For this assignment we have been placed into groups, mine consisting of Melanie and myself. During this module we are to work as a team in order to undertake research of existing art festivals internationally and the themes in which are chosen for these festivals. From this research we are then able to undertake our main task which is that of defining a location and theme of our festival. Included in this, we are to include three existing practitioners who's work will underpin the festival.
Group members are then to work on their own body of work in aid of the theme overarching the festival, which will go alongside with the three existing practitioners. From these bodies of work produced we then have to critically evaluate our own work in the wider context of photographic practice.
Festivals - Research
Exposure: Calgary Banff Canmore Photography Festival
Exposure is a non profitable festival established by the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. This was to increase the Calgary - Banff - Canmore community to examine, question and appreciate the medium of photography. This festival takes place each year of February. It provides a festival to the public that exhibits a range of photographs. Exposure has united educators, independent artists, and public and private galleries, aided by the generous support of businesses, media partners, and the City of Calgary. It also programs lectures, panel discussions, and workshops to
encourage more thoughtful image making by practicing photographers to raise important questions about photography.
encourage more thoughtful image making by practicing photographers to raise important questions about photography.
Mopla - Los Angeles
Month Of Photography Los Angeles (MOPLA) exhibits work during the April Month providing the public with a variety of photographic exhibits. MOPLA showcased the enormous photography community, inclusive of commercial, fine art and photojournalism. MOPLA aims to advance the celebration of photography for the professional, the enthusiast, the emoerging professional and also the collector.
This is aimed to address and acknowledge the role technology has played in photography in the last few years. This is from social networking to print-on-demand platforms and the internet. Photography is constantly evolving and this year's installment of MOPLA will explore these innovations.
Hyeres Fashion and Photography Festival
Every year this festival collects 10 young photographer and 10 designers to an international jury, where they have a unique opportunity to exhibit work with existing professional photographers. The festival lasts for a duration of around 3 days and the exhibition lasting a month. The festival presents at the Villa Noailles - the landmark cubist villa built in the 1920’s by Mallet-Stevens. Within this building, several exhibitions explore the permeating boundaries between art, photography and fashion.
All the exhibitions for this are all free to view, attracting a variety from many industries, such as, designers and museum directors. As well as the exhibits created by the 10 designers and photographers, their work is combined with that of the professionals within noth the chosen industries.
London International Documentary Festival
London International Documentary Festival (LIDF) is classed as the UK's largest documentary festival. This festival is ran yearly over a period of two weeks exhibiting work in many areas of London displaying snapshots of the contemporary world.
Working in association with the London Review of Books, this festival adopts questioning, critical attitude to cultural, social and political issues of the day. It engages the filmakers to their subjects and the audience to create a highly distinct atmosphere for cultural interaction.
LIDF finds films to be a powerful tool for interaction and connecting people, in order to allow debate and stir emotions. This is a festival in order to engage the audience into the films but also to demostrate a festival of ideas as well.
London Street Photography Festival
London Festival of Photography (LFP) is an environment iniviting previous masters of photography, areas for debate and discussion. At the same time it appreciates the work and creates educational opportunities. The festival collects a range of international photographers' works from different photographic practices attracting a large audience with many interests.'The festival is committed to preserving and celebrating photography as an accessible art form, important tool for communication and method to document and reflect on society and human behaviour.'
Street photography, documentary and conceptual projects are used as main interests for this festival. The festival takes place throughout June, each year.
With the increase in paranoia of the camera on within the streets nowadays, this is the festival which is trying to make a difference. This difference is in order for the photographer to gain rights in order to work on the streets in ease, taking away the constant disruption. This is a yearly campaign for the Stand Your Ground.
2012 Theme:
Inside out: Reflections on the public and the private
Maintaining strong links to street photography, the ultimate reflection of public life, the 2012 theme will allow the festival to expand and explore the changing boundaries between the public and the private, as both physical and metaphorical concepts, and the social consequences of these shifts. Considering the role of photography as a tool for documentation, expression and collaboration, the festival will present work responding to the theme in its broadest interpretation.Visa pour l'image
Visa pour l'Image is an international festival displaying work of photojournalists from around the world. This work is placed in many buildings within the city of Perpignan. The main aim of this festival is to demonstrate the importance of press photography worldwide in order for the audience to view how active that profession is.
Although technology has aided the availability of sophisticated technoloiges more accesible to the public, there will always be a need for the work to be done by qualified people in those areas. In this festival it aims to demonstrate this on the photojournalism side, with new enthusiastic photographers coming each year.
Visa pour l'Image allows the professional photojournalists the opportunity to meet up with many peers and new people in the profession to talk business, and increasing their contacts with the likes of agencies. The festival demonstrates varities of press photographs wheter they be local, national or international.
Noorderlicht International Photofestival
Noorderlicht was originally only for documentary photography, but now is open for photographers that have a collection of work. The festival is keen on including new developments, however keeping to trends.
Noorderlicht, photography is is seen as a socially inspired medium functioning as a window on the world. The festival believes that photography can produce social discussions, aiming to raise critical debates on issues current situations.
The festival is classed as a platform for new talent to the profession of photography, allowing links between photographers, curators and the media. Noorderlicht tend to work with non western photographers, in order to create a counterbalance between east and western photography. This is due to the sense that Western photography has such a large dominance within the world.
2011 - Metropolis
2010 - Country life in the Urban Age
2009 - Human Conditions
2008 - Behind Walls
2007 - Act of Faith
2006 - Another Asia
2012 Theme:
Landscape as the illusion of nature
Mankind arose from the land, and has now definitively left it behind him. The earth has been subdued and cultivated, man has left the countryside for the city. The preservation of our natural environment is but a footnote on the political agenda.
Nevertheless, the desire for contact with nature remains anchored in our genes. The urge to travel toward an unknown horizon is stubborn. Knowing that the realisation of this desire is an illusion, that every horizon lies within our grasp and every experience of the landscape is stage-managed, in no way detracts from this.
The main exhibition of the Noorderlicht Photofestival 2012 examines our ambiguous relation with nature. Where reality proves recalcitrant, the imagination of the artist dissolves the boundaries. The photographer/auteur can appropriate the landscape to share his or her – and at the same time, our – dreams, and permit us to travel in an unreal world for a moment.
Noorderlicht is looking for photography with a narrative or metaphorical character. In other words: not purely aesthetic photography devoted solely to recording the beauty of the landscape.
Inspirational Practitioners
Below are a few examples of photographers who I take inspiration from in aspects such as the way they work, the approach they take on their work and also the meaning behind the work itself.
Bahbak Hashemi Nezhad - Orderly Conduct
Website: http://www.bh-n.com/
Robert Polidori - After the Flood
'After the Flood' became an inspirational piece after I bought the book. With viewing these images hand held it allows the viewer to take in every aspect of the photographs. Within his images Polidoris has the ability to capture emotion and an invisible human presence. This work has inspired me within my own to take into consideration aspects such as the above when producing photographs that I create. Not only these aspects but also the amount of detail he has captured in the photographs and how focused the photographs are overall.
Polidori's work has been exhibited internationally in places such as, London, New York, Paris, Minneapolis and so on. His work has been published regularly in The New Yorker, and has also been featured in Geo, Architectural Digest Germany and Nest Magazine
Nina Katchadourian
Website: http://www.ninakatchadourian.com/
I find Nina Katchadourians's work interesting in the sense that she interferes with the imperfections of nature in order to correct them such as the examples above. From this, within my work it has allowed me to concentrate on the imperfections of reality and society and show these imperfections throughout my work.
Nina Katchadourian has exhibited many pieces of her work internationally, for example, New York, Sweden and Spain. Her work has been solo exhibited and also a part of group exhibitions for many years. She has been recognised by the work in which she has produced and this can be shown through the awards in which she has collected.
Peter Funch - Babel Tales
Peter Funch's website: http://www.peterfunch.com/index.php?/ongoing/babel-tales/
Danish photographer, Peter Funch began this 5 year project in the city of New York in 2006. This series of work is a collection of 40 panoramic photographs that demonstrates the similarites between human behaviour, and the area between fiction and reality.
The photographs are manipulated in order to capture an image where the people included in the photographs are producing the same actions or wearing similar clothes, for example all the people yawning in the same frame.
Funch's series of work Babel Tales has been a major inspiration and influence of mine throughout my work in past projects due to the way in which he cleverly interprets how very similar we are with the actions in which we do. The work demonstrates a sort of loss of identity throughout society and the need to conform within society, which is a topic I am fond of documenting in my work.
The manipulation of the photographs in the sense of adding people to images is something which I have attempted to produce in the past, however failed terribly. This area of the project is something which I don't interact with as much as the meaning behind the project.
Funch has been a part of solo and group exhibitions internationally in his career. From the work he has produced, Funch has collected many awards.
Jem Southam - The Painters Pool
Jem Southam's work became an interest in the last photography project in which I created, 'Morris House'. In this body of work, Southam creates an invisible human presence within the photographs in order to demonstrate that of his friend who painted this area for many years. In the photographs he demonstrates how nature will always be more powerful than man in the sense that within the duration that he created this project the artist's tools became less and less visable due to the sense of nature taking them.
Not only does this factor have a strong impact on the way in which I approach work, but also the sense that this body of work is not as aesthetically pleasing as to a one of landscape image of a coast for example. 'Painter's Pool' is a body of work which has an in depth meaning behind it, so the statement that goes along with the images plays a major role in the understanding of the project. This is an aspect which plays a large role within my own work. I wouldn't say that my work is stunning, I would say that the work has a in depth meaning in which to take the audience through a journey.
Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman has become an inspiration to my work due to an emulation project piece I have produced whilst at University. Her work has taught me that instead of relying on models (if I ever needed one) that to try it out with myself first. This work also increased my self confidence as a person. Within my photography overall, Sherman has allowed me to think into the way in which society see's things not just on a personal view. This has mainly been an inspiration from Sherman's 'Untitled Film Stills' series of work, where she demonstrated how society percieve women and the roles in which society believed a woman played, for example, a housewife, a mother, a sex object.
Below are four images which I have collected from google images and a youtube video clip taken from 'youtube'. The photographs have been included as I believe that they are going to have an impact on how our initial idea may adapt into different avenues. These photographs also give the group in which I am working ideas in order to approach our ideas, in the sense that we may be able to take aspects from these and put into our own work.
Nature vs technology - good example of how technology can possibly overtake our daily lives.
Princes Trust: Lost Generation campaign
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/sectors/not-for-profit/prince%E2%80%99s-trust-highlights-%E2%80%9Clost-generation%E2%80%9D/3032452.article
This has been included as a part of my research merely by chance. I happened to notice one of the posters as a part of this work whilst coming back from University one night. This campaign is to highlight to the public how over a million of the population aged 18 - 24 years old are out of work. Whilst looking on the Princes Trust website it has highlighted that the advertisemnet for this is to be shown in over 7,000 different locations of the country.
The campaign is advertised using a series of three different posters which include young models that have been hand painted by British body painter Emma Cammack. The models have been painted to camouflage with the background in order to give them this effect of them being invisible. The way Emma has created this effect is fitting with the sense of the 'lost generation'.
Sarah Clark, the Planning Partner at CHI&Partners stated;
"We wanted to dramatise the very real threat of our young people becoming a ‘Lost Generation’ by using a very simple and engaging visual technique. Working with real young people in the ads, who thankfully have received help through education, training and employment via The Prince's Trust, made the process all the more powerful for us, and hopefully for the public too."
A video of one of the photoshoots can be seen at;
http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/about_the_trust/headline_news/national_news_2011/1112_lost_generation.aspx
Princes Trust would be a charity in which to take into consideration as the main charity due to the fact of the Trust working with the young children of today's society. I find that the 'Lost Generation' campaign is fitting with the exhibition title and theme in which we are thinking about doing as we would like to demonstrate the loss of identity within society, so these two titles could work hand in hand.
Documentary Photographers:-
Below are a select few photographers which I have looked into briefly to capture an understanding of the way in which they work and also if these chosen photographers will fit into the festival which we aim to produce. For each I will be looking at reviews about their work and also a reasoning as to why I have included to look at them.
Dorothea Lange - Depression Era
Dorothea Lange was one of many photographers that produced commissioned work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Her work for the depression era focused upon the poor and unemployed who were suffering majorly by the collapse of America's economy. Her work of this demonstrates the body gestures and the livlihood of these people during this tough time. Lange's work is known as one of the influences of the development within modern documentary photography.
Linda Gordon, who wrote the book, 'Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits' agrees more with Paul Taylor's idea of politics, who believed in organised protests for the economic difficultiesis rather than Lange’s more passive approach.
“Her documentary photography was portrait photography,” Gordon says. “What made it different was its subjects, and thereby its politics.” This is demonstrated through her powerful and very effective photography work for this depression era. She enabled the emotions not just physically but mentally to seep through the photographs of the poor and unemployed. By this being showed it grabbed the audience further into the images.
Lange's work of this depression era could fit into our festival in the sense that we could use a timeline of photographers that have worked within social documentary and the public. Her work demonstrates the use of working with the public within photography. Her approach with these photographs of the poor and unemployed are a way in which we could work to produce our own images. Her appraoch to capture these photographs was to spend time with the indivudals themselves and not only document them image wise but she also recorded the conversations she had with the people.
As this body of work was commissioned, and we aim to produce a festival that is charity and a non profitable event, using Lange's work may contradict this idea.
- Dorothea Lange
Sally Mann - Immediate Family http://sallymann.com/
Sally Mann has been photographing within South America since the 1970's. She has a diverse range of photographic skills which can be seen in series covering portraiture, landscape, still life and architecture.
'Immediate Family' focuses upon her three children and her husband, documenting them playing, sleeping and eating. While touching upon the aspects of their daily lives, Mann also covers deeper areas within this series such as death and cultural perceptions of sexuality.
As Sally Mann continues to use the old way of processing images in the sense of film rather than digital, it has become the centre of making her photographs work. The landscpaes in which she chooses to include are concentrated on South American gothic. She has captured unreal areas that give the affect that they have resisted modernity due to documenting overgrown gardens nd humid swamps.
Philosopher, Roland Barthes once admitted his main fascination with photography "probably has to do with death". Through Mann's work, the viewer captures this sense that not only does she share this belief with Barthes, but she has made this to be her central focus upon her work.
In 2001 Mann was titled 'America's Best Photographer' by the magazine Time. She has also been subjects of major exhibitions such as the Institute of Contemporary Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, and Virginia Museum of Art. Her workis in many private and public collections internationally. Her work can been seen in places such as the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
This portraiture work would fit in with the festival in which we aim to produce due to the sense of the subject matter Sally Mann has chosen and the way in which Mann has photographed her three children and husband. If we chose to run along with the theme of the idea of photographing the children of todays society then I find that this work will be beneficial to our festival. This work will also link well with the idea of our event being a non profitable event and all the money going towards a charity for the children of today.
Peter Funch - Babel Tales
'Babel Tales' would fit into our festival idea due to the sense of working with the public within his own work. Due to the manipulation he uses to create these photographs I believe that this will be interesting to include due to the fact of bringing a new way of creating photography. It questions the viewer as to whether it is a photograph or a photo montage.
As we aim to produce our audience for this exhibition with a diverse range of art within the festival this will be beneficial to include his work within. Also as the venue for the festival is to be situated somewhere within a large city, the use of Funch using the public and a large city will work with our festival as well.
'Salary Man' was a Tokyo based project which concentrated upon the lifestyle of office workers. The body of work was spanned over 3 years (2008 - 2011). Their were two underlying meanings in which Bruno Quinquet wanted to investigate. Those being the masculinity and normality of Tokyo office workers, and secondly the constraints of portraits rights within candid street photography. Quinquet's work can be seen to meet in between a documentary style of street photography and contemporary art.
In western cultures, 'Salary Man' is interpreted as "a pitiable figure, a nameless, faceless, drone who slaves long hours for his company and receives low wages in return for life long employment." (http://www.brunoquinquet.com/pdf/HS163_pp08-19.pdf)
Quinquet has acheived the constraints of portraits rights by using the lack of the mens faces. Not only do the photographs demonstrate this, they also show a loss of identity throughout the men whilst they are in these uniforms.
Bruno Quinquet and his work 'Salary Man' will work as a part of our exhibition due to the sense of working with the public and the use of documentary photography throughout a certain country. With his work he demonstrates the lifestyle of Tokyo office workers. This coulod work into the festival due to working with a certain group of people within the public and also the sense that their face is never fully shown. This would work with organisations such as the Princes Trust with their 'Lost Generation' campaign.
'American Cities' demonstrates the infrastructure of societies and workers who live in these areas. The photographs included in this project allow the viewer to witness deserted cities that create a mattress for society. For this project Catherine Opie has concentrated on 5 major cities within America. Those cities being;
Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York , and St. Louis
The photographs have a lack of presence of the society within them, however at the same time the work creates an invisible personality and diversity about the communities that live in the selected areas. Opie has shown through this project that without the existent of these buildings, society wouldn't have the working environment that we do in today's society. The existance of jobs and that of buildings work in relation with each other. This meaning that one can't work without the other.
Within her work Opie blends areas of documentary photography with conceptual program. This allows Opie to emphasise the identity to the structures of the community in her this body of work. In the five cities which she has focused upon in 'American Cities', due to the vast amount of time spent within each city it has enabled her to capture the unique aspects that educate and recall the life in each.
'American Cities' would be a project in which to look at for our festival as the images show the area in which a human presence is meant to be situated in, however it isn't, so there is a sense of the 'Uncanny' within this work. Not only this, but her work would tie in well with the campaign 'Lost Generation' for the Princes Trust in the sense that the work demonstrates the area, and not the people.
Bahbak Hashemi Nezhad - Orderly Conduct
Bahbak Hashemi Nezhad produced the series 'Orderly Conduct' within 3 major cities internationally, those being Amsterdam, London and Tokyo. 'Orderly Conduct' has been included in exhibitions such as; The Show, Royal College of Art, London, 2008, Inside Design, Amsterdam 2008, and Format, Derby, 2011.
In this project Bahbak concentrated on investigating the behaviours and existence in which characterise us as a whole within a public area. He aims to bring to the audience in each photograph the similarities that we all have, however, due to the busy life styles that we live in the environment, the similarities are no longer seen due to over exposure.
This project and Peter Funch's 'Babel Tales' use a similar technique to each other in the sense of photo manipulation. Both of these projects question the audience as to whether this is true photography, in the sense that each single image is made up over many images (due to all the editing). This allows further debate about the work as it does not capture one area of time within a single photograph, but captures many periods of time within a certain location.
'Orderly Conduct' is a suitable project in which to take a look at not only for the photography aspect but also the meaning behind the work. The manipulation used within the project will be a good area to look into due to the fact that Mel and myself wish to include other areas of art into the exhibition. Although this is still photography, I find that it is another aspect of photography. In terms of the meaning behind the work, Bahbak is looking into the way in which society has very similar characteristics, however we believe that we are unique. This is fitting with the themes in which we are looking at as it demonstrates the public as a whole rather thn individual people.
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With looking further into the art world, Mel and myself have discovered many different aspects of art in which we find could be beneficial for a festival. To include art from a range of areas would bring together a wider selection of audience where they would have time to reflect and look upon other aspects of art which they would never consider before. Below are a few artists which have different approach to art than that of a photographer. I will be looking at reviews and also thinking of how the artists work could fit into our festival if chosen.Xia Xiao Wan
Within this work he concentrates on space within a certain area and creating a painting utilising the space given to it within a certain exhibition. Throughout the whole of these paintings there is an underlying theme which ties them all together. This theme being the sense of Wan exploring humanity and his influence by Western humanities whilst he was a student.
Wan is a member of the China Oil Painting Institute, the Beijing Artists Association and the Beijing Arts of Oil Painting Commission. To be a member of these organisations Wan states 'he must participate in many important exhibitions arranged by these organisations and be voted in by specialists committees'.
To create these beautiful 3D glass paintings Wan has not used the aid of digital technology for any of them. Each hand made piece he creates is only usually ever created once.
The work of Xia Xiao Wan could be fitting for our festival in demonstrating another aspect to art as the work in which he creates still has an aspect of imagery within it but in a painters way. As these are quite large pieces of work this would tie in more towards the end of the festival .
Christian Boltanksi
Christian Boltanski is recognised as a sculptor, painter, photographer and film maker within the world of art. His work became to the public attention within the 1960's with the short films which he created about him coming to terms with his childhood. Attempt at Reconstitution of Objects that Belonged to Christian Boltanski between 1948 and 1954 demonstrate and include flashbacks of time and life in a blurred visual. This idea of time and human existence remained the key theme within his later work also.
Boltanski within his work aims to create both a beginning and an end drawing through a range of emotions and shock. He believes that he is a traditional artist in the sense that he loves to create and experiment with painting. Boltanski demonstrates that art is either to investigate time or space on any aspect.
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| Autel de Lycée Chases 1986 - 87 |
Autel de Lycée Chases 1986 - 87 is an example of one of Boltanski's many installations pieces with demonstrates this idea of reconstructing the past. Within this piece he has selected portrait photographs of people which are above a box of stacked tin boxes. The photographs included in this work are those of school photographs of Jewish students graduating in the year of 1931.Installation pieces like this one allow an insight and a rememberance to the mass murder of the Jews by the Nazis.
Boltanski's work I believe would fit into our festival due to the fact that he includes digital imagery in many pieces of works in which he creates. He works with a range of mixed media using various different genres throughout his work. As with the work, The Reserve of Dead Swiss (1990) and Autel de Lycée Chases 1986 - 87 are fitting with the festival themes and titles that we are researching due to the sense of people however in a different light, a way in which we don't see people on a day to day basis, which could open routes for debate within the festival. His work states a rememberance of people throughout history, connecting a story and emotion to the viewer. Sonic art
http://2010.sonicacts.com/ - this is a link to a festival website which includes Sonic art situated in Amsterdam
Sonic Acts XIII is a festival which includes that of sonic art. 'The Poetics of Space', Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst prouced a series of artworks and installations pieces that investigated our experience of space. This became the headlining exhibition for the Sonic Acts XIII for February to investigate the spacial awareness within art.
From looking at reviews about Sonic Arts work it is apparent that it is very free and experimental that can include a lot of interaction between the viewer and the art work itself. This is a factor in which I like about the work as it demonstrates that there is no right or wrong way of approaching art.
Pieces such as these would tie in with the festival in which we aim to achieve as it demonstrates a genre of art that not many people may have experienced before, and will also demonstrate how sound can influence a piece of art. Work that demonstrate Sonic Art would be fitting for our festival as they could demonstrate the idea of a lost identity in the sense of using sound and lights to demonstrate a human presence but the person are unsure of what presence.
I personally find this work to be interesting, however slightly confusing whilst reading about how works. I think that the only way to understand this new development of art is to go and witness the pieces of work available to experience for myself.
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Out of the artists chosen looked upon to provide a variety to the festival I believe that Christian Boltanski would be more beneficial to include with the theme that we are looking upon. The way that he works with human identities but within the passed I find to be a unique approach to art. Not only that but the installation pieces that he has created have a very indepth meaning with great emotion behind. The art works also create a social awareness and also a rememberance about the innocent Jews that suffered greatly within the Holocaust.
Reclaim the night: http://www.reclaimthenight.org/
Reclaim the Night produces marches that that are dedicated for women only situated within London. These marches are to 'mark the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and to shout a loud NO to male violence and NO to cuts to women’s services.'
(http://www.reclaimthenight.org/) All women are welcome to their marches of any age, culture, disabled, non - disabled and so on. This is an organisation that Mel and myself have taken into consideration for the main charity of the event. However, thinking carefully about the idea we are going along with I don't find that it would be beneficial to concentrate on an organisation that concentrates on one gender. I understand why they do the marches but I find that it would be better to choose a charity or organisation that concentrates on both genders in order for gender equality.
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Revised Idea:-
From our original idea we felt that it was very broad and needed narrowing down in order for the festival idea to work and be functional. For our revised idea we have decided to stick to a social/ political documentary photography in order to capture 'Space and Time'. Within 'Space and Time' we aim to focus upon the obscurities between busyness and empty spaces with the aid of sound and installations.
This event is going to be charitable and a non-profitable event. The idea in order to make money for the charity is that we would ask the practitioners to auction off one of their pieces of photography/art installation and the money made from this auction would go in aid of the charity chosen for the festival.
We haven't yet come up with a definate venue for this festival, however we aim to keep the festival in quite a large city in order to attract a large audience for the festival and for it to be a great success. The keynote practitioners we have chosen for the festival are as follows;
1. Catherine Opie
2. Christian Boltanski
3. Peter Funch
1. Busy streets/ area - Peter Funch 'Babel Tales'
2. Focusing on one individual in these environments - Melanie (emulation of Bruno Quinquets work
'Salary Man')
3. Empty space - Catherine Opie 'American Cities'
4. Personal space - Katie (influenced by the work of Catherine Opie 'American Cities')
5. Installation / interactive, sensor responsive - Christian Boltanski
Ideas for own pieces for exhibition - working with the journey
1. Mel will be producing an emulation piece in response to Bruno Quinquets work
2. I will be producing a body of work in opposition to Catherine Opie in the sense of creating
photographs representing 'Space and Time', but personal space.
____________________________________With further development from this idea, we have altered the 3 practitioners by including Bruno Quinquet in instead of Christian Boltanksi. As this is a photographic festival we feel that Bruno's work would be more suited with the theme than that of Boltanski. This also allows a flow within the festival in sense that our work can be exhibited after that of the three existing practitioners. From this, our keynote practitioners for our festival are going to be as follows;
1. Peter Funch
2. Bruno Quinquet
3. Catherine Opie
Order of our festival:1. Busy streets/ area - Peter Funch 'Babel Tales'
2. Focusing on one individual in these environments - Bruno Quinquets 'Salary Man'
3. Empty space - Catherine Opie 'American Cities'
4. Personal space - Katie (influenced by the work of Catherine Opie 'American Cities')
5. Digital media piece - Melanie
Title Ideas:
1. Slaves to Society
From this idea we have come to the conclusion that 'Time and Space' will be our overall theme for the festival and the journey in which we are creating by using these three practitioners and the work of our own will produce one sub section of this festival. Our title for the festival is going to be 'Identity'.
Peter Funch - Babel Tales
For this work Babel Tales Funch was inspired through ideas and media approaches such as film, novels and paintings. Everyday mundane events were also within this influence on his work. Funch merges documentary photography and manipulated photography to create these phenonimal images that make the viewer take an interest and a great amount of time observing the work. It has been critically reviewed in as to him pushing the boundaries of photography in the sense that this work opposes the tradition of photography, that being recording one moment in time. For his work Funch has merged many photographs together to represent many moments of time within one.
Funch chose to complete this series of work within Manhattan due to the vast amount of stories the city has to offer, the history and mystery of the island. Funch demonstrates how a location and a diverse range of people can make an image more interesting to look at for a viewer.
Peter Funch demonstrates 'Time and Space' within his work in simplistic ways. It can be shown that throughout the photographs of this series that Space is investigated in two different ways in the sense of the space and location he chose to take the photographs and also the personal space that people have within the shots. Most of the time, this space is limited.
Time can be demonstrated through the manipulation process of the work, by including many different photographs within one location to make one image. This allows a range of different times within one photograph.
Babel Tales is an interesting piece of work which ties in well with the title of our festival, 'Identity' as it demonstrates the identity of the public as a whole. This said due to the fact that within the photographs, Funch has shown the similarities between us all with the actions in which we complete on a day to day basis. As many of us believe that we are unique and don't conform to society, Funch's work opposes this idea and shows that we aren't as unique as we believe we are.
“Coincidence in daily life will always surprise you,” - Peter Funch
Salaryman can be seen as a narrative piece of photography exploring the idea of identity and also opposing identity by hiding the faces of the officeworkers included in the shots. From 2008 when the 3 year project began for Quinquet, the work documented a weekly uninterrupted office workers schedule. This work can refer to many different aspects, such as the turn of seasons, social and ritual events, and especially to the culture and beliefs of Japan as a whole.
As Bruno was born in France, he was faced with privacy laws that made street photography particularly hard to achieve. For a photography to be taken, the people situated within the image had to be asked for permission first. Similarly to France this is what Quinquet faced in Japan. To overcome this, rather than ignoring the restriction, he made sure that the tension between public and private areas where the centre piece to his project.
To work with this restriction rather than against it, Quinquet has cleverly kept the identity of the subject out of the photographs. By using objects and natural occurances such as; smoke, steamy windows, flowers and so on, the photographs gain a mystery within them as we are limited to the amount of identity available to us. By doing this Quinquet has confined the officeworkers to the surroundings, demonstrating that alien existant to the rest of the Japanese society.
'Time and Space' can be demonstrated throughout Quinquets Salaryman project due to the investigation of the city Tokyo used in this project. He investigates Time by recording a certain time within reality in a comtemporary light, in which future photographers, artists and viewers will be able to look back upon to question why Quinquet chose to shoot these indivudals the way he did.To work with this restriction rather than against it, Quinquet has cleverly kept the identity of the subject out of the photographs. By using objects and natural occurances such as; smoke, steamy windows, flowers and so on, the photographs gain a mystery within them as we are limited to the amount of identity available to us. By doing this Quinquet has confined the officeworkers to the surroundings, demonstrating that alien existant to the rest of the Japanese society.
Identity is percieved within Quinquets work by focusing upon indivudal Tokyo office workers within their work uniforms in each shot. Quinquet has hidden their identity in order to question the rights of street photography. This fits into the idea that we have for our festival due to the journey in which we aim to create, that of going from a large space which is highly populated, to that of a personal intimate space. His work also demonstrates loss of identity through routine.
Catherine Opie - American Cities
American Cites is a seires of black and white panoramic photographs of architecture based within 5 major cities of America. These being; Los Angeles, St. Louis, Minneapolis, New York, and Chicago. Due to the lenght of time she spent within each city, this enabled her to capture the unique aspects for each, for example in Los Angeles she concentrated on the mini-malls. The photographs produced for this series of work demonstrated to the viewer the cities in a deserted state showing a sense of the uncanny in this project. This work not only shows a cities archititecture, but its character and the diversity of the people that live within these chosen cities. This work reveals the 5 majors cities identities.
Opie has had an interest in the formation of communites and how the architecture that is built within an area affects their formation as a community. The areas chosen for this series of work where intentionally made to be deserted areas as Opies work is all about the architecture of the cities. If the work had the sense of people within them, there is that fear of the work turning into street photography and taking the focus off what the work is really all about. For this project Catherine Opie has not digitally manipulated the photographs in anyway to create this deserted look, she simply waited for the areas to have no one in them.
Opie has left all the photographs of American Cities untitled due to her wanting to connect with the photographs with the audiences. As a part of this untitled, Opie's aims to interact with the auidence as a sort of recognition test, and the connection in which the viewer has with the photos on a personal level.
Opie demonstrates the use of Time and Space in her work due to the spatial awareness the veiwer is given to investigate and also a period of time that gives the cities a some what deserted feel to them.
American Cities can be viewed as demonstrating Identity investigating due to the loss od identity throughout the images. Her work gives an uncomfortable and unusual feeling due to the fact that within the cities that she has concentrated on in the USA there would normally be situated wihtin those scenes members of the public. Within her work she opposes this.
Above is a mind map for my initial idea for my own piece for the festival. Although this mind map looks basic it is a starting point for me to develop my idea further and find a more in depth meaning to the work in which I produce.
Development on own work:
For the piece of work I am going to produce for this festival I aim to continue the journey going from a large public space to a intimate personal space. This is going to be acheived by creating a series of photographs that demonstrate an individuals personal space. I aim to capture an invisible human presense in my photographs similar to that of Catherine Opie.
Within this I am going to research into personal spaces and escapism, using google images and flickr to see how people have demonstrated this in their own photos. I am also going to try and research people that have shown escapism and personal space in their own work.
Personal space
This link above is to a flickr page, which shows a way in which a person has demonstrated a personal space using a personal object. Although this looks very mundane within the photograph, the photograph has quite a sentimental value to it due to the fact that the chair does look like it should be situated within that room. The image doesn't look staged in anyway at all.
Below are photographs from google images under the search 'Personal Space'
This is an architecture exhibition which has three archtitecture pieces working around the theme 'Personal Space'. The work included in this exhibtion aims to educate, challenge and questions not only the viewers but also the idea of contemporary architecture. This will be a good reference point to look back onto when creating my own photography work.
Escapism
Definition:
the avoidance of reality by absorption of the mind in entertainment or in an imaginative situation, activity, etc. [online] (available at:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/escapism?s=t)
Below are photographs from google images under the search 'Escapism'
In order to keep fitting with the journey we aim to achieve in this festival, I need to make sure that the photographs only use the space and not include people within. What I would however like to capture is that of the human presence within the images.
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Further devlopment on own idea: From the previous idea I have thought of taking my work on it's own journey. This journey would consist of taking the viewer through a large personal space, which includes many different personal items, gradually going to a small tight personal space which has barely any items or suggestion that it is a room in which is a part of a home. This is to show that we all have a personal space to go back to after the mundane routines we do, however with the pressures of today's society and the busy lifestyle that we live in, I believe that this space gets utilised less and less. This enables that loss of identity throughout society as we don't have enough leisure time to be ourselves.
Film examples -
Alice in Wonderland
Below are two youtube video clips from the 1951 Alice in Wonderland film. These two clips have been chosen as they demonstrate Alice becoming either too small for the space or too large. Although this is Alice that grows or shrinks within the film, this has a relevance to my work due to the fact that the idea I aim to get across to the public is that by the rooms shrinking in size and lesser objects are included as they shrink the less our personal space gets utilised.
Alice in Wonderland 1951 - Alice grows: -
Alice in Wonderland 1951 - Alice growing and shrinking:-
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Below is a clip from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory which includes the scene of the entry to the chocolate room. Within this scene it demonstrates the corridor slowly shrinking, decreasing the size of the personal space the people have within that area.
This clip is relevant to the idea I have as although this is a corridor and not a room it still demonstrates the decrease in room size throughout film. In my work I aim to do this, however taking still shots of rooms decreasing in size and reducing the amount of personal objects included in them each time the room size decreases.
Entry to the chocolate room:-
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For my own idea I have come up with two further developmental ideas in which to work along with, those being the following;
- To choose a specific room in houses to demonstrate personal space which we all have.
- To take the photographs from a CCTV point of view to create the viewers to question the work as to why they have been shot from that height.- In order to make this series of work include a healthy amount of photographs I am going to shoot around 5 - 8 different houses. Not only will the viewer be able to see the point I aim to bring across but there will be a consistancy throughout the work.- This approach demonstrates surveillance and the loss of identity working together.Questions us as to how long will it be until we are watched everywhere?
Hilla and Bernd Becher
German artists Bernd and Hilla Becher began working together in 1959. These two photographers are best known for their industrial typologies around Europe and the U.S.A, who have photographed these subjects for over 40 years. Simplicity is added to these typologies due to the frontal viewpoint of each individual image included in the different grids. The body of work allows the audience to interact with the typologies to see the difference between the different structures that work in the same way. Complexity is added to these images by the amount of detail the Becher's have collected in the photographs, which add a sort of richenss to the work as a whole.
The work of the Bechers became an important influence to artists that we know today such as Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth. This is due to the fact that these three were taught by Bernd Becher at the Düsseldorf Art Academy.
For each photograph for the typologies they use the same manner for each structure they photograph. This manner being the a frontal angle of the structure in order to provide a clear and objective documentation to the viewer, the building centralised in all the photographs and somewhat removed from its environment. Becher's typologies demonstrate the diversity of objects that are built to do the same jobs in a simplistic manner.
Bernd and Hilla Becher is a relevant area for research due to the simplistic approach in which they use throughout their work and also the way they create their work. Within my work I aim to capture each room from an angle that is the same or very similar in order to capture as much detail as I can within the frames I produce.
Bernd and Hilla Becher is a relevant area for research due to the simplistic approach in which they use throughout their work and also the way they create their work. Within my work I aim to capture each room from an angle that is the same or very similar in order to capture as much detail as I can within the frames I produce.
Juergen Chill - Zellen
Zellen is a series of colour documentary photography with an overhead view of prison cells. This work demonstrates the way in which an in which individuals arrange their personal belongings in their cell. From looking at the work, the viewer may think that this is a documentary of a college dormatory or a budget hostel without the aid of the explanatory text. It questions us as to the life in which criminals are given and how much they have within these prisons, in the sense that do they actually recieve enough punishment for the crimes they have committed?
Chill investigates and examines the area of identity through personal belongings and the specific organisation of these belongings. His work combines both still life and portraiture demonstrating the life of a prisoner. Through this work Chill clearly demonstrates the relationship between identity, privacy and control within prison life.
Juergen Chill's work is relevant as a research area due to the meaning behind the work and what he demonstrates within this series. His way of photographing these personal spaces is interesting due to the overhead view which gives an almost google earth feel to it.
Zellen is a series of colour documentary photography with an overhead view of prison cells. This work demonstrates the way in which an in which individuals arrange their personal belongings in their cell. From looking at the work, the viewer may think that this is a documentary of a college dormatory or a budget hostel without the aid of the explanatory text. It questions us as to the life in which criminals are given and how much they have within these prisons, in the sense that do they actually recieve enough punishment for the crimes they have committed?Chill investigates and examines the area of identity through personal belongings and the specific organisation of these belongings. His work combines both still life and portraiture demonstrating the life of a prisoner. Through this work Chill clearly demonstrates the relationship between identity, privacy and control within prison life.
Juergen Chill's work is relevant as a research area due to the meaning behind the work and what he demonstrates within this series. His way of photographing these personal spaces is interesting due to the overhead view which gives an almost google earth feel to it.
2. To produce a series of work that takes the viewer through a journey of loss of identity, which will be demonstrated by going from a large personal space to a small personal space. In the large space there will be a vast amount of personal possessions in order to show that the room is used and lived in a lot. As the space starts to become smaller I am going to include less and less things. This demonstrates the loss of identity in the sense that as we all start to a life where we have a busy working life, we don't have much time to utilise these personal spaces as much as they should be used. This is why the rooms slowly would decrease in size and less personal possessions would be included in the shots.
Below is my first photo shoot for this module. In this shoot I have gone with the first idea in the sense of surveillance within the home. I have selected two shots of each example of the different rooms. These photographs haven't been edited and have been shot with a kit lens to get an initial idea on how to adapt the idea.
Bathroom
Bedroom
Front room
Kitchen
In my next shoot I am going explore more houses to document in the same style as these and also different angles and different areas to focus upon within the photographs. Within the above idea I am also going to be considering the layout of how to present this possible of body of work and how it will catch the audiences eye. These ideas will be posted later on in the blog.
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Further Development on Ideas:
I have two approaches in which I am going to experiment within in order to develop my piece of work: First approach:
I am going to create panoramic shots of the front room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchens within a series of different houses. This is to capture the motion of a CCTV camera within society. In the photographs I want to include a certain element to them in order to create a human presense. For example, the bathroom, have the bath running.
The lighting will either be artificial or natural, which I aim to create a subtle hint in order for the viewer to understand the photographs.
Initial examples of the panoramas:
The 3 examples above are intial ideas of how I would produce the panoramas. As I have never produced panoramic shots before I need to consider many aspects of the photographs such as, the lighting, the angling of the images. I also need to consider that the photos are level. In these examples I haven't included the hints of a human presense within the images. This is something in which I am going to create in further development.
The third example isn't set to panoramic, however it was meant to be. I am going to upload my initial idea of the bathroom panoramic shot when further on in my blog. However, from this layout of the edited piece, it almost reminds me of the work of David Hockney and his joiner prints.
To make a broader way of looking at this approach I am going to try the idea of the human presence in the sense of an action being taken in the shot, however I am also going to experiment with having the room with no action taken in order to see which approach looks better.
Second Approach:
Take photographs of the whole room using a wide angle lens. In the photographs I want to include a certain element to them in order to create a human presense. For example, the bathroom, have the bath running. The lighting will either be artificial or natural, which I aim to create a subtle hint in order for the viewer to understand the photographs.
Bathroom
Kitchen
These photographs are the same as the ones previously loaded onto my blog. These have been uploaded again in order to demonstrate my second approach within my final ideas. From these images I am going to include the human presence/ actions. This will be shown by by using subtle lighting on these actions to with the use of either natural or artificial lighting.
From these initial photographs produced I am going to develop them by using a wide angle lens in order to include more of the environment within the photographs. I am going to use around 8 different houses to demonstrate how our personal spaces include the same rooms however they are indivudual in their own ways, for example set up of the rooms.
First approach development:
House 1
Bathroom
Bedroom
Front Room
Kitchen
House 2
Bedroom
Front Room
Kitchen
For this house, I have tried to do a panoramic for the bathroom however due to the overall size of the bathroom and the shape, the panoramic I attempted to do looked to be that of a normal photograph.
House 3:
Bathroom
Bedroom
Front Room
Kitchen
Second approach development:
All these photographs have been left un-edited in order to show the photographs without manipulation. These images that have been uploaded are to show the ideas I have come up with so far and the way in which I aim to take them.
House 1;
Bedroom:
Front Room:
Kitchen:
House 2:
Bathroom
Bedroom
Front Room
Kitchen
House 3:
Bathroom
Bedroom
Front Room
Kitchen
House 4:
Bathroom
Bedroom
Front Room
Kitchen
Due to the time left within this module, I find that to produce both approaches within 8 different houses and also the editing time for both is too ambitious. From this, I am going to shoot between 4 - 6 houses for both approaches.
Neeta Madahar - Sustenance 2003
Sustenance is a series of work where Madahar has set up a camera within her window and focused it upon the trees in her garden. For a period of over a year she documented the activity of birds that visited the bird feeders. This project was aimed to explore the issues of home, migration and belonging. With the project lasting over a year Madahar was able to capture this activity over all four seasons, investigating and underlying theme of habit, change and consistency.
Sustenance is relevant to the project in which I am persuing with at the moment due to the fact of the theme in which she is working around and also the issues of home, migration and belonging. As I aim to photograph a humans personal space (that being their home) it shares aspects of which Madahar was investigating within her work.
Penny Klepuszewska - Living Arrangements
Penny Klepuszewska is a UK based photographer where her current project, Living Arrangements explores how the changing patterns in family life have increased the number of elderly people living alone. This seires focuses on documenting the lives of older men and women, who are more than often through the bereavement process coping with the lonliness that it has left them with. Klepuszewska is interested mainly in revealing everyday scenarios that go unnoticed or are hidden from view. I find this relevant to my work as what I aim to capture is the sense of actions that we are unaware of within our personal space.
Living Arrangements is a relevant project to look upon when creating my own work due to the composition and lighting she has included in her images. Whilst she documents that of the older men and women she also documents objects within their homes. This is the area in which I find the most interesting and the emotion she has captures in these documentations by the lighting being souly on the objects. The images give the audience a sense of the character that these objects are of.
From the photographs of the objects I can take into consideration for my own work how I choose certain objects to portray a certain characteristic about a human without their presence being in the photographs.
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For each house I have decided to create a theme in order to capture a consistancy between all the photographs per house. I find that this still ties in with the underlying theme of Identity, however it allows the viewer to question the work as to why all the photos for each house have a particular theme within. Not only does this open questions for the viewer but it adds the effect of those rooms being a part of one home due to the sense that they all have this consistancy. Without them it could be argued that the rooms could be of a variety of houses.
Themes for houses:
House 1 - Equipment turned on, for example, a computer, the oven
House 2 - Kids toys left abandoned in each room
House 3 - Areas open, for example, cupboard doors, fridge door
House 4 - Candles lit within each room
With this idea I have decided to shoot the rooms with just a wide angle lens instead of creating the panoramic shots. The reason behind this is due to my lack of experience in creating panoramic shots, and also I find that with the idea of surveillance a wide angle shot would be more appropriate due to this showing a screen shot of what it would take in a home environment.
In this idea I am going to produce both night and day shots. Two of the houses will be shot during the day and two shot at night. This is to show the personal space during the day and night. Not only this, but it would be more realistic to show this within the work, as not many people are at home during the day.
Below are my initial images for the my recent idea. The images under each section on the top are those unedited. Underneath them are the edited versions of those as well.
House 2 - Kids toys
Bathroom
Bedroom
Front Room
Kitchen
House 3 - Openings
Bathroom
Bedroom
Front Room
Kitchen
House 4 - Candles
Bathroom
Bedroom
Front Room
Kitchen
After the feedback session given today I am going to scrap the idea of choosing a certain theme throughout each household. Instead I am going to refer back to routines which are almost like rituals within each house. This can be shown by how a certain person's routine is for making a cup of tea, or the way in which they organise their room.
I am also going to produce more work of the previous idea in the sense of documenting a person's house the way that they have left it. To oppose this idea I am also going to attempt to photograph the rooms when they are spotless and very minimal in order to work with the theme 'Loss of Identity'.
Dan Holdsworth
Dan Holdsworth is a British landscape photographer, whose work has been exhibited internationally at many galleries including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. Holdsworth believes that abstract brings things into a deeper meaning and relationship between the viewer and the piece of work in terms of a perceptual level. This is why documenting the human figure is not an interest of Holdsworth's.
As we live in an image-led world in todays society, Holdsworth aims to create new imahes that the audience can carry with them and reflect upon rather than cross referencing them with every other image they have within their thought process. Within his images he investigates the unknown, exploring the idea of time, space and the limits of ordinary perception using traditional photographic methods.
His somewhat science fiction filmake photographic shots are taken with long exposures, which capture recognisable features such as cars, buildings aeroplanes and so on within the distant of the photos. The photographs are not the result of computer manipulation but natural occurances.
Dan Holdsworth's approach and his work are relevant to the work in which I am producing for this module as he investigates time and space in his work on a large landscape aspect of photography. Within my work I aim to explore Time and Space on a smaller scale within a personal home. I find that Holdsworht's work is an area in which I can relfect upon in terms of developing my idea in respect to possibly trying long exposure within my own work for example.
Micheal Wesely - Open Shutter
German photographer Micheal Wesely produced a project 'Open Shutter' which documents the whole construction of the Museum of Modern Art as single three year exposures. During 2001, MOMA under went a 3 year renovation and expantion process, where they invited Wesely to document this significant process with his unique vision.
When the work was exhibited in the MOMA after this process it consisted of three wall sized images where the intricate details where apparent to the viewer. Ghostly images of the building as it is constructed and streaks of sunshine are just two examples of what can be seen within the images.
"All photography is always about understanding or realizing certain things, and for that reason it has always been appreciated. It delivers information that gives you another vision or perspective." -Micheal WeselyWesely's work is a relevant reference area for me with the work in which I am concetrating on due to the way in which he captures a particular space over a long period of time. An approach towards my work is to create a sort of time lapse or have the camera on a long exposure to give this 'ghostly' feel to the work in which I come out with at the end of this module.
Routine's
The set way of how people set certain things out in order to complete a task:
House 4:
Bathroom - shower time
Bedroom - work
Front Room - marking
Kitchen - brew up
Typologies of tea
For this approach I am going to photograph the set up of how people make a cup of tea and the layout they create on a work surface. For this I am going to be shooting the objects from different angles, one from the camera almost resting on the work surface used and the second at a higher angle than the objects. For this approach I am going to ask the people to choose their favourite cup that they always use. This will add more personality within the shots.
Time lapse
I am going to attempt to create a time lapse as well as an experimental piece in order to see if this is successful or not. The time lapse will be over a 24 hour period, taking a photograph every 15 minutes. This time laspe is an investigation piece within one room of a house to see how objects are moved slightly or majorly within that particular room.
As I have never produced one of these before this could be a developmental area in which I may be able to produce better with more experience in projects on a later date.
Sam Taylor Wood - decomposing fruit
Sunset to Sunrise - Clip from Youtube
Typologies of tea:
Below are some examples of the work in which I have produced for the typologies of tea. The unedited are on the left side and the edited ones are on the right. For this typologies of tea I have used two different angles; one where the camera is almost resting on the work surface, the second where the camera is higher up than the objects included in the images.
Time Lapse:
I have created a 12 hour time lapse at the moment. This can be seen underneath. I have taken out the clips that include people within them as I don't want the human presense within my work.
12 hour:
Development of ideas:
Typologies of Tea - From the work in which I have put together for the feedback session, it has become apparent that this is a whole new project within itself. From this feedback I am going to continue this within my own time and create my own typologies of tea where I focus upon the objects and materials used to make a cup of tea. These will be taken out of the environment they are currently in and put in a set up with a plain background (almost studio work) and look at the differences within them for example, with the tea bags or the teaspoons that people use.
Time lapses - The time lapses are what I am going to development and experiment further with for the remainder of this project. I am going to create the following time lapses;
- 24 hour
- 12 hour
- 6 hour
- 4 hour
- 2 hour
12 Hour time lapse - slowed down
I have experimented with slowing areas of the time lapse down and also increasing the speed on areas to see what affect this has on the overall theme. The experimentation of this has gained myself to have more knowledge within the program I am using to create this final piece and has allowed me to adapt more ideas that may visually work better for the idea and meaning I aim to bring across within my work.
The work of Penny Klepuszewska is relevant to this piece of work as it demonstrates changes within one room that we are unaware of from a CCTV point of view. Klepuszewska's work comes into this due to her documenting the everyday events which people may not be aware of.
Paranormal activity 2
I have included this trailer of Paranormal Activity 2 as it demonstrates surveillance within a persons house for a different reason to that of mine. This has relevance as it is a reference point in which I can look back on to see the quality of how the film has been set and also the angling in order to enable me to further my development throughout my project.
Change blindness
Below are links to youtube videos which demonstrate this idea of change blindness. Change blindness is to investigate on how much information we actually take in rather than how much we believe we take in. Its all about the perception of an image and the way we interpret it or a situation for that matter.
Within this mini clip example I have experimented with the opacity changing from two frames within the clip. As you can see from the example above the first frame slowly fades into the secon. I find this affect useful, however this doesn't demonstrate the theme in which I aim to create within my work as much as I would like to. This affect almost gives that of a ghostly feel to it. The work of Micheal Wesley is relevant to this piece of work due to the opacity change in which he has working within his pieces of work. Opacity change - 2 frames slowed down This mini clip is using the two frames as the one above but slowed down over a longer period of time. I don't find this as affective as the duration is too long, however I do like this simplistic technique. These two examples demonstrate areas in which I have considered for my mini time lapse creation, and a higher understanding of the program in which I am using. Flashes- 3 frames This is a mini clip using an example of three frames however two of the frames have been duplicated a various amount of times. Within this example I have used a a blank black frame between each image frame. This refers to the change blindness research in which I have looked into. I find that thisties in well with the theme in which I aim to percieve as my final piece. Not only this but it also interacts with the audience greatly and allows them almost realise how we don't take in a much information as we think we do. This video piece demonstrates a duration of time over a period of different frames with the underlying interest in identity. Constant lighting - Flashes 24 Hour - Flashes (1) 24 Hour - Flashes (2) 12 Hour - Flashes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The work with the flashes I find demonstrates a persons perception and investigates how much information we take in. This is a potential future project in which to investigate further. 4 Hour with opacity change Final Piece Below is my final outcome for this module. The work demonstrates 'Time and Space' on an observation aspect throughout a CCTV point of view within a personal space. It raises questions to the public as to how long it may be before our personal space doesn't become our own personal space and that begins to be surveyed such as that of Big Brother. As our houses are not viewed at this view point or looked back upon such as this 4 hour period I have selected for the time lapse, it is quite unnerving to witness. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
