Category: Screen Assignment

When it finally came around to creating my final images, I rented out the studio and in all honesty had a great amount of fun. I had a variety of objects which I had brought with me ranging from tiny sweets to light bulbs to an iPod. From there, my friend and I went about destroying them, gouging out there insides and smashing them in the most strategic way I could in order to bring out the most effective shots I could. I had rented out a 100mm  Macro lens from Media Loans and knew exactly what I wanted from my images. I wanted to strip objects down to there core.

My work does not consist of a very deep internal narrative which drives the story of the movie, but more of a theme which fluctuates throughout. Some images are grotesque.

Others leave you questioning what the object was at all.

And others are just unnerving as they reveal what lies underneath the surface that we are so comfortable and familiar with.

But, as explained in my previous research, we are fascinated by the unknown, the mutilated or simply intrigued by how every day objects are shown in a completely new light.

When I went about placing my photographs together and to combine them with my sound I ran into a few tiny technicalities. Despite how I initially faltered I soon realised that Technology and myself had never entirely gotten along and I should remain determined. Therefore as you can see in the final product, unfortunately the photographs have black borders in some places. This is due to the filming frame being one side and then some of the cropped photographs suffering slightly from as they were smaller size. The sound I used was a combination of four different sets of sounds. It is subtle but throughout there is juxtaposing notes depending on which pieces are playing. There is the incredibly high pitch screech  which is so unsettling I had to turn my volume right down in editing when dealing with it, which is then partnered with an incredibly low sound along with it. This made me think of the theories I had initially been looking at and the how the contrasting of sounds brings out the different types of emotion in the listener and, in this case, the viewer. Therefore I felt that in this sense the compilation of sound and images worked well. It is not a ‘pretty’ project or one that is easy or nice to look at or listen to, however ultimately, I find that that is what I had wanted to capture all along. The disturbed mind frame of the viewer while listening and watching is what I had initially set out to achieve and upon reflection it appears I had stayed quite one track minded throughout this entire project.

I had recorded some small sounds of the clattering of objects and the shattering of glass for a few week however when I tried to add them in, the sounds were all cancelled out and that whole train of thought became depressingly useless. Therefore perhaps as a criticism I would have liked to have made my own sound had I left myself more time or possibly added the sound of the object subtly behind the screeching or the other notes. I found that another regret was that my photographs had remained stationary throughout, with the studio being my one and only setting for the images. This, in one way, is what I wanted to achieve as it adds to the theme and motif of the piece and the fact that I wanted the object to be the center of attention for the viewer, however, a wider range of objects in other locations may have added something which could have been equally if not more effective. And yet, overall, I still feel happy with my project despite of its faults.

 

Now that I have more of an idea of how I want to construct the sound of my piece, I had to begin to go about creating a clearer idea of what I wanted to photograph. I investigated into a variety of abstract photographers and found myself immediately intrigued by Gerco De Ruijter. He created a project where he investigated the textures of objects or landscapes.

He draws your attention to places or objects which would usually be over looked and unappreciated. Therefore I found this interesting as a concept. Despite the fact that the viewer cannot tell what the textures are this is effective as they the images have then created an entity in themselves. He creates a beauty in an object in completely unexpected places.

I really enjoy his work as I feel it is innovative in a refreshing way. Ruijter creates a intriguing images from tampering with the perspective of the human eye. Sometimes it can be seen that he zooms in to expose the texture of a smaller object, however he also uses aerial photography on huge landscapes across Iceland, The Netherlands to even places such as Dubai. It is his use of manipulated perspective, however, which I found was the concept behind Ruijter’s work which inspired me the most.

From his work I found myself on a journey to find out why we would find his images so fascinating and appealing. This lead me towards discovering the theory behind curiosity. It is the appeal of being able to discover and see an object in a completely new way which indices the individual to favour his work. George Loewenstein created a academic paper in 1994 titled ‘The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review And Reinterpretation’ which states why curiosity has been ‘consistently recognized as a critical motive that influences human behavior in both positive and negative ways’. He believes the reason behind curiosity ‘as a significant response evoked by literature and art’ is due to the ‘mystery’ which lay behind the work and in this case, curiosity can be seen ‘as a passion’ where a ‘motivational intensity’ lies beneath the surface as our ‘passion to learn’ and ‘understand’ images and art in new forms and different lights becomes prominent. This is why Ruijter’s work thrives as it can be applied directly to these psychological theories.

Therefore with this information I begun to think of different ways I could present this is my own work. I found Livia Marin who created the ‘Broken Things’ project. I found her work different but equally as compelling as Ruijter’s. Again I was intrigued by the ‘what if’ mentality behind her photography.

Her work reveals the pattern which is unleashed through the melting of pottery. This has, inevitably, destroyed the purpose for the pottery as to be used as plates or cups but they have now been reformed into something new as art which would not have been able to be seen if she had not destroyed them in the first place.

 

Despite how Marin’s work is different from Ruijter’s I still feel there is a similar theme running through. Therefore now I have a clearer theme of what I would like to investigate in my own work, I feel more confident with the mentality and meaning behind what I would like to achieve with my screen assignment.

Loewenstein, George, ‘The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review And Reinterpretation’, Physchological Bulletin 116.1 (1994): 75- 98

 

When I first begun to form any kind of idea to what I would be doing in this project, I begun with the obvious. However, at the time I believed my ideas were, of course completely innovative and interesting until I compared them with everyone else around me. These ideas were along the lines of creating something which would be perfect beautiful images accompanied by soft music, meaning that it would be something easy and gentle to watch. However as I did further research into the topic I found that the best, or at least the most effective projects came from those that either emphasized contrast or drove forward a very powerful message. This is what drew me towards creating something which would be unnerving or even uncomfortable to watch or listen to. This way I could not only challenge myself but create a piece of work which most probably will not be ground breaking but at least original or refreshing.

I wanted to work on an idea which had reference to human sounds initially and worked around the idea of footsteps for a while. I thought it was something odd and oddly personal because each person has there individual footsteps. However as hard as I thought I could not think of what I would use as the visual which would be appropriate apart from shoes, which was too simple and therefore out of the question. During some casual research I came across the book ‘Technik’ by  Leigh Landy. During the chapter on sound, she talks of the structure behind sound and the relation between the audio and mimetic. She analysis the Luc Farrari’s Piece Presque Rien No. 1 subtitled ‘Daybreak on the beach’ which consisted of 21 minutes of overlapping natural sounds. She emphasized the power of a soundscape such as this by stating that ‘the whole… piece encourages the listener to go through clear and vivid psychological visual experiences, evoked by the explicit mimetic properties of the piece’ which is what I would want to achieve by the end of this assignment.

She later begins to consider the inclusion of electronic sounds which in her opinion ‘adapted the compositional concept of sonic transformation’. However, after reading through her analysis and theory I found that it was her thoughts on conflicting sounds which held my interest the most. Landy writes that the ‘basic underlying principle of opposite pairs of sounds… loud and soft, high and low, sustained and short, ‘natural’ and ‘artificial’ is an incredibly effective way of creating a possible mixture of ”human-based sounds’ and synthesized sounds’ to create an appearance of ‘unusual perspectives and transformations creating almost surrealist images.’

This theory excited me as I believed that this is the freedom I would need to fuel an  effective idea in this assignment. When I listened to the piece that Leigh was referring too when she was comparing sounds, Parmegiani’s ‘Dedans Dehors’ it was disturbing and hard to listen to but it was also what I was looking for. I liked the way it remained conflicting throughout, the way it fluctuated but remained with a constant beat behind it, giving the piece an undeniable and individual motif. It created images of a fractured reality or at least a dislodged basis of thought which would, if aided by images, could be directed to create something quite powerful.

Therefore, now, I am feeling considerably more confident with discovering an idea.

 

Landy, Leigh. Technology. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1992. Print.

https://soundcloud.com/editionsmego/bernard-parmegiani-dedans

http://w3.pdn.cam.ac.uk/groups/cnbh/research/publications/pdfs/Petal92ish.pdf