Overall I found this semester very enthralling, despire bouts of, I would say, unproductivity and lack of attention. I think that nonetheless, I gained an understanding in this studio about a creative praxis I had never previously explored, and I am very thankful for that. This undeniably relies on the framework and foundation of our exploration of the relationship between the terms noticing, nonfiction and documentary.

I think this semester I really homed in on understanding how much of an antonym “noticing” could be to the word “vacant”. All of us would be so lacking if we weren’t noticing and marking more, as so much would be lost in our own lived experiences if we didn’t pay more attention to the things that we found interesting. I would posit that in the spectrum that exists in the realm of being vacant and fully noticing, there is an amount of noticing one does at a baseline level, but to fully notice, to subscribe to marking, noticing and recording, is to notice at a standard that exceeds this baseline. No Vacancy.

In the final assignment, I would say that my understanding of the boundaries (or lack thereof) of non-fiction really had an emphasis. There is something about Korsakow I think, in its synergistic qualities for non-fiction works, and the choose-your-own-adventure design of it all, such that I could choose any such video, and in clicking as much, simulate several squash points that could in turn simulate more? That is, at least what I would argue is something I noticed came from this assignment, that each Korsakow outcome was manufacturing a moment in squash, truly imaginative.

I think for me I ended up exploring a few noticing processes in the end, I would say that my understanding of lingering improved greatly, as each video in the Korsakow part of exploring squash allowed me to contextualise further how I could linger while moving, something I had noted was worth trying to further understand. I would say that the audiovisual part of exploring squash allowed me to dabble in wondering, as I was considering certain outcomes throughout my creative process that confront the hypothetical situations that I had been constantly considering for the assignment. I think there would even be an applicable argument that the Korsakow part is the fully formed conception of my question to recreating the experience of playing squash, and the video part almost serves as a visual representation of all the hypothetical thoughts that I had been laying down trying to conceptualise my project into fruition.

In terms of learning outcomes, I would say if I had to think of only three:

• Allow one to understand and learn the dichotomy that exists between non-fiction and documentary

I’ve come to really understand the dichotomy that can exist between non-fiction and documentary, which is something I had never previously considered prior. I had also previously thought of non-fiction, in needing to be “real” and not fictional, as way more limited that I now feel it is. I think this comes from an acceptance and understanding that things can be real, but explored so much more thoroughly than we do, at our usual baseline of noticing.

• Encourage one to explore beyond the boundaries of baseline noticing

As I have been opining about, I would argue that Seeing the Unseen, in its entirely was constantly pushing those that undertook the course to transcend beyond the bassline nature of their own lived experience. Because in the same vein that Hannah has a Korsakow document that intends to never end, our transcending baseline noticing would most certainly allow for an improved lived experience, which affectionately brings me to my last outcome..

• Force one to confront the presence of living media in our day to day lives

By this I mean, in the sense that Benning’s works were perhaps the most important works to contextualise this Studio, the studio really did encourage us to constantly be thinking of how what we were experiencing could become a non-fiction piece. This is why we all ended up looking to the sky, I think.

http://projects.hannahbrasier.com/student-work/squash/ 

I think overall, it was a pretty good idea to have my project not fully summed up by the Korsakow document, to have an accompanying video. In total I filmed quite a lot of footage, that I felt like I would not be using at a point, both when I realised that a lot of the footage I had filmed had unfortunately been hindered by a lack of being actually focused correctly, and the initial ideas I had to explore layering through collaging felt more limited than I first thought as a result.

However, I think it was very much a silver lining, the spur of the moment decision to film, with two iPhone cameras – inspired by Hannah in her suggestion for the Korsakow document, one camera on the left side of the court, the other one the right side –  an entire game, because it very much allows for a greater level of experimentation and for me to be able to facilitate all of audiovisual aspects I was hoping to explore in squash in a far more easier way – as they are two videos with more or less exactly the same sound, albeit different video, allowing for the exploration of the sound design of the squash sounds, as well as levels of layering that could operate on much more simple terms. Here, there wasn’t much need to craft too much, it was more matter of fact, but certainly explores the movements that exist in the Korsakow videos a bit more, allowing one to contextualise the space, as well as having I would say at points a congruent sound design to the Korsakow document when there are two videos being viewed in Korsakow

The Korsakow document looks great, though I am having trouble with the format of my work. The videos are seeming good in their stature but I think some need tinkering to an extent. At the moment, they all appear to be constantly changing their resolution each time I click on the video, so I feel like it is very much still a work in progress, but I do like the foundations of what exists. What I enjoy the most is the fact that the sounds of both the larger video and any of the small videos one places their cursor over, play simultaneously with each other.

This week in class when we showed our rough cuts, it was suggested to me by Hannah, on top of fixing the video formatting that needed to be done, that I could also position the – correctly formatted videos – in a style which was in its own way mimicking the very nature of a squash court. That is, spacing the videos in a manner which was more like playing squash, such that the videos on the left of the field would respond accordingly and reach the right of the field.

I feel like the moment I understood how to facilitate this, I was so satisfied, as I felt like some major inroads had been made in my understanding of the program, as well as my own joy in seeing the idea come into fruition. Hannah was definitely right here with her lightbulb moment idea, the videos combined as such look so fluid, which combined with the sound is just so very clearly the best placement for the videos that they could possibly be. I also added a MIDDLE thumbnail, for when the videos seemed to take place more so in the middle of the court.

I was mulling over Hannah’s suggestion of a Korsakow idea that involved formatting around a squash courts left and right sides. I ended up reaching a new realisation at squash later on in the week, that it would be similarly as worthwhile to film two videos, one of the left side of the court, and one of the right side of the court, as a framework for the question that I had for this project, as well as to explore lingering, for video.

Looking over the footage today has been really cool, filmed over the length of the game, 7 minutes in total each, one of them has like a marginal amount of milliseconds more footage than the other, so straight off trying to sync the videos together led to a nice stumble, I would say wonder into a combination of footage that communicates the importance of sound in squash I had made an idea about. The slightly out of sync delay creates this really fascinating echo that resonates each shot a little more, and I thought it may be something worth exploring in Pro Tools. I’d argue that the M/O for wondering, is that it is a creative praxis that can be done way more front on that lingering, as so much of the wondering can take place after all the marking has been done, constantly trying to consider different scenarios that could allow me to facilitate the question I have to consider for this assignment. I would say it is hit and miss too, in a manner that is totally complimentary to the task at hand, but I created this Pro Tools document in which I duplicated the original sound file of one of the videos 15 times, then separated the audio milliseconds apart, but the final result of this wasn’t very fruitful, more just loud.

So far, with this new idea that I’ve been brainstorming of squash and recreating the experience of playing squash, trying to work out how to film lingering on work with the material that I have currently filmed

so far I have

• filmed movement by lingering on the subject
• filmed with a tripod

my current ideas are to

• create a Korsakow file of all the lingered movement, allowing the subject to interact with the space of a squash court
  • recreate a squash scene DIY- from the sound up
• highlighting the sound, with the intention of creating a delay in the sound to explore the importance of the sound, perhaps making use of some of the motifs I learnt while doing sound design as well

I would say this then will amount to two parts to make up a whole, for the assignment in all its parts, with one part being something created in Korsakow, and another part being a short audiovisual piece

I think one such video I am considering creating is one that seeks to prove the importance of the sound in squash, via perhaps exploring how it feels to put audio and video on delay. I recently learnt about the theoretical sound framework, synchresis, which refers to the spontaneous mental fusion between a sound and the video that it is presented with. I feel like this lopsided video of audio on delay could be offputting in it’s essence, but i really do want to explore it.

I will make a 1 minute video, of a short edited sequence in which the sequence is repeated, each time the sound is delayed more, I think this will be interesting. This in a way to perhaps be similar to Scattered Squash, but without the erratic video element

The Jones (2011) reading is really hefty, and I feel there is quite a lot to gather from it. One of the things I gathered was a reading exploring the videoing practices of BASE jumpers, which “document and elongate the ephemeral experience of BASE jumping, and fix in… achievement which accompanies these experiences” (Ferrell et. al. 2001). To extrapolate this and supplant it into my overarching ideas around squash, I feel as if what I will be trying to do seeks directly to elongate the ephemeral experience of playing squash. Ferrell et al (2001) explore Lacan’s three moments in the production of the (centered) subject: an initial gaze, a moment of understanding, and a moment to conclude, with respect to how it is a process that plays itself out in an event such as a BASE jump.

I would say, here, that lingering on squash, on one’s quick movements, from the point that they serve, until the point ends, also fulfils these moments, in the Real, Imaginary and Symbolic. To take what Ferrell et al. (2001) take from Lacan’s philosophical field of work and place into BASE jumping context, and then to transfer that to the context of squash, I feel like it is just as fluid in a way. This is because, in the moment, I feel like there is something so visceral about the sensation of each point while playing squash, such that there have been points in which I’ve gotten carried away, far too easily, transcending the real and imagining boundaries that go beyond the geometrical confines, and getting hurt. It will be really interesting, not to see anyone get hurt, but perhaps to try to linger on those that get a bit too carried away in the moment, as these moments probably signify some of the strongest elements of the sport, at least for myself.

Sources –

Ferrell. J, Milovanovic. D, & Lyng, S (2001) Edgework, media practices, and the elongation of meaning: A theoretical ethnography of the Bridge Day event, Theoretical Criminology, vol.5 (2), 177-202, SAGE Publications

Rodney H. Jones (2011) Sport and re/creation: what skateboarders can teach us about learning, Sport, Education and Society, vol.16 (5), 593-611, DOI: 10.1080/13573322.2011.601139