Reflections - Final Evaluation

The only way to start this evaluation is to say that Reflections has had a huge impact on the manner in which I looked at Art. I've got to confess that I wasn't keen on the whole idea of art and I didn't even want to understand it.  But, having to research on other artist's work to get inspiration, has actually done much more than that. I had the opportunity to get to know magnificent artists such as, Issac Julien whose last film installation (Playtime) I've seen.  Not to mention the pioneer Nam June Paik; the contemporary Bill Viola; the funny collages from Hannah Hock; Vito Acconci whose idea of spreading art by doing it in public places I'm very keen. Even the artists which I didn't enjoy - either because I didn't understand they work or simply because I don't like their pieces in terms of aesthetics - helped by making me aware of what I don't want to produce (at least not at the moment).  *important to mention that Time Art was equally important on such aspects above cited. 

• Photography Project

Photography has always being a frustration for me and this is one of the reasons why I've tried to make collage pieces instead; as a result, I now have one more technique to be frustrated with. 
After that, I decided to keep my theme - The time when I use to live in London - but to change the approach. 

The final result wasn't as good as I planned; I'm actually happy with the images, the problem is the wrong dimension in which they were printed. As I've said before, photography has never been my strongest skill and to be honest, I'm really fine with that. Not being a great photographer made me wanted to change my images digitally, which I believe worked well. In addition, I decided to use audio to portray the places represented in the pictures. I believe that would help the audience to get the feeling of such places. 

Furthermore, I reckon that the images which were digitally manipulated (Dalston, Voho and Fulham) were stronger than the others. This makes me thing about, trying more of that in the future. 

The way the work was presented, in my opinion, was the weakest aspect of my work. Although it was my idea to have the Cds hanged, I could have done a better work. I didn't want the Cds to be lined  because I though the memories are not precise neither rigid. But having the Cds hanged by black strings  and not having them lined up might have given the audience an idea of a poorly presented work. 

• Film Project

My main role, in this project, consisted in creating and assembling the sound track for the film. Normally, students tend not to like being responsible for the sound of a film; however, on this project, I saw a very good opportunity to apply the skill and knowledge acquired on Experimental Sound module as well as being able to be creative. 

The final version of the film is ok. I would be lying if I said that there were nothing to be improved in the film. In terms of the narrative I reckon it would be more engaging, for the audience, if some scenes were edited shorter. Moreover, the soundtrack doesn't keep the same quality throughout the film and it is clear that some parts were better produced than others. The ending scene is a very good example, as it lacks creativity and it's poorly assembled, sound-wise. The dream scene, on the other hand, it was done on a creative way and using not-so-simple skills. Moreover, the text used on the scenes hasn't add much to the film in terms of information; the choice of fonts was also bad.

The worst enemy in this project was the time management. However, it is important to say that trying to learn new techniques, researching and filming it not a very easy task.  

A decent idea for photography, finally !!!

It has always being difficult to express myself through photography and this time hasn't being different.
Having to express my thoughts using one still image it isn't' easiest job. Not to mention that normally  my 'art work' are aesthetic displeasing, in my opinion. Considering that and after my my firsts failed attempts to create  photo collage pieces, I decided to change my approach.

I want to use relatively simply composed pictures (founded and taken by myself) and stamp them on an Audio CD. The CD,  will contain sounds and/or music that reminds me of different places where I've lived. To enhance the audience's experience a portable cd player will be available on my photography installation.

• My challenges are:  

to produce strong images which will be capable of showing connection with my memories.

to use audio in my installation but, in a collaborative manner with my pictures and not to rely mostly on sound.

• So far these are the 2 two pictures I've produced:

I'm particularly pleased about my first picture and reckon it won't need any changes.

The second picture , however, has potential for improvements. I'm considering changing some of the black tones, not sure though.

Overcoming a problem, a big one!

We've got a problem!
A problem with the audio to be more specific.

There was music playing when we were shooting the scene inside the Disco Record shop. There are two major problems on this scene. First, we don't the copyrights license to use any of the songs that play in the background. Second, this scene was shot using different angles and for each angle, different parts from different songs were being played.

The good news is …
This is an experimental film!

I've being trying to overcome the sons issue using Adobe Audition. This is a draft of my first idea on how to approach this scene. My idea was to portray, through sound, what is happening on the main characters head.

Although I haven't used music in this clip it would be possible to download songs from freeplaymusic.com and that is free of charge for students' films which will be used in class only. In case we want to subscribe The Recovery to a non commercial film festival, we would have to pay $0.99 (American Dollars) for each track. Paying that amount would give us the right to use the song for one year (on non commercial festivals).

First drafts

I've been working on these clips' audio on Audition. At this stage, I've been adding different sounds to the clip. I've used both my own recordings and the ones from the BBC Sound FX Library. Some of these sounds have been modified through use of effects, echo and EQ changes.

On today's group meeting it was decided that from now on I will receive the scenes individually as soon as Andre and Diallo finish editing them. This will allow me to start working on the scenes instead of waiting for the whole film to be finished (edited).

• Clip 0651 - I'm happy with the overall result , as I believe a dramatic atmosphere is portrayed through sound. 

• Clip 0241 - This clip is still missing some sounds such as 'a car breaking abruptly' and 'a car horn' - I think the one I've used doesn't sound good. In addition, I reckon the overall result will sound much better when the levels will be adjusted.

Looking for Inspiration

The MUSIC of SOUND from tim prebble on Vimeo.



This video has given me new ideas for both projects Experimental Sound and Reflection's film.

Firstly, the sounds played from 7'00'' to 7'07'' made me fell disoriented and I could used the same sort of sounds to portray the chaotic aspects that I see on the art piece Feeling the Material.

 
The bass on the section - from 7'15 to 7'45'' -, in my opinion, reflects agony and fear and thus, I'm thinking about incorporating the some sort of sound to one of Reflection's film (The Recovery) scene.

Background noise reduction

• Audio with background noise

• Audio after Adaptive Noise Reduction was applied.

Hannah Hoch

On a previous post, I've mentioned the Germany born artist Hannah Hoch (1889-1978). On that occasion, I was doing some research on film collage and her name came up as being the one of the pioneers of Photo Collage. 
Appropriation, regarding either video or photo, is something that really interested me. And in order to get a better understanding of it I went to the Hannah Hoch exhibition at The Whitechapel Gallery in London.

 Reaching my expectation, her Dada period was the one I liked the most. I credited my interested on these works, also, to the fact that humour was used to manifest her critic point of view on women's liberation, society and polities, in  post-World War I Germany. Additionally, they were visually pleasant to my eyes. Finally, I was able to understand the connotations applied to these works.

Another aspect that has drawn my attention is her ability to maintain harmony among colours and forms, regardless the numerous images present on a piece and even on her late works, which have a more surrealistic approach.

Judging by my first trials I reckon that the harmony, among the different elements, is my number one enemy. But, in my case I'm seriously considering to adopt the proverb and instead of fighting against it I might just enjoying joining it.

Photo Projects - Trials

First Trial: 
My intention was to reproduce the Sutton Borough Logo using cut out pieces of trains ticket. In this first trial I used blue tack instead of glue, by doing that I could 'easily' moving the piece around. Although the 'final' result wasn't the one I expected, I still believe the concept is good.

 

FAIL

Second Trial:
This is a second trial/rough draft. This time I tried to use digital image manipulation (appropriation) to represent the time when I lived in Dalston, London. When working with image composition, I reckon I still have a lot to develop. I feel that I lack notions of both colours and forms; however, if I choose to use a more humours language, I believe, my roughness won't be a big problem.

Synopsis and Treatment

             

This will be a comic film, which will take the TV mini-series Jesus of Nazareth (1977), take its audio out, edited and re-dubbed it to create a new film. The plot …read more

The Birth - (Re-enactment)

Overall, I'm glad with the final result of this appropriation piece.  It's been considerably useful being able to try some of the techniques that I've been reading about. Having watched this film in companion of fellow students has given me the opportunity to analyse its strengths and weaknesses.

Using the audience laughs as the judge, I could note the following strengths: the sync between lips and dubbing is important, not essential though; the exaggerated SFX; the contrast between characters/sets/costumes and voice/tone/vocabulary;  the original narrator set the plot, built expectation and was a good 'timer/breaker' for the humours bits. The weakest points of this film are the parts which the original voices, but the narrator, were kept. This is because, those voices could only be heard in the ending part of the film, after some expectation was already built.

In a future work of this kind, I will consider writing a script, work with voice actors and using Adobe Audition to change the acoustic. These are things that I will have to think carefully, because they might add an unwanted professional look to it. I believe that such look could make this type of re-apropriation loose its fun.

Collage

Recently, I've realised that I like films/cartoons that use old black and white footage and stills. I believe, that the first time I've ever thought about it was after I watched the following episode of Margaret Thatcher: Where Am I Now:

I think I could use similar techniques on my future projects and thus …more

Love Uniform ?

From and to SM2 6AN

Video Art

It seems that Video Art  will be the subject for this semester; besides Reflections the module Time Art also approach the subject. Even though the two modules have different themes, my initial research is useful for both. This is because after a quick look onto some work  I realised that I didn't have any idea about what they meant. Therefore…more

Supporting SW6 1NR

Watching SE11 5HY

In 2008, I left the East side and went further South, South East to be precise. Voho, Vauxhell or Vauxhall its all the same. The fact is…more

Video Art

Nam June Paik (July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) is considered to be the pioneer of Art Video. He started using video as a media for art back in 1965, when the firsts portable recorder and cameras went on sale to the general public. From what I’ve read about his work I believe it discusses, mainly, the authoritative manner in which television content is thrown at the public.        - I haven’t read much though.

‘Nam June Paik relevance for the future is that he is, in part, an inspiration. I know for many young artists that are now working in this media culture. They are looking for ways to push it not simply to accept what something can do, but to make it do something is wasn’t  imagined to do’ - John Hanhardt, Senior Curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum – (BBC News Magazine)

http://www.paikstudios.com

Listening to E8 4AE

Regarding the heading  Listening to E8 4AE; at first, I chose to use the word ‘listening’ simply because music is the way in which I wanted to use in order to memorialise ‘E8 4EA’. Later,  I’ve realised that this headings could have a much deeper…more

Getting Started - Reflections

Just before Xmas I got an email that said:

'Over the Christmas break and as self directed study on 6th January we want you to think of something that you want to remember in the future and memoralise it in several different ways.
This could be by Facebook, Twitter, email, photograph,sculpture, painting, film, Youtube, novel/short story, letter, text, message sent to outerspace, theatre, dance, biography, phone call, mural, demonstration, costume, song, sketch, poem, rap, code, postcard, blog, book, album. Just a few ideas. The materials could be found as well as (re)constructed and we would like you to try to experiment with at least 6 different forms, methods or systems. 
Please bring your work in its different forms to class with you on Monday January 13th. This is a task that will form part of the folio for the unit.
You should also look at the reading list for Reflections and try to read as many of the books as possible.
Have a fantastic break and see you in 2014.'

At first I wasn’t very keen on the idea. I thought that sending a message to my future self wouldn’t make much sense. I think, this is because I misread the email; at first, I was thinking about sending a message to my future self, when I should be thinking about: ‘something that you want to remember in the future and memoralise it in several different ways.’ I’m not 100% sure that I’ve got the ‘right’ concept  though.

What do I want to remember in the future? Let’s start with the idea that, in future, I will be drinking a cold pint of beer on a Brazilian beach, under blue skies, enjoying a 24°c annual average temperature. Have said that, I would enjoy remembering about the years I will have lived in the UK.

I have lived in London for 7 years and  5 different areas – Dalston, Vauxhall, Fulham, Earlsfield and Sutton. The whole house hunting and packing  is not very delightful but, moving has its advantages. Thank to it, I’ve had the opportunity of getting to know, to like and to enjoy those places; even though some of  them might have seemed horrible at first glance. In the future,  I want to remember all the places I’ve lived in London.

Video Art

Issac Julien (b.1960, England). I came across him when I was looking at an online two screen piece by Layla Curtis (Antipodes),  both artists have had their work commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella. His latest project, Playtime, is a seven-screen installation and it will be unveiled today at Victoria Miro; the fact that Julien is also a documentary filmmaker also drew my attention. I'm really gonna do my best watch Playtime; if he was able to do this using two screens….

                                          …I can't wait to see what his seven-screen installation will look like.