: used for a basis of explanation

social landscape, polemic: form of dispute, defined by a definite thesis, serves as a subject of controversy, single point of view

Analogy: idea, sounds delusional, fantasy,

'cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject to another particular subject' (source -> target)

linguistic expression - corresponds to such a process

analogy - interference (or an argument) provide identification, places, people, objects

understanding by the receiver of a message

morphism aka structures (mathematical) study of abstraction

Kant's critique of judgement: relationship between 2 completely different objects

Plat & Aristotle: analogy - shared abstraction, function: pattern, idea, regularity

Francis Bacon: a special case of induction: inductive interference common attributes probable common attribute

Premises + Conclusion + Alternative Conclusion

INDUCTION achieve general conclusions - analogy: particular conclusions

Rhetoric, Lingustics

Thursday

LOL (Protein Dance Xchange)

WOW! As part of my job at the Hippodrome I'm sometimes allowed to sit and watch a performance as part of my role and tonight was a FANTASTIC opportunity to sit in and experience the amazing performance of LOL. Here's a little exert about the production:

Silvestrini’s award-winning Protein return with a timely new piece of physical theatre where love, wanting and connectedness take centre stage. Logging on to our lives online, LOL (lots of love) delves into the world of electronic communication to uncover the evolutionary shift that social networking and the internet have had upon the way we live, love one another and belong to society in general.

Great use of exhibiting a performance, using silohuettes, projection, projection fabric, flooring, aggressive/sensual movements, use of microphone sound manipulation, text and sound, performers audience interaction, humour.

Paris J'Taime

22 different Directors
22 different stories of love.

Initially, twenty short films representing the twenty arrondissements of Paris were planned, but two of them (theXVe arrondissement, directed byChristoffer Boe, and the XIe arrondissement, by Raphaël Nadjari) were not included in the final film because they could not be properly integrated into it.Each arrondissement is followed by a few images of Paris; these transition sequences were written by Emmanuel Benbihy and directed by Benbihy with Frédéric Auburtin. Including Benbihy, there were 22 directors involved in the finished film.

Deleuze Cinema 1 (notes)

Notes from Deleuze's Cinema 1

P13 The frame therefore forms a sets which has a great number of parts, that is of elements, which themselves form subsets. It can be broken down.

Image [en image]

Elements are the data [données]

P14 The frame has always been geometrical or physical

The frame is therefore sometimes conceived of as a spatial composition of parallels and diagonals

The frame is conceived as a dynamic construction in act [en acte], which is closely linked to the scene, the image, the characters and the objects which fill it.

P15 physical or dynamic conception of the frame produces imprecise sets which are now only divided into zones or bands.

P16 The cinematographic image is always dividual. This is because, in the final analysis, the screen as the frame of frames, gives a common standard of measurement to things which do no not have one – long shots of countryside and close-ups of the face…-part which do not have the same denominator of distance, relief or light. In all these scenes the frame ensures a deterritorialisation of the image.

the frame is related to an angle of framing. This is because the closed set is itself an optical system which refers to a point of view on the set of parts.

p20 Cutting [decoupage] is the determination of the shot, and the shot, the determination of the movement which is established in the closed system, between elements or parts of the set.

it is the relationship between parts and it is the state [affection] of the whole.

From one point of view, it’s called relative; from the other , it’s called absolute.

P25 movement is therefore not for itself as remains attached to elements, characters and things which serve depth, such that the moving body goes through it in passing from one spatial shot/plane [plan] to another…

p26 define a primitive state of the camera where the image is in movement rather than being movement-image.

P27 multiple points of view.

Depth is no longer conceived

P29 False continuity is neither a connection of continuity, nor a rupture or a discontinuity in the connection.

Tuesday

Background Idea

Claire Denis (Director)

Louis Trebor, a man nearing 70, lives alone with dogs in the forest near the French-Swiss border. He has heart problems, seeks a transplant, and then goes in search of a son sired years before in Tahiti. Told elliptically, with few words, we see Louis as possibly heartless, ignoring a son who lives nearby who is himself an attentive father to two young children, one named for Louis. He leaves his bed one night - and his lover - to kill an intruder; he dreams, usually of violence. Will his body accept his heart? Will his son accept his offer?

Mr Ben

After my group tutorial I was curious about the Mr Ben comment and decided to investigate into the cartoon.

Notes : The movements are very static and the use of zooms is of interest, use of narrator - moves the images, creates narrative, like a picture book. Children! Basic animation, enjoyable colour use. Patronising voice! Use of story, follows images, picture book, nostalgic, fantasy, line, good compositional set outs.

Monday

Group Tutorial (notes)

I recently had a group tutorial with my peers at University, it's a great opportunity to get feedback on my current practice and to test the waters to see if my ideas are being portrayed. I must say I felt that the work was received very well and the majority of the audience created their own narrative and understand that this work was a reaction against cinematic techniques.

Notes

Power, Show, Relationships, Tension, Music, Domestic, Anger, Voyeurism, Melodrama, Fragmentation

Set Up: Seating puppet show, choice of seating: in context, imposed

Fly on the wall, home open doors, allowed to see

Indifference, Resistance, Suggestion

Clothes: Red jumper - power, Family, comment on domestic setting, Education show, learning, Language, Melodrama, Film Soundtrack, "French", No decorative element, CONTROL! Simplistic gestures, Stereotypical, Pauses - staged at intervals, Dollhouse: controlling figues "dolls"

Do we need Dollhouse? - basic symbol, depth & complexity within film, specific setting

Cliche! Clue to a scene, Emotional actions, staged, controlled, exagerated, RITUAL,reduction

White normative/heterosexual stereotypes, middle class (house)

Actions - autism, stages of a process

Actors - signifying something

Scale - encounter closer, facial expressions, want to approach, subtle/ slight expression, intended removal, Steve McQueen (shed falling)

Voyeur, Open troubling, unsettling, placement of audience

Loop - Performance,continuity, on going, everyday, reason - breaks idea of a show, departure, parallels, domestic relationships, comment female, mirrored, short yet unable to followed narrative.

Chronologically ordered, fragmented, lacking emotion, flat, choreographed emotion, artists in control!, vulnerability, blanks, denial of facial expression, theatrical body gestures, reduces basic symbolism, purposeful lack of talent, child's perspective of parents, censored.

Music: emotional content, changes interpretations, editing techniques, speed static, theatre, nightmarish/dramatic, builds

Green Screen - virtual place, action figures

No Era, clothes decor, Mr Ben, animation - creepy, simplicity/repetitive.

Hide mechanics, binary masculine structure conventions of cinema's phallocentricism.

Sunday

Ritual

After my tutorial this week I was introduced to the idea of Ritual within my work, the actions my actors perform do have a performative ritual and I'm not sure now whether this is the core of my work. Recreating rituals within cinema, the adding of music has been a great development and I hope to continue layering such dynamic ideas over my simple footage. I've booked for another days filming next week with Green Screen and my plan is to continue through my development and perhaps film something with a bit more content.

Wikipedia

A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers."

Friday

Lynch Goofy Movie

just to show how filmic techniques can create tension, even when using such a loveable character as Goofy.

David Lynch (Rabbits)

puzzled time, questioning, sensibility, nameless city, 'sitcom', creepy, domestic setting, unnerving, sinister, soundtrack.

Just a few ideas floating around the bizarre nature of Lynch's work, I have been interested in the work of Lynch for many years now, however as I'm sure is reflective in many others I'm unable to grasp the true sense of Lynch's intentions and appropriate what I feel Lynch creates to reflect upon my own work. Within these series of short films Lynch develops and ironic look on a domestic scene, for the me the set up of staging and complete lack of emotion are influential in my practice. As you watch the Rabbits, a sense of nostalgia is created and the scene's are so recognisable in theatre and cinema. Lynch's use of soundtrack is also of interest and how the sound builds and un easy drone throughout the narrative.

More Lynchness to come I'm sure.

Thursday

Logistics of Projection

This information was taken from the Rosco Websites 'Techno Notes' to help me understand the basic principles of rear projection. Although I feel like I have a good understanding of what is needed to produce an image on a screen using a back projection (my work placement at Vivid Birmingham allowed me to observe and help with the installation a rather large back projection) I wanted to grasp the simple ideas and hopefully develop a good idea as to how I want my work to be shown. I understand this is quite an early thought for the final installation in September, however I know I'll benefit from experimenting not only with my footage but how I actually want to install the work. They both work hand in hand almost. I want the 'source' of imagery to be hidden to create a grander illusion and transport the viewer with the imagery, not the technology used. My images will be smaller in scale and therefore the throw distance of the camera's will also be an issue as a small image projected can be blurred in it's appearance.

Managed to get my hand on some scrap projection fabric (SO EXPENSIVE!) so I'm planning on creating a small installation using projection for my group crit later this month. EXPERIMENTAL TIMES!

Janet Cardiff

Notes from The Killing Machine

'Sometimes you fall into a story, but sometimes you have to take steps to unravel it' Janet Cardiff, Munster Walk I (1997)

destroy concept of 'white cube', expansion of language and 'behaviou

rs' of art, Eye & Spectator: joined by the human body, yet distinguished from one another by the different functions they perform (p13)

'Theatre is a type of agency. The agency if extremely unequal material components

and ideals which only exist in the performance. These components ( a text, a venue, bodies, voices, costumes, lights, an audience...) come together in an event- the performance - whose repetition night after night in no way hinders it from always remaining the same as the event, that is to say, unique' (p13) Alain Badious (French philosopher)

Cardiff crossroads of film and theatre, extremes of a single problem or paradox: first the event performed before us (film) under the conditions of ritual and architectual separations; and secondly, the unique, unrepeatable performance (theatre), put on just for us, spectators cum actors, when the play begins (p13)

sensory experience, explores pyhsical perceptiona and the transformation of individ

uals through the experience of art, exploit sound, voice: can be used to create virtual characters and forge relationships with the audience, installations 'situations', binaural and surround sound: physical experience, hyperrealistic qualities, physical presence, "soundtrack", Walkbook, 'experience in all dimensions, hallucination, hypnosis, audience's intimate relationship to the virtual voice, relationship between o

bject (narration) and space (performance), installation of sound eg television, radio, speakers, headphones, resemble cinematographic micro-experiments inspired by both avant garde film and more popular formulas of film noir and B movies,

Paradise Institute (2001)

wavers between love and hate, wooden structure, ritual, film soundtrack, interferences in and outside, familiarity, entertainment, escapism, illusion of space and grandeur, imagination, headphones, expectations anticipated, audience soundtrack, full body experience, confusion, intimacy,

Roland Barthes ' Like a bad concert hall, affective space contains dead spots where the sound fails to circulate. The perfect interlocutor, the friend, is he not the one who constructs around you the greatest possible romance? Cannot friendship be defined as a space with total sonority'

I was able to experience a work by Cardiff & Miller on an art visit to Barcelona, where I experience two works, Playhouse & Killing Machine. These works have stuck with me, unable to shift the complete sensory take over. Sat watching playhouse I was alone, me and the stage, me and the headphones, I was shattered into an illusion as the woman sang a build of tension was taking place in my ears. Asked in a hesitant voice to take the suitcase under my seat (at which point I went to look under my seat) I was transported into Cardiff's world in which she was controlling my emotional connection to the work and causing me to react in a rather unsettling an awkward fashion. I'm sure I'll have to say later on, but I thought it best to simple down the basics of Cardiff's work and work through my connections to her sensory experiences.

Deleuze Cinema 1 (notes)

Through research for one of my essays I was introduced to the writings of Deleuze in which he speaks of the cinema image and deconstructs any ideas and concepts embedded within the screen. Focusing on the idea of the screen I was able to pick a few examples of his text that interest my research for my practice. The idea of the point of view of a piece of work is of interest, I hope to ask my viewer to explore the work in an unfamiliar situation. I'm currently thinking about the idea of a 'viewing box' rather than dolls house, as the dollshouse seems rather traditional for my concepts and the deconstruction of cinematic techniques. I will continue experimenting with the dollshouse as my screen, but I feel the work should create a rather intensive, Janet Cardiff inspired experience.

Notes from Deleuze's Cinema 1