The experimental film 101 is to make a video about time and manipulating time.
Time is always a interesting subject for me. When I was 15 I read the book A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, hoping to discover the truth of time travel (hashtag science student). I was amazed by all the possible ways of time travel but if I have to pick one I would like to travel to the future.
The theory would be like this:
There is another theory that I learnt from watching the Series M of QI XL, an episode called Messing With Your Mind (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06vmkwb/qi-xl-series-m-9-messing-with-your-mind), from 23:00 to 26:33. There was a short film shown at the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture by Professor Bruce Hood showing there is a in-attentional blindness caused by blinking and is a problem for witnesses and so on. I was amazed by the fact that we are blind for 2% of our lives and that blindness stops up from noticing things right in front of us. There is so much information that is lost in between the blinks, as shown in the short film.
TV/Film and Time Travel
Today, the film Interstellar (2014) had used the theories of time travel in the plot, which is fascinating. Also, other movies also included different kinds of time travel in the plot to create meaning. There's a list worth checking out: The 25 Best Time Travel Films of All... Time. In the list, La Jatée (1962) by Chris Marker is the most interesting one in terms of the style, and it's shown in class as an experimental film, perfect. There is one which I watched many times called About Time (2013), beautifully filmed, good soundtrack and cheers me up every time when I was upset about life.
As for TV, Doctor Who is surely the classic time travel series. Cultural theorist Alec Charles said that the programme is about time and timelessness that time travel can be interpreted as a metaphor for the way we live in the twenty-first century, and in the era of relativity and relativism, it is not continuity but discontinuity which define us (Hills, 2010, pp. 87 – 87). It reminds me of a theory that time doesn't exist that I first learnt it from John Lloyd in a TED talk, saying "Time. Nobody can see time... There's a big movement in modern physics to decide that time doesn't really exist because it's too inconvenient for the figures. It's much easier if it's not really there. You can't see the future, obviously, and you can't see the past, except in your memory." (Lloyd, 2012). I am not an expert, but a more detailed theory can be seen here on a scientific website.
Personal Time
All of those above inspired our experimental video: Blink.
Let's say universal time doesn't exist, how about "personal time", the way we experience life. (And I am sure there are other "times" as well, such as political time and technological time.)
We chose train journey to present the concept because:
1. It is taking us to the future (in Stephen Hawking's theory and in real life as well, we are all traveling in time and space sitting down), we are all traveling in "personal time" to the future.
2. Different people have different perceptions of time and that can be expressed with a train journey. Trains sometimes goes fast, sometimes goes slow and there is never a standard speed as far as we experienced. Just like life journeys there is never a standard route or speed to travel.
Visuals
Ethan and I agreed to film each of our train journeys which we traveled to different places at different time on different trains with different cameras (iPhone 6 and Canon 5D Mark II). Therefore, we have two personal footage of our journey. Then we filmed our eyes to be over-layered.
Inspired by Professor Bruce Hood's short film we created a black screen whenever our eyes blinks and they are nearly unnoticeable just like how we blinks. Also, we manipulated the speeds of different parts of the scenery of the train journeys as there is no standard speed of it but personal experience. There are colour changes as well, which are nearly unnoticeable after the lost of information caused by the "blinks". It is interesting how the "blinks" creates discontinuity and continuity at the same time. The changes of colours follows the rainbow colours while rainbows meaning life, hope, promise, creation, etc.
Audio
Some parts of the video is with a background noise of a bus journey instead of a train journey but it is barely noticeable. It represents the fact that sometimes we think of something else in our heads but you won't know that unless you were informed.
Blink - Blink as time passes, blink as we are alive.
Hills, M. (2010) Triumph of a time lord: Regenerating doctor who in the Twenty-First century. London: I B Tauris & Co.
Lloyd, J. (2012) An animated tour of the invisible. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/john_lloyd_an_animated_tour_of_the_invisible (Accessed: 14 January 2016).
Monday, 18 January 2016
Monday, 11 January 2016
Experimental Video and Twin Screen Project Thoughts(1)
Ben Rivers is one of the video artists that I found his work very interesting.
Last year in summer when I was doing FMP in my Foundation, one of the tutor told me about Ben Rivers' exhibition in the old BBC building so I went there and was amazed by his installations.
This is a video of that day. First I went to an exhibition by a German artist/musician, Carsten Nicolai, exploring colour and sound. So the first few second of the video is a small fraction of his piece Unicolor(2014). I just filmed a few second just to remind me of his work in the future and I am trying not to disturb his work by filming the work too much. After that few seconds is the abandoned car park of the BBC building exhibiting Ben Rivers' video installations.
About Colours and Sounds
Carsten Nicolai's work was projected on a long wall with two mirrors at the side that expanded the visuals. Alongside the visuals are speakers with strong bass which made the benches vibrate.
When heard of this new video projects I immediately think of this and hopefully develop more work relating sound and visuals.
About Human Body and Technology
Transforming the body:
Using and connecting the body to technology:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9702610.stm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2705235/Google-launches-massive-study-human-body-determine-healthy-person-look-like-detect-diseases-earlier.html
About Twin Screen
Later on in September I heard of Ben Rivers' new exhibition.
Comparing to other main stream artists, Eason Chan's music videos are always more artistic.
Last year in summer when I was doing FMP in my Foundation, one of the tutor told me about Ben Rivers' exhibition in the old BBC building so I went there and was amazed by his installations.
This is a video of that day. First I went to an exhibition by a German artist/musician, Carsten Nicolai, exploring colour and sound. So the first few second of the video is a small fraction of his piece Unicolor(2014). I just filmed a few second just to remind me of his work in the future and I am trying not to disturb his work by filming the work too much. After that few seconds is the abandoned car park of the BBC building exhibiting Ben Rivers' video installations.
About Colours and Sounds
Carsten Nicolai's work was projected on a long wall with two mirrors at the side that expanded the visuals. Alongside the visuals are speakers with strong bass which made the benches vibrate.
When heard of this new video projects I immediately think of this and hopefully develop more work relating sound and visuals.
About Human Body and Technology
Transforming the body:
Using and connecting the body to technology:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9702610.stm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2705235/Google-launches-massive-study-human-body-determine-healthy-person-look-like-detect-diseases-earlier.html
About Twin Screen
Later on in September I heard of Ben Rivers' new exhibition.
(sorry>< but I only took one picture to remind me the work, I am so sorry...)
Similar styles from the last exhibition but this time involved a twin screen piece. After watching the whole 30 minutes, I concluded that the two screens are the same/similar scenes of the same event but played not in sync, with one descriptive narrative voice in the background. I like how he chooses to display a event with discontinued twin-visuals but one narrative so that our brain can still make sense of it, in my case, a very concentrating way.
There's another twin-screen work that I know from my country:
Comparing to other main stream artists, Eason Chan's music videos are always more artistic.
Sunday, 10 January 2016
Research: Experimental Video - Bill Viola
-Define "Experimental Video"
-in terms of content, structure and the formal inherent properties of video
-the relationship of experimental video to historical art and film practise
-what's the different to mainstream
1. Bill Viola Facts (BILL VIOLA ARTIST BIOGRAPHY, no date)
-"received his BFA in Experimental Studios from Syracuse University in 1973 where he studied visual art with Jack Nelson and electronic music with Franklin Morris".
-His works focus on universal human experiences
-He traveled places to develop different projects.
-He learnt Zen Buddhism in Japan.
-Music is a big part in his work.
-His wife is working closely with him as a executive director of Bill Viola Studio.
2. His Experimental Videos
-can be seen here: http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/bill-viola#artworks/1
3. His Working process
-Bring a pile of books and lock himself outside of distractions to write down his inspirations in a notebook. (Kidel, 2003)
-Fire Woman - shoot the reflection of the water, 35mm camera, an images of an image.
4. Quotes (Bill Viola quotes at BrainyQuote, no date)
These are the quotes that I like and related to the topic of research in some way.
5. About Moving Images (UC Berkeley Events, 2011)
-Extended our senses, across space and time, function as out of body experiences.
-He likes the fact that cameras have narrow focus, creating intension. But whether it is good or bad depends on the intension of the user.
-His work sometimes been projected onto the walls of the churches and the space is filled with music. It is just like the audiences being surrounded by the work, not like some of the video artists today that project one flat moving image onto the wall, which is just like a form of cinema. What he wants is to have the audiences to engage with the space.
-Artists detoxify things.
6. Summaries
By researching Bill Viola the video artist I learn a lot about the aspect of art and the difference to mainstream film. For example, he would experiment materials that to be filmed and think of how to put the work into the space for the audiences to engage with it, while mainstream film is to be shown by projecting it onto one surface with audiences focusing the plot.
But there are also similarities between film and video arts.
Sources
BILL VIOLA ARTIST BIOGRAPHY (no date) Available at: http://www.billviola.com/biograph.htm (Accessed: 2 January 2016).
Bill Viola quotes at BrainyQuote (no date) Available at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/bill_viola.html (Accessed: 10 January 2016).
Bill Viola: The eye of the heart (2003) Directed by Mark Kidel UK: .
UC Berkeley Events (2011) Bill Viola: ‘The movement in the moving image’. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0RCkNugozU (Accessed: 2 January 2016).
-in terms of content, structure and the formal inherent properties of video
-the relationship of experimental video to historical art and film practise
-what's the different to mainstream
1. Bill Viola Facts (BILL VIOLA ARTIST BIOGRAPHY, no date)
-"received his BFA in Experimental Studios from Syracuse University in 1973 where he studied visual art with Jack Nelson and electronic music with Franklin Morris".
-His works focus on universal human experiences
-He traveled places to develop different projects.
-He learnt Zen Buddhism in Japan.
-Music is a big part in his work.
-His wife is working closely with him as a executive director of Bill Viola Studio.
2. His Experimental Videos
-can be seen here: http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/bill-viola#artworks/1
3. His Working process
-Bring a pile of books and lock himself outside of distractions to write down his inspirations in a notebook. (Kidel, 2003)
-Fire Woman - shoot the reflection of the water, 35mm camera, an images of an image.
4. Quotes (Bill Viola quotes at BrainyQuote, no date)
These are the quotes that I like and related to the topic of research in some way.
"Video artists being at the low end of the totem pole economically, one of the ways we survive is to go around showing work and giving these talks."
"When you're making video, you're giving structure to time, which is what a composer does."
"The fundamental aspect of video is not the image, even though you can stand in amazement at what can be done electronically, how images can be manipulated and the really extraordinary creative possibilities. For me the essential basis of video is the movement - something that exists at the moment and changes in the next moment."
"The very first video experience I had was in high school. They brought a black-and-white closed-circuit surveillance camera into the classroom. I will never forget, as a kid, looking at that image."
"When you come into my pieces, it's not an intellectual experience, it's a physical experience. It's coming at your body. There's light, there's sound, the lights in some pieces are going on and off. There's loud roaring sound happening."
"This thing called the camera, that takes everything in equally, taught me a lot about how to see."
"The future art historians are going to be software guys who are going to go into the depths of the code to find out what was changed hundreds of years before."
"In the 1970s, a lot of critics didn't understand video. I got a lot of bad reviews. But film-makers didn't understand what we were doing, either. There were actual fistfights between film-makers and video-makers. I was witness to one."
"You can always tell in a movie when they are setting you up for something. If someone leaves an important object on the table and walks away, the camera will have some way of indicating that to you."
5. About Moving Images (UC Berkeley Events, 2011)
-Extended our senses, across space and time, function as out of body experiences.
-He likes the fact that cameras have narrow focus, creating intension. But whether it is good or bad depends on the intension of the user.
-His work sometimes been projected onto the walls of the churches and the space is filled with music. It is just like the audiences being surrounded by the work, not like some of the video artists today that project one flat moving image onto the wall, which is just like a form of cinema. What he wants is to have the audiences to engage with the space.
-Artists detoxify things.
6. Summaries
By researching Bill Viola the video artist I learn a lot about the aspect of art and the difference to mainstream film. For example, he would experiment materials that to be filmed and think of how to put the work into the space for the audiences to engage with it, while mainstream film is to be shown by projecting it onto one surface with audiences focusing the plot.
But there are also similarities between film and video arts.
Sources
BILL VIOLA ARTIST BIOGRAPHY (no date) Available at: http://www.billviola.com/biograph.htm (Accessed: 2 January 2016).
Bill Viola quotes at BrainyQuote (no date) Available at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/bill_viola.html (Accessed: 10 January 2016).
Bill Viola: The eye of the heart (2003) Directed by Mark Kidel UK: .
UC Berkeley Events (2011) Bill Viola: ‘The movement in the moving image’. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0RCkNugozU (Accessed: 2 January 2016).
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