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P10 evaluation

U N R E M E M B E R I N G  -  P10 Evaluation

Not the video I intended to make, but lost in contemplation, running through my original intention one bright blustery Sunday morning, my thought processes were interrupted by an overheard conversation. Bamboo shadows, sunlight and a stiff south easterly were vociferously conversing on the wall in my hall. I filmed it. I then filmed directly back out through the window into the dazzling sunlight piercing and bursting through the bamboo stems overloading the sensors in my camera. The results are what you see.

The influence of photographer Uta Barth is unmistakable.

I've been an admirer of her work for a long time and have used blurred techniques and the oversaturation of light and colour previously in both my photography and moving image. It was this previous experience that enabled me to immediately recognise the potential of the light dancing and playing on my hallway wall that sunny Sunday morning. Interestingly, the sunlight as projected on the wall was shot in sharp  focus - it was already imbued with its own blurred quality. Conversely, the footage then taken pointing directly back out of the window into the sunlight bursting through the bamboo was shot with the camera lens set well out of focus.

Each of the pieces of footage are interesting and engaging in their own right but combining them gave an added ambiguity to the images, the green of the bamboo being the only contextual element involved.

What you hear evolved as an idea from the sound recordings made of the bamboo in the wind. This would act as contextual anchor that was not only recognisable but also extremely atmospheric. Within this sound-scape there appeared a sense of language: the insistent swishing and rustling created between the breeze and the bamboo sounding like indiscernible whispers. A YouTube search offered many examples of whispering to experiment with including some tagged as Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.

A.S.M.R. describes the subjective experience of “low-grade euphoria” characterized by “a combination of positive feelings and a distinct static-like tingling sensation on the skin”. It is most commonly triggered by specific acoustic stimuli. In simple terms: when someone whispers closely in your ear you get goose-bumps. To utilize this technique would offer me a soundtrack that was equal to the impact of the visual aspects of the piece.

Strangely the most interesting samples I found on Youtube were those not in English but this concentrated my listening on the sounds themselves, the rises and falls, nuances  and inflections. It sounded poetic despite having no understanding of the words in a similar way to Laure Provoust's film 'Swallow'- where she similarly creates an intimate atmosphere, drawing you closely in as if invited to share in a secret. The same applies to the quietly voiced over narration in the opening sequence of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire where you are simultaneously and irresistibly involved and engaged.

On watching back the explosive and colour filled imagery I was reminded of neurons firing in response to some redolent event - like memories bursting to the fore. But it was the acquiescent dissipation that held me,  so swiftly followed by the next burst - like a process of remembering, forgetting and then, as if anew, a re-remembering.

This was the pivotal moment within the process where everything consolidated into the idea for the film.

Working on the idea of using several languages spoken at the same time, each reading the same poem, I utilised Google Translate to experiment with a few languages looking for commonalities - the idea being that each of the different language when spoken might somehow synchronize around particular words. One of the things I noticed listening to the foreign language samples was how I honed in on odd vaguely recognisable words that somehow anchored me. With the words ‘echo’  and ‘amnesia’ being similar across several languages I composed and constructed the poem 'Unremembering' using these keywords.

Recording Spanish, Romanian, Welsh and English versions of the poem was not as simple as making straightforward translations from English - this gave the film an unanticipated collaborative aspect. Each of my volunteer readers actually worked and discussed word choices and nuances with me in order that each translation read as a poem. I requested that each was read slowly with marked pauses between phrases in order that in editing I could split and space each of the recordings to fit and to complement each other.

On checking the footage, once I had exported, I noticed a glitch near the bottom right hand corner. Initially I thought this was a mark on the wall where I had filmed, but later, when closely studying some photographs recently taken on the same camera, I realised that this was a dust speck on the camera sensor. Took the problem, and the raw footage to Nick Brown who tutored me through the process of removal on Premier Pro. Took that back to my editing suite and replaced the faulty footage.

How to present the finished film has proved problematic. Working with the ingenuity of Nick Brown I have split the audio across four channels and can present an audio installation of sorts, but anything beyond four speakers isn't possible. I am attempting to present the work in the cellars of the CRC building, but due to health and safety regulations, if this happens at all, it will have to happen unofficially under the HCA radar. Multiple projection is also not practicable - synchronisation isn't technically possible and there is no suitable space to achieve the optimum distances for projector throw to use three screens even if there were three screens available.

Taking the piece beyond this module I plan to record many more versions of the poem in as many different languages as possible. Assembled as a piece it will be presented across a bank of various old TV monitors one for each language but each screening the same visual imagery. A visitor to the gallery space will be presented with a cacophony of whispers inviting them in to explore the installation looking for meaning, eventually finding a monitor where the poem would be in a language known to them, offering resolution and where meaning could be found. This invitation to 'interact' with the piece acting as a metaphor for the effort we often have to make to remember.

1 in 6 people over the age of 80 in the UK live with dementia in one form or another. Living in a world of remembering and unremembering, input from the outside often seems like listening to a different language. However, there comes a stage of bitter sweet amnesia when not remembering that they don’t remember  enables some re-enjoyment of the poetry of life - even with no understanding of the words.

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Files

Folder with P10 storage

Folder for film

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Laure Prouvost - evaluative comparison

Turner prize winning French video artist

‘Swallow’ - strange dream like video with breathy whispering and French voice over. A series of metaphors that act almost as a language, much like the language of flowers or the metaphors used in renaissance paintings.

The sound track somehow feels like it is inside of your head, similar to a thought - especially with headphones

NB -  idea:  I N N E R   V O I C E

Offers a rather confusing and busy set of imagery reflecting our current short concentration span - lots of short fast cuts. Does offer a visual narrative which ‘unremembering’ doesn’t. However the uncomplicated visual narrative in unremembering concentrates and redirects attention to the audio - almost like going into a stare when listening to something - the visual cortex goes into some kind of hypnotic hibernation

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sound installation

can use logic pro on a mac laptop to drive a Focusrite 2i4. This will drive 4 channels thus 4 separate speakers, one for each language.

As each of the recordings has been heavily edited to fit with the time frame and each of the other tracks I will need to isolate each of the audio tracks from the video footage and export as separate MP3 files.

Will need 4 X spoken word MP3 files  1 X ambient sound MP3 file  1 X video file exported as MP4 for Quicktime.

Booked with Nick Brown to trial the sound installation Thursday 15th in prep for final presentation on 22nd March - should be good.

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the glytch

On checking the footage, once I had initially exported a version, I noticed a glitch near the bottom right hand corner. I had thought this was a mark on the wall where I had filmed, but later, when closely studying some photographs recently taken on the same camera, I realised that this was a dust speck on the camera sensor. Took the problem, and the raw footage to Nick Brown who tutored me through the process of removal on Premier Pro where I went into effects / noise & grain / dust & scratches and drag this to the clip, then used an image mask ellipse and sized it over the blob and feathered the edges - radius about 30 

magically the blob has now gone and I took that back to my editing suite and replaced the faulty footage and I have remastered the film

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Douglas Gordon

I like the way that Gordon uses the screens or TVs or monitors as containers -

‘unremembering’ could be played on each screen but with the poem whispered in a different language for each screen - the room would echo with a beautiful cacophony of whispers but you could navigate your way around the installation until you found, and got close to, the screen that had your language - if each TV was playing all the languages one after the other on a loop then when your language  had finished on one screen you’d have to listen out to find the one it played on next as they would all constantly change

interacting with the piece in this way would reflect the effort we sometimes have to make when trying to remember

all that’s required is a lot of old TV sets and old DVD players or other media devices - there would be no real need to sync things but as the loops progressed they would accidentally and naturally sync on occasions

Alternatively some big screens would be good. However these facilities aren’t readily available at college. Even the possibility of projecting right, centre and left on three screens isn’t possible. I would have to use three projectors which it would not be possible to sync and then there are no screens or even a room available where I could get the optimum distance from the side walls for the throw of separate projectors.

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The Murder Of Crows

Six short excerpts from a 30 minute audio installation by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.  Here it is seen installed at the Hamburger Bahnhof-Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin, Germany in the spring of 2009. Ninety-eight audio speakers fill the space, mounted on stands, chairs, and hung from the the roof. The structure of the piece tries to mirror that of the illogical but connected juxtapositions that people experience in the dream world. One soundscape moves into another;  an electronic dreamscape composition shifting into sound effects such as factory noises, crashing waves or birds wings and then into a guitar and strings composition then into a choir sequence and marching band.   Intermingled with this are 3 horrific dreams narrated by Janet's voice coming out of  the central gramophone horn.

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Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller - Experiment in F# Minor

On a large table sits a collection of bare speakers of all shapes and sizes. Light sensors are inlaid into the edge of the table and as the viewers move around the room, their shadows cause the various sound and instrumental tracks to fade up and overlap, mingle and fade down. Numerous viewers in the room create a cacophony of musical compositions that vary according to where the audience walks or how many people are in the room.  When the space is empty, the table fades to silence.

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The 40 Part Motet by Janet Cardiff

The Forty Part Motet (2001), a sound installation by Janet Cardiff (Canadian, born 1957) Regarded as the artist's masterwork, and consisting of forty high-fidelity speakers positioned on stands in a large oval configuration throughout the installation. The fourteen-minute work, with a three-minute spoken interlude, continuously plays an eleven-minute reworking of the forty-part motet Spem in alium numquam habui by Tudor composer Thomas Tallis (ca. 1505--1585).

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Future Development

it would be good to have this screened on three screens so that the effect is totally immersive. Also with 5.1 surround sound I could have a whispered voice from each speaker and the background bamboo from the base speaker

Unfortunately HCA does not have these facilities - which is odd for an art college where video production is a majorly used medium of expression.

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anghofio- Welsh text version for submission to National Eisteddfod

#Vimeo

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Timelines

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u n r e m e m b e r i n g

#Vimeo

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Video Editing 5th to 10th Feb

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Hear me, hear me, hear me.

Listen.

Insistent memory comes begging to be heard.

Urgent, gentle whispers play in jewelled sunlight

and cold bright shivers.  

Voices in the breeze

fire up, dance then burst

and fade like echoes, echo, echo.

 Sweet, bitter sweet Amnesia

from paradise floods

quivering and soft.

Unremembering,

unremembering,

distancing memories

but still heard

 Hear me, hear me, hear me.

#SoundCloud #music #sounds4david

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Clywch, clywch, clywch. Gwrandewch. Atgof taer yn bledio i gael ei glywed. Sibrwd pwysig, addfwyn yn chwarae yn y goleuni A’r cryndod oer llachar. Lleisiau yn y gwynt Yn tanio, yn dawnsio ac yn byrstio A phylu megis adleisiau, adlais, adlais. Melysrwydd chwerw amnesia O lifogydd paradwys Yn crynu ac yn ysgafn. Anghofio, Anghofio, Atgofion yn pellteru Ond yn dal i gael eu clywed. Clywch, clywch, clywch.

#SoundCloud #music #sounds4david

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(sounds4david)

#SoundCloud #music #sounds4david