When I introduced the plans for this unit at the first group critic I explained that the projects for both the self negotiated and the masters proposal were maybe a little ambitious. As I explore and research the work for the masters proposal, I find an array of reference material that seems to be falling in my lap as avenues of research open. I suppose it gives me some concern, also a delight as the adventure and exploration of ideas related to my proposed theme ‘Blurring the line between the still and moving image’. As the research develops I am dealing with two distinct areas of involvement technique coupled with the content, the later offers a diverse sensibility and at the moment as I home research into contemporary practices along with historical context. I am assuring myself as these few weeks progress I will eventually find the merging of the technique and content coming together as one.
In this unit I intend to be bold and strike out! I intend to explore the impact the digital captured moving image have on the viewer, trying to identify elements that captivate. The intention is to explore and identify the complexity involved in the viewer’s perception of the moving image. I am being ambitious with my proposal and this could be diverse research but for this unit I would like to explore the relationship audio has with imagery. To gain a glimpse at its use and an understanding of the effects that duration, sequencing, presentation, installation and listening can have. Personally I see audio as an emotional layer embedded within the footage, at times it becomes a major influence for the viewer often overtaking the imagery and adjusting the viewers perception and at other times audio can become an interference conflicting with the imagery. My own objective is to create imagery void of audio, as my desire is to hold an audience attention by the visual alone. To be a critic it is necessary to have an appreciation of the effects of audio, with the anticipation that the knowledge will aid the creation of stronger visuals. My plan involves using an audio recording I have already captured separately from any visuals. I want to explore techniques involved with editing and manipulating audio, then to create a visual sequence that establishes a mergence of audio and imagery together. The content will be either a street or country scene with a visual twist, a juxtaposition that will put a demand on the viewer, and question what they would perceive the work to be. My theme of the perception of the visual will be my intro into the masters’ project with a working title ‘Blurring line between the still and moving image’.The audio
The link below is the raw audio I intend to use as a reference to create the footage. The advice I have been given so far is to listen to the audio to get to know it, in many ways, headphones, hifi speakers and at different times of day including a variety of location to become familiar with the work. Very similar advice I was given to edit footage, I have now edited my four minute audio to one minute.
This link contains the visual with the audio form the digital camera I used to create the raw audio. What I find interesting is the imagery unconsciously created. As I witnessed the street scene I have created a visual that I think asks questions.
14th October time in the sound booth
Editing the audio from the 4 minutes raw to a one minute sequence. The sound engineer was impressed with the quality of the audio recording from the digital camera, I believe from research that the HDSLR camera are good for ambient sound but directional voice additional microphones and even separate recording device are advisable. Enhancing the sound taking away distraction
21st October second time in the sound booth. After a brief chat with the sound technician I was on my own and got comfortable with the audio cutting the audio from one minute 10 seconds to 39 seconds of condensed sound. Now to think about imagery and many ideas have been buzzing around my head and I think this morning I have the answer. Although I had preconceived ideas what the visual might be, this is a new way of working creating the visual from the influence of the audio. The audio at first brought a vsiosn of school kids running around a playground together and creating the imagery from the kids perpective with the jostling of kids together. Due to CRB and parents consent in the time frame of this project it was going to be problematic, I still want that interaction and close proximity so my next thought is the idea of a bike/skate park that is close to me and feature the skills antics of the tricksters while trying to capture the social interaction. This be a complement to the audio as it is created from a different kind of social interaction with the hustle a bustle of traffic.
22nd October Bike/skate park first visit
This is my first rough edit on the skate park footage coupled with the audio.
The skate park was a great experience creating the footage was helped by the positive experience and being excepted by the kids at the park, this was an unusual experience for me as the work was not choreographed or staged tableau, previously being my work involved creating a pictorial narrative that is concentrated into a single image. I was not acting like a fly on the fly on the wall either as I became accepted into the space they continued their play and I captured the imagery as I moved around them. This has taken me away from the labour plus skill so inherent in my work of constructing the scene. For much of my work has been in this genre, with the use of actors, assistants and technicians to create a photograph. As I find a new definition through creating the moving image I become less of the orchestrator of cast and crew an more the sole producer.
The Impossible dream
At a conference I attended recently the video The impossible dream from Honda commercial was shown at the end of the motivational speakers talk. Will all now that commercials are designed to persuade and to to it used as a process to motivate, this got me thinking about the use of the audio against the visual in this advert. I believe the imagery and audio complement each other, with many of the footage sequences crafted in a classic approach almost echoing a still image as the subject matter moves through the frame.
The impossible dream
These few images below are crude screen grabs from the footage, I feel that they are strong images that could be still images that stand alone from the moving sequences.
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An example of audio and imagery not working successfully together in my opinion.
sailing from Ugurcan Kara on Vimeo.
Masters project proposal draft-1
Blurring line between the still and moving image
The power of photography is to immortalise a moment and freeze time. Where as the moving image brings uncanny realism which is absent in photography or painting.
Still and moving images command equal power in our lives. As the way we consume information changes our methods of viewing must evolve also and thus equally how we create. I used to create a moment in time now it is evolving into moments, as I now begin to shoot matching stills and film elements. I am moving beyond pure photography and I hope, closer to how clients require content. Still Photography has been going through a fascinating, if challenging, time in how it is created, viewed, sourced and priced. While there has been a lot of pain in all that change, photography is still growing in its role in our culture. Image prices may have often gone down but that doesn’t reflect the real value of images. Obvious reason for pricing change is the use of developing technology and as I have mentioned before it is disruptive technology, as it is changing the way we work; as artists we develop and choose the most efficient tools to solve a creative and technical solution.
My research so far is diverse there are however two specific areas developing, one being technique and the other content the emergence of these two will create the final work.
In much of my work I search for a balance between or, if possible, a meeting point for humanity and nature. I look to capture a human moment where it seems nature’s forces have united to create that split second in time.
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‘Bullet Time’ – a visual effect that allows the audience’s point-of-view to move around the scene at a normal speed while the action unfolding is played out in slow motion.
The ‘Time-Slice’ camera was first devised in 1980 by Tim Macmillan at Bath Academy of Art during his BA. Fine Arts degree course. Originally a painter, Macmillan was interested in combining Cubist theory with contemporary technology. Initially using hand-made photographic emulsions and photo grams, he went on to create a series of cameras creating multiple viewpoints of a space which were then collaged together. The multiple camera concept then made a lateral leap to being applied to cine film. The first camera involved a length of 16mm film negative, clear Perspex spacers providing a focal length and a strip of opaque 16mm cine magnetic tape with a pinhole drilled into each frame. A simple shutter over the magnetic tape then provided the means of exposure. The result was a tracking shot through a space. The profound revelation was that while the viewer experienced a move through space, time was frozen. A paradox! The effect is also known as ‘temps mort’ (dead time) & ‘virtual camera’, with various companies advertising under names such as ‘Timetrack’, ‘Multicam’ & ‘Big Freeze’.
Tim Macmillan Early Work 1980 – 1994 from Time-Slice® Films on Vimeo.
‘Steps for Stress’ – Healthier Scotland from Time-Slice® Films on Vimeo.
I will visit this exhibition in early January to research the historical context. The British artist Eadweard Muybridge is known for his pioneering work on animal locomotion which used multiple cameras to capture motion, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible perforated film strip. Muybridge was the man who famously proved a horse can fly. Adapting the very latest technology to his ends, he proved his theory by getting a galloping horse to trigger the shutters of a bank of cameras. This experiment proved indisputably for the first time what no eye had previously seen – that a horse lifts all four hooves off the ground at one point in the action of running.
Mona Kuhn’s photographs of groups of beautiful nudists lounging around in apparent lazy luxury have sparked international interest. She was a finalist in the BMW-Paris Photo 1st prize for Photography, and her luscious large format color prints are in demand from collectors worldwide.
Footage is created when Elina get’s in a crisis about her still photography, the moving image is created consciously for either screen of digital projection.
The Baigneurs (bathers) video installation portrays nude swimmers in Finish nature. The form is cyclic, repetitive: a swimmer plunges into the water and returns, waves hit the shore; only the places and figures change. The bodies are simultaneously beautiful and banal. Baigneurs examines beauty through through the national (National) Romanticist landscape and the classical bather motif. The water plays a role as important as the figures: its colour, the reflection rippling of the surface. Baigneurs is a sister work to Elina photographs of the same theme. It is interesting to compare them to each other. The still photographs easily fall within the bather tradition in painting (nudeby the waterfront), wheras the movement in the video brings in uncanny realism which is absent in photography or painting.
ebrotherus-baigneurs video click here
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Jock Sturges (born 1947) is an American photographer, best known for his images of adolescents. His work, often taken on the nude beaches of California and France, has been the subject of controversy. “Commercial photography forces me to take a fashion subject and find out who he or she really is. I want to turn the key in that lock.” Jock uses his gracefully style in his commercial working with the fashion models clothed he poses his models the same way he would drape them if they would be nude, I believe he is frustrated by the layers of clothing and sees a different person. What reflects here for my is using this imagery as a representation into commercial work in the clothing and leisure markets like the resort/spa markets.
Commercial context
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Reference material
9780500204016
The Photograph As Contemporary Art
Synopsis:
“An essential guide.â€â€”Seattle Post-Intelligencer For this new edition, Charlotte Cotton brings the story of contemporary art photography up to date with a chapter on artists who emphasize the physical and material properties of photography, who use photography as just one component in their pan-media practice, or who choose to experiment with new modes of dissemination for their work.
http://www.elinabrotherus.com
http://www.monakuhn.com
http://world.honda.com/message/impossibledreams/cm/
http://dreams.honda.com
http://inudge.net/
http://www.panos.co.uk/blog/?p=2402
http://www.1stavemachine.com/audi_q5/
http://www.lucidincorporated.com/
http://www.amadelio.com/vlog/
http://www.amadelio.org
http://www.trishsouth.com/SITE/Photographers/Jock_Sturges/reel.php?page=Documentary&title=Documentary%20about%20Jock%20Sturges&videotype=Trailer
http://www.lensculture.com/kuhn.html
http://www.wildswimming.co.uk/
http://www.zoebingham.com/
http://www.corysilken.com/
http://www.michaelkahn.com/
http://www.photography-now.net/listings/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=370&Itemid=334
http://world-market-portraits.blogspot.com/2009/03/oriental-hamam.html
http://www.timeslicefilms.com/
http://www.amyreaddesigns.com/mablog
http://www.billviola.com/
David Spagnolo
http://www.rebecca-horn.de/
Douglas Gordon
Tacita Dean
http://tinyvices.com/
boys toys on the pond from gary john norman on Vimeo.
In this unit I divided my time between the draft proposals for the masters’ project and a task I had set myself of developing an appreciation of audio. Often the two projects paralleled each and at other times a merging would occur that allowed for a reflection on both. After a period of time working in still photography I am now developing my skills within the moving image and being introduced to all the demands of a time based media. Creating a photograph I am not used to significant time restraints only those created by viewer of the work. Within a time-based media the ability to stop, restart, rewind and fast-forward is available to you the viewer. For the project I used a prerecorded piece of audio as inspiration to create imagery, the audio I thought would have no direct relationship to the imagery. On viewing the original recording and reflecting on the work created I found a connection within the imagery of a social interaction.
Working in the sound studio the introduction to audio provided insight to a similarity to the ways I worked within photography, filtering, decision-making and the language. Contemplating my process for the audio, the knowledge that subtracting can have extraordinary adjustments and enhancements to the audio. The rhythm of coupling audio and visual is complex, as one influences the other, the power of silence cannot be underestimated.
After a tutorial with Tom I had more confidence with the reductive process of working with audio. Creating more than a surface but providing a foreground and background a phrasing looking inside the edit to create a visual gesture and using repetition in both the audio and visual. What was important to me was retaining a style inherent in my photography and to avoid vagueness between the visual and audio. For a presentation to Shaun I presented the sequence with the wrong synergy I had created audio that was lazy, I could not justify why it was there. Every element should serve as a reason and I had underestimated my audience.
Moving forward I still wanted to explore the image and audio relationship, my ongoing interest with the characters from the model boat pond. My intentions were unfortunately postponed due to the weather as the pond was frozen. An idea was to create a still portrait of my subject with their beloved yacht and overlying an audio interview to accompany the image. I then wanted to contrast this with a hand held moving image camera sequence and audio interview. My purpose would have been to evaluate the relationship of aural and visual. I would of enjoyed witnessing audience attention, to see the effect that elapse of concentration or even questioning would have.
I have questioned the shortness of the work and mainly the pace of the edit, using the audio to often direct a cut between imagery and viceversa. The audience attention and their participation is something I concern myself with, although the work was ultimately to justify my own satisfaction, I could see it being used as a web viral or a teaser introduction to a longer feature.
Creating the evaluation presentation was an idea that developed from the editing process. The narration requires improvment many times over, hearing your own voice is always nerving, although it has provided confidence and also an insight into narrating over imagery. Having the ability to sit back and press play give me the ability to watch audience participation and gauge interest. Being totally honest for this part of the unit I have not found myself using any obvious references, only guidance form those with knowledge of audio. This has been refreshing as I approached this with total naivety and my only intention was to take a glimpse at audio.
With the audio experience and conducting research on the masters proposal I found a merging within this unit. The positive energy of doing! Coupled with creating allowed for something new, forging forward to use as a reference. As I am developing the proposal the future of the work is centering on what I do not do, rather than rely on my strengths, using a reductive process to strengthen the work and creating a rhythm to the structure.
Msn4 Tutorial Tom Simmons
Due to working away last week I was fortunate as Tom moved my time slot for the tutorial discussion and I was pleased that we were able to talk and some positive outcomes evolved. A concern that I will outline more later, briefly though I feel commercial knowledge hinders some creative growth, discussion with Tom has allowed a slight side ways shift into my creative process and changing my approach to creating & viewing imagery. At the end of the day I have to establish a commercial outlet, although want I feel is required today is a style unique to me.
Links Tom has directed me to:
http://www.johnsmithfilms.com/texts/sf12.html
http://ingerlisehansen.com/triology_pages/travelling_fields.html
http://www.paulbushfilms.com/films/jekyllandhyde.htm
http://www.michaela-nettell.com/UnderSkies_MNettell2008/UnderSkies_MNettell2008.mov
http://www.marieleneudecker.co.uk/
http://www.folk-projects.co.uk/seachange.html
Link to notes for Lefebvre
The skate park was a great experience creating the footage was helped by the positive experience and being accepted by the kids at the park, this was an unusual experience for me as the work was not choreographed or staged tableau, previously my work involved creating a pictorial narrative that is concentrated into a single image. I was not acting like a fly on the wall either as I became accepted into the space they continued their play and I captured the imagery as I moved around them. As I find a new definition through creating the moving image I become less of the orchestrator of cast and crew an more the sole producer.
Model yacht pond
http://www.btinternet.com/~rigden/boatclub/index.htm
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Tutorial with Shaun 18th November 2010
Comment from one of the participates.
“Interesting. seems to be very short and an awfull lot of black. Shall not be there on Saturday due to another appointment. Hope you enjoy”. Mike
Establish a technique coupled with content
More Super Slow Motion [Water] – 550D from Rickard Bengtsson on Vimeo.
7000 Frames Per Second from Mike Matas on Vimeo.
Distribution of the image
‘the old is catching up with the new’ Shaun Camp
You can make a drawing of the sunrise at 6am and send it out to people by 7am†by David Hockney
http://www.hockneypictures.com/articles_html/2010/10-20-10.html
Each image as it appears on another iPhone or laptop is virtually identical to the original, although Hockney points out that even with a manufactured item such as this, there will probably be minute differences. Even so, the drawing on my phone not only looks like the one on his, digitally and in almost every respect it is the same. This is profoundly subversive of the art market as we know it, with its focus on the signed original work.
Like many people, Hockney thinks that this technology will change the world of news media and television quickly and irreversibly. But drawings, like songs, Hockney believes will always be with us: it is only the means of making and delivering them that will change. This autumn, Hockney remains in love with his iPad, and almost every day new drawings he’s done on it arrive in my inbox. “Picasso would have gone mad with this,†he says. “So would Van Gogh. I don’t know an artist who wouldn’t, actually.†By Martin Gayford
4th November 2010 Group Tutorial
Discuss the fact that I was critised for lacking the ideas up front but preparing the reference and technique, suggested reading by Gerhard Richter.
What the process is, showing what the process is
Exploring abstract through photographic process
