I found the feedbacks so relevant to my final project as it was going to portray all the things that i noticed in my previous experiments and everyone had an insight about them.

Hannah mentioned her PHD supervisor taking a photo of his hand everyday to notice the way it ages and i was inspired to do a similar project where natures transition could be portrayed in a media form.

Another important comment for her was to figure out which one out of the heap of ideas i wanna follow! I’m really indecisive and find it difficult to stick with one thing…but she also said that we don’t have to think that we must do one experiment we can do all.

Other important feedbacks

•  ‘One of the things that Stood out across the different things was that  you noticed things when in the process of making and afterwards you noticed additional stuff and was able to notice the effects of the object in our environment, had on the people.’

This was from task 2 and yes i was very intrigued of my progression of noticing and when i noticed additional stuff and linked it back to the effects of the object in our environment, it felt like matching puzzles.

• Like the idea of the uncontrollable situation. Most situations are uncontrollable. We think we’re in control but we’re not actually.

I would like to explore more on this theme as i realise in our society there are so many things that we are controlled by but don’t even notice. Politics are totally involved!

• It was interesting shooting on film. The time between taking the photos and seeing them. Lack of control.

The lack of control in photography is somewhat daunting but i found extremely exciting. You don’t know what you’re going to get. I discovered my love for film photography through that experiment and was really motivated to continue after hearing the feedbacks but unfortunately lost the camera (Couldn’t find it) Seriously considering to buy another one. I would like to compare noticing in the process of taking the photos and noticing after the photos are already taken.

This is another way that was suggested to experiment the theme of lack of control in photography without the use of film.

• Setup a timer and not look at it. Set up the frame then set a timer not quite sure whats gonna appear. Not looking at what the camera was gonna take the photo of.

By going through the feedbacks so many thoughts and ideas that were jumbled up in my head started to clear up a bit. They definitely helped in finding what direction i want to go towards which is definitely film photography more than video or digital and i want to explore the uncontrollable theme.

From task 2 which was practiced through film photography, I have experienced my initial focal point being shifted to a different object once looking at the developed photos. Since film cameras don’t have a preview screen, the tiny view finder was not enough for me to notice more than what i initially wanted to capture. So in my head if i thought i was taking a photo of a bird and i think that that is my focal point, then when I actually see the picture and there’s this beautiful dog in the background that i didn’t even notice that was there and the focal point shifts to the dog. I think this was only possible because with film cameras there are no auto focus function. So everything is either on focus or just mildly fuzzy all around. Anyway thats where the urge to explore focal points emerged.

Through my first experiment of taking photos of an empty iced tea bottle in different locations and positions of the frame, I have learnt some important rules of noticing.

• When there is a repetitive pattern with an object, people associate that object to be the focal point of the photos. (Obviously)

Because the same iced tea bottle was in every single picture, people all pointed out the iced tea bottle to be the focal point no matter what. Even if it was posited way back, as long a it was visible i think just like the game Finding wally people would have tried to find it and pointed it out. I realised patterns are very easily noticed.

I also found myself unconsciously staging the photos looking for locations to put the bottle and thinking about where it will stand out or blend in. As having the iced tea bottle on mind when i see a nice space i would think whether it may compliment the structure or the colour of the bottle well and noticing myself doing that led me to my second experiment Every 30min Sunrise.

Practising to make media of an un-staged environment such as nature was my main goal of the second experiment. Through that the most important thing i noticed was the difference between still images and video of capturing transitional nature. It was also a good practise of setting myself up to notice something in a strictly disciplinary manner. As i laid out the photographs of the view from my apartment window taken every 30min, the progression of the sunrise was very clear. I noticed at what point the sun started ascending and the change of colour all in one eye sight.

It was beautiful but also when i watched the accidentally filmed video clip of the same view, the contrast between the movement of the cars and the stillness of the background was also very astounding. As i looked at the moving cars in the video, i realised there was nothing i could do to stop those cars and when i am inside a moving vehicle unless i am the driver i have no control over when to start or stop it. If the second experiment was uncontrollable nature the third was inspired by automatics.

Through the third experiment, first of all I tried to notice all the things we come across in our daily lives that moved automatically or according to a systematic time schedule. I took examples of a tram, elevator, escalator, revolving door and an automatic door. The most interesting thing i found out was that we are often desensitised to the automatic movement of things our minds don’t notice as much unless they are deliberately challenged to do so. After doing the third experiment i want to find out more about how we interact with automatic uncontrollable transports around us and if there is a way to heighten one’s noticing sense within that situation?

Once i was on a tram or an escalator or an elevator i couldn’t suddenly stop them from moving they were all designed to stop at a certain point or not stop at all(escalator). Where and when they stopped and where and when they started moving again was out of my control. Same with the automatic and rotating doors, i couldn’t force them to close or open when i wanted them to, as they were ‘automatic’.

Some of the things that i noticed taking videos on and of those uncontrollable transports were

• The moving cars next to the tram feel so much closer to yourself in the video footage than in reality because the glass window of the tram is un-noticable so the barrier between yourself and the busy road seems non existent.
• When filming inside the elevator, there is almost no movement spotted except for the people moving inside but the movement of the actual elevator cannot be captured visually. However i noticed that audio creates the sense of movement.
• Although the rotating door is intended to fit more people to pass through, I noticed that with our rotating doors at RMIT, No more than 1 (hardly 2 or 3)  voluntarily went into the same partition.

I have also noticed that when we are on moving transports that are not controlled by ourselves we are sometimes forced to notice and pay attention so we know when to start moving again or actually stall from noticing anything and going on our phones.

Overall i think we notice more through the media we take in an uncontrollable situation than we do with our eyes or brains. Because they are uncontrollable and not our responsibility to stop or start anything, we don’t have to stay alert and we really don’t pay much attention to anything about the uncontrollable transport. Most of the times i realised that people are on their phones and the few times that they are not and looking out the window, too many things passes by too quickly for them to process what they’ve noticed unless its something unordinary. I think these days, our bodies and minds are snugly accustomed to automatic uncontrollable movement noticing has become a challenge in those conditions.

• How can we adhere ourselves to notice more in those uncontrollable moving conditions?

Escalator (Going down)

Escalator (Going up)

Tram 1

Tram 2

Elevator

Automatic doors

Revolving doors

Question: Is our ability to notice heightened or lessened when in an un-stoppable (uncontrollable) condition?

How does noticing occur when it those situations?

Recipe

• Notice uncontrollable things around me.
• film inside or of those uncontrollable things
• Examine the media items

ingredients

• phone to record videos

Rules

• Videos must be under 2minutes
• Observe the behaviours of people who are around and in those uncontrollable situations

Some of the uncontrollable things i could think of

• On a tram/car/any moving vehicle that I’m not the driver of
• traffic lights
• elevator
• Anything automatic

As i went through all the pictures in order of the times they were taken I noticed some obvious things like the sun coming out and more cars appearing in the picture but also noticed the change of the ambience. Although the difference was very subtle, it was definitely there and if the first few photos were still and tranquil the later ones felt more vibrant.

I learnt that by taking photos overtime with a set interval is good for noticing gradual transformation that you would not see when they are taken randomly at random times. Also taking images and laying it out in order of its creation is good for seeing the progression of colour and light all at once whereas if it was filmed you could only see one scene at a time. However i noticed that with video you can capture movement.

I had no idea at what speed the cars were moving at and whether if anything else in the images were moving, just by looking at the photos, I actually had no consciousness of movement until watching the video i accidentally took. It shared the same composition as the photos but clarified what was moving and what was still which was really interesting. Everything else was motionless except the cars then i started thinking, you wouldn’t even realise that video was even a video if it wasn’t for the moving cars. The cars are an uncontrollable variable in this case which then led me to think how looking out from inside a moving vehicle we can’t control what we notice and what we don’t.

-What are some things that are artificially out of our control

-Do we notice more or less in those uncontrollable situations

5:00 AM

5:30 AM

6:00 AM

6:30 AM

7:00 AM

7:30 AM

8:00 AM

8:00 AM (Video)

During the media making process I had to set up an alarm starting from 5AM and every 30min on my phone so i went back to sleep then got back up every 30min to take the photo. As i was taking the photos due to my sleepiness i didn’t notice much and very little effort went into the media making process. I quickly snapped a shot and even in my mind i was thinking about how many shots i had left considering the sun would have come out by 8AM.

The only thing i stressed about was keeping the framing consistent. To be able to compare and  see the transition of the sunrise clearly i tried to keep the framing as consistent as possible.

Towards the end i accidentally took a video instead of an image which was really astounding because if i thought of the scenery to be completely still after watching the videoclip i realised there was actually movement and the contrast between the movement of the cars and the completely motionless background intrigued me.

In regards of the photos i took, the first two are almost indistinguishable but from 6:00AM the black/navy sky turns dark blue and starts getting lighter every 30minutes. I noticed that 6:30AM is the time that depicts the so-called ‘sunrise’ the best as there is a beautiful strip of redness across the horizon. After 6:30 AM is when the most clouds appear and they lessen as time goes by. By examining the photos i noticed the street lights becoming less perceptible and as the sun gradually came up the road also revealing its form.

Something you cannot stage even if you wanted to is nature. Nature is something that cannot be controlled such as the rain, the sun and the clouds. There is no way we can stop the rain or make the sun shine brighter during a photoshoot, you just gotta work around it which in one hand can be inconvenient but on the other can work unexpected wonders to your work.

As opposed to my first experiment, where it was up to me how I positioned the object which lead to unconsciously staging the photographs, this time I would like to explore unplanned/un-staged photography of nature.

What can i notice when i deliberately set myself up to take photos every certain amount of time.

What is the difference between staged and unstated photography?

Taking photos of the sun rise

• From 5am take a photo with a 30min interval until the sun is completely up and out.
• Examine the differences in each photo

Equipment

• Phone to take the images
• A watch to check the time (so phone)

What i expect to notice

-What un-staged photos consist of

-How much differences can be made in 30minutes

-The effect the weather has on the images

To find out what makes something the focal point of the photo, I positioned the iced tea bottle differently in every shot. In result to that experiment i found out that the variables that determine a focal point are the following

• lighting
• proportion of the object
• colour
• unusual stance
• repetitive pattern
• position in the frame

When i asked people for their focal points, 90% voted the iced tea bottle mostly because after seeing more than two photos (some just 1) they noticed the pattern and how the iced tea bottle repeatedly being in every photos made them think that that was the subject of photography hence the focal point of the photos.

I also noticed that as I was taking the photos of the iced tea bottle, I found myself consciously looking for places to put the bottle so when photographed there are a variety of compositions in the mix. Additionally in order to ensure the iced tea bottle was not positioned in the same place as before, i intentionally had to move around the bottle and place it where i wanted it to be which i feel like is being very controlling in terms of creating media.

– How to prevent from staging a photo?

– What are the characteristics of media taken without any planning and intentions?

– The power of repetition

7 photos of the Iced tea bottle in different positions of the frame.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

When i showed these photos to my friends and asked what the focal point of the photos may be they pointed to the iced tea bottle. These are some of the reasons why the iced tea bottle was picked out to be the focal point.

• The centred position  (image 7)
• The size/ proportion of the object (6)
• Awkward placement (2, 3)
• Positied on top of everything (4)
• Lighting (1)
• Colour (5)