We met with Arie today! It was raining so we couldn’t film at Testing Grounds. We quickly changed our plans and luckily Arie was great and let us film him in his studio. It was a bit daunting conducting the interview, I thought it would be a lot easier than it was but it was very stoppy/starty and there were a lot of silent moments. But it was a very good learning experience and we got some great footage.

Last night was so lovely! Instead of having classes for the week, we had a dinner/ hang out night at Testing Grounds. We’d spent the past few weeks planning the night so that everything ran smoothly and it really did! the best part for me was the projection backpacks which Joseph showed us how to use. We ventured out with them, one backpack per group and projected our short films and photos all along the Yarra and Southbank. It was a really beautiful, ambient night.

Here’s a little video I made from my footage on the night.

We sent some interview questions to our artist today so that he’s prepared for our upcoming interview.

http://www.arierainglorie.com/

Today we watched the rest of the class’s films who hadn’t showcased them yesterday. As well as this we discussed arrangements for Monday’s dinner and projection night at Testing Grounds which i am really looking forward to! I’ve really grown to enjoy the company of everyone in the Specific To Site class and I’m so excited about the work we’ve been doing and will be doing this semester. Hopefully Monday night will be a success and something we can be proud of. We were also given the brief for Project 3. For this task we have been split into groups and assigned an artist that collaborates with Testing Grounds. From here we must make a 5-7 minute documentary on their works and persona as an artist. I can’t wait to do this project, I love  documentaries and have been wanting to learn more about how they are constructed. So this will be an exciting task.

Wednesday’s class was a huge presentation of everyone’s Project Brief 2 films. It was amazing to see the different ways in which we each analyse a space and how we differ from each other artistically but also how we can be quite similar in our approaches. Rose’s film was a highlight for me. She really took the task and completely put her own style and creativity into it and made the project her own. She chose a public bathroom as her non-place and placed an actor in it to eat various different kinds of foods, challenging the idea of a bathroom being just a place to use the toilet.

Upon seeing my film up on the big screen and projected in front of the whole class I actually felt like it was really boring. I hadn’t felt that beforehand. However, the feedback that I got was extremely positive. Apparently the pacing was really well thought out, slow and even and my sound effects really aided the idea of the drains being an in between place amongst surburbia.

To me this project was about finding an in-between location, a non-place and exploring it in order to derive depth and meaning and perhaps see it as it usually wouldn’t be seen. We’ve been spending our Thursday classes visiting different sites. With The Percy Granger Museum we looked at how people can put themselves into a space without specifically inhabiting it. With Testing Grounds we analysed the space and looked for things that may not have been obvious at first. In doing this task, I took what I had learned in class and from these excursions and tried to recreate them in Project Brief 2.

For this task I was lucky enough to be paired with Claudia who has a very similar mindset to me and so we were able to brainstorm ideas quite well. We quickly decided that film would be our main medium used in creating the 3 minute product. We also decided that photographs would also be a good idea, but would only use a few intercepted throughout the video. On top of this would obviously be our soundscape, which I was quite interested in having a play around with.

In our first brainstorming session, we chose the South Yarra Drains/Tunnels as our location. Both of us had been there before and thought it would be a great place to explore as it has quite a bit of history in the form of graffiti, old belongings left behind and even parties and events that have taken place there. We thought it might be a cool idea to bring along some small dolls and lego and perhaps shoot our footage down there in a way that made the leggo look life-size. But after a while we decided that perhaps this wasn’t the best idea as it might take away from the space itself. After all the space was to be the main focus of the project. So when it came to filming day, we just brought some tea lights and a lighter along with us. We weren’t really sure what we’d use them for but knew that they would come in handy. However when we got to the South Yarra Drains, we found that the entire thing was flooded and there was literally no way of getting inside, so we had to change our plans last minute. It worked out super well as we went to the St. Kilda drains instead, which were just up the road. The drains here ran directly through the middle of housing and roads, which mde the drains really resonate as a non-place to me. The footage that I took focuses on how a space can be altered with each person that sets foot inside it. This was where the candles came in handy and ended up being an integral part of my concept. A lot of my footage showcases the graffiti done by others that have entered the place and even webs made from spiders that have lived there, or the miniature creek with debris/belongings trickling through it. I think that the lit candles inside the tunnels captured my presence inside the space and added a sense of life to an otherwise desolate place.

In yesterday’s class we spent a while trying to edit our sounds from Project Brief 1. We used GarageBand to shorten the sounds and add effects like reverb and distortion. I missed the end of class but apparently everyone played their sounds from their laptops at once and walked around the building. This was done as a way to test the effects of sounds in different spaces. This class got me thinking about how I can make my sounds more creative and interesting for my upcoming Project Brief 2.

Last Thursday saw us checking out Testing Grounds as a non-place. When we got there I realised that I’d passed the place many times and always wondered what it was. Testing Grounds is located on City Road towards the back of the Arts Centre. Amongst skyscrapers, offices and busy traffic, the open industrial site exists purely for artistic operations. We received an in depth description of the site’s history and how it came to be. The most fascinating thing that I found out about the site is that the council actually ensure that Testing Grounds is only used for arts purposes. This kind of thing is quite unheard of, especially when the location is perfect to build another skyscraper of large building. This fact makes the place somewhat sacred in a way. We also spent a while exploring the place. Everywhere you look there’s little trinkets to be found and objects to ponder. I particularly liked the crate that encompassed an old piano. To me it looked like a stage and I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I’d love to perform there, to hold my own gig there. Definitely going to put that one on my goals list.