Brief 2 - Figures Framing Images

by Terance and Christie
The Space

Link to pictures:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uDvw8SBvHPABj_BYqdPUe4PrqMysmvnw

Artist Statement

In brief two, we explored the idea of a fight being a dance: a fight that relies more on a rhythm and an interaction between two actors, rather than a duel that ends in injury. It was less about seeing who the best fighter is and more about how we can explore movement between two people.

From looking at existing media, we can see that fight scenes in action movies are generally cut heavily while Bruce Lee style films are very much single shot. So our vision was to create a hybrid of Bruce Lee and dance style work. In this regard, films like Claire Denis Beau Travail and Spear helped us to get some inspiration. 

We originally intended for there to be diegetic fight sounds and non-diegetic music playing over the work. We played with ideas of repetitive, rhythmic music and matching the beat to the actors as they moved around. In real life, there was no music, and so the actors were able to interact with each other in their own rhythm. We edited the clips in a quiet classroom so we had to have the computer on mute and after seeing them this way, we felt that it allowed the viewer to focus specifically on the movements of the figures on screen.This made a non-diegetic sound track irrelevant. A backing track would have been overwhelming and confusing for the viewer, which is an idea we originally played with, but decided to discard later in the creative process.    

The room can certainly accommodate a group of people but we would like viewers to visit in small numbers of one or two people so they can feel more intimate with the work. The use of multiple screens around the space was intended to make the viewing experience more immersive.

We intended this experience to be for an audience much like ourselves: university students. It is for a viewer who moves through a space and immediately tries to draw meaning from what they are seeing by analysing patterns, choices of angle and possible narrative choices etc.

We intend for them to notice the rhythm of 1,2 and 3. To look beyond the two figures fighting and notice the way they move in relation to the space and each other. Furthermore we want them to see why we chose to shoot in the late afternoon: to notice the elongated shadows created by the afternoon sun. We intend for the audience to see how even shadows can create a tempo.

We also want to stimulate curiosity in our audience. For this reason, we chose to include an interactive aspect on one of the screens to engage the viewer beyond just looking. A 360 video is a new piece of technology that our audience could engage with. We have one screen displaying a 360 viewpoint positioned between the figures, which can make the actors seem really close or really far away, challenging the eye to understand the environment in new ways. 

Link to videos:

https://vimeo.com/286148756

https://vimeo.com/286148402

From the Perspective of the Floor

During class writing exercises, I decided to think of a person walking around a gallery space from the perspective of the floor. I suppose the floor would be fairly objective, just observing without context or emotion. But what would the floor think about the way a person moves around the room?

Two feet step through the doorway.
They hover there.
Lost?
Uncomfortable?
A few more tentative steps forward and they're in the middle of the room.
They stand still.
Looking.
Thinking.
The feet move again.
They begin to drift around the room
from wall to wall.
Stopping occassionally
then moving on.

Photo by julian mora

New (To Me) Concepts

Interesting ideas that arose from the brief two readings and class discussion today:

• When you use multiple screens in a gallery space, the viewer becomes the editor. They put things together in their own logical order. They have control.

• Relation theory. Entaglement. Everything is connected. Everything affects everything else. For example, the students in a classroom and their engagement (talking, eye contact, nodding, making notes) impacts the flow of discussion from the tutor. Environmental factors such as room temperature influence how well the students can concentrate.

• The idea of post-human. Before, there was only the singular human perspective. Now, we can look outside ourselves. What possibilities does this open up? How will this go further in the future? 

The Challenges of Being a Non-fiction Writer

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters

After writing my response to a submission for brief one, I’ve been thinking about the limitations of being a non-fiction writer. Looking at the small number of videos that I could choose to respond to was a bit daunting at first. My preferred style of writing is review but we were specifically asked to respond to—not analyse or critique—the work so I had to think more loosely about how I could apply my skills to the task. I chose to follow a thread of memories that the emotion of the video brought to my mind.

I found this somewhat challenging until I started writing and found a flow. But I couldn’t help but wonder whether students who preferred to write fiction or poetry found this task easier. Rather than trying to relate what they saw to something else that already exists, they could create something entirely new. This made me curious about other ways I could respond to the videos while still staying in my chosen field of non-fiction. I’m interested so see how other students have responded to the videos and to challenge myself to respond in new ways in the coming briefs.

Brief 1 Part 2 - Response to Student Submissions

Link to the video I am responding to: https://vimeo.com/282659852

This short film prompted my memories of a particular feeling. I have felt it a few times in my life, but not often. It’s saved for the most unexpectedly happy occasions — times when everything feels simple.

My chest feels light and tingly. The usual weight of my body and mind — the tension in my shoulders and coiled around my spine, the ticking of my mind as it evaluates its present anxieties — is gone, not a flicker of it in my consciousness.

It feels like I could float off the edge of the earth at any time, despite being firmly detained by gravity.

I felt it when I was 11 years old. I lay on the floor of my lounge room, my back flat against the carpet and limbs sprawled out. The room was dark, save for the twinkling of the string of rainbow Christmas lights I had just hung around the border of our front window. It was December 1^st. I watched the lights in awe as they changed patterns—alternating blue and yellow then green and red, then all flashing wildly at once—my own aurora borealis. Despite their constant movements, everything else in the room was still and silent. I was pleasantly alone.

I felt it when I was 13 years old. On my birthday, I sat at the dining table, cutting slices of Freddo Frog ice-cream cake and passing them to my family members: one for my mum, one for my Nona and one for each of my two older sisters. This was the same ice-cream birthday cake that my mum bought me from the supermarket every year, but I appreciated it more this time than any other. The layers of white, pink and green ice-cream with cheap-tasting rainbow sprinkles on top were comforting . My family was sitting at the table, happily talking and eating cake. They were all here for me and no one was fighting.

I felt it when I was 18 years old. I sat cross-legged on a deck chair on the balcony of a hotel room in Coolangatta, talking to my boyfriend about anything that came to mind. I wore nothing but a bikini but the night air blanketed my exposed skin in both humidity and privacy. Flying foxes flew above us, their wings making swooping and flapping noises as they passed by. A flock of lorikeets nestled in the trees across the street, adorning the branches like brightly coloured Christmas ornaments. Having just graduated from high school and being far away from everything that I knew made everything feel uncomplicated and limitless.

This short film made me wonder how the dancer felt as she floated around the frame. Did she feel light and happiness in that moment? Or was it purely a performance?

Brief 1 Part 1 - Framing Figures Short Film

by Elizabeth and Christie

Here is a link to our submission for Brief 1:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=1_ziX_CL2vM&app=desktop 

We hope you like it!