The act of wearing and walking in high heels is performative, a performance in which we feel compelled to play. An illusion of stability and composure we wish to embody as we step, spin and glide, it is a shoe of events. However, unable to move slowly, fluidly or gently, I am utterly hopeless. Within this piece I had attempted to portray an experience in which lacks stability, whereby the mere change of footwear can transform a hard, flat surface into a wavering, faltering and irregular trudge. When wearing high heels we attempt to give our best performance of both figurative and literal balance. I wanted to exhibit this on-screen and planned to do so through the utilisation of steady and repetitious camera work which is quite a contrast from the intimate struggles of unsteadiness experienced while walking in high heels, where we attempt to portray the best possible illusion of our ‘balanced’ selves to onlookers.  

Some notes about what I discovered about trying to evoke a physical environment and/or emotional environment using particular types of shots and the sounds recorded for my soundtrack:

• I had discovered that a successful method in evoking a physical environment is showing viewers movement and interaction within the space. Quite literally, being able to show viewers this space through camerawork (close up, mid and establishing shots etc) is the simplest method. Yet most notably, this can be done audibly, experimenting with heightening sounds within a certain space ultimately caused some sounds to be more salient than others, in doing this, different sensations experienced within the space can be better recognised. 
• I also had found that attempting to evoke an emotional environment can be much more difficult as it tends to rely on allusions of the effects caused by said emotional state/ environment rather than explicit/ overt depictions.

Some notes about what worked well and what didn’t work quite so well:

• Regardless of the limitations, I feel pleased with the overall appearance of the piece. I do believe that it may be lacking conceptually as I struggled with grasping this weeks prompt. This may be considered my weakest piece, however, I gave it my best attempt. 
• What perhaps didn’t work so well was the utilisation of static shots as there were in fact parameters of which limited myself creatively, however, this prompted me to try new techniques. Techniques such as the lack of camera moment (which is not a visual effect that I quite often exercise) truly tested my skills as a creator. I feel as panning/ zoom/ tracking shots conjures a lingering curiosity and enticement, however, I needed to evoke such interest yet with the lack of a clear movement/ progression. I gave it my best attempt yet I do not know how successfully I executed this. 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1k6lnrZNPyM54-G10B50BIdk_OrqGkvnz

How does the light and weather change what we see? As the weather transforms and will evermore continue to do so, we are immersed within it. Us, the landscape and it’s perpetually changing form is hard to tease apart, henceforth, we feel among these changes. Upon closely considering this notion, I had figured that as the weather is a mere “experience of light” and that “as the weather changes, so does the look and feel of the world we inhabit,” our perception of the world can be altered by said natural forces. When wanting to portray this on-screen, I exhibited the very intimate association between the weather (thus light) and its effects on emotionality. In doing this, I depicted a very personal space where I most primarily reside and (through narration) suggest how the amount of light that I allow into this space can truly form the way in which I feel and think.  

Some notes about what I discovered about the experience of light and vision:

• Through experimenting with different camera settings, angles and techniques I truly was able to better explore light as a subject. I was able to either enhance or diminish the appearance of light to my favour and in doing this I was able to create very opposing and evocative visual effects. 
• Choosing to either heighten or lower the cameras receptivity to light had quite an impact on visual textures, giving or removing attention from certain objects due to lighting choices.

Some notes about what worked well and what didn’t work quite so well:

• I quite liked the overall aesthetic of this piece. I found that without any intent, a significant amount of the raw footage appeared quite bleak and monochromatic, which I was pleased with the appearance of. Furthermore, some footage didn’t appear this way, so within post-production, I lowered the level of saturation. This lack of colouring allows for more attention to be drawn to details within the textures. 
• I feel as if my voice-over narration could have been approved upon. I wanted to utilise audio effects on my voice as I felt that would just help to provide another element of interest to the piece. However, I should perhaps give sound editing some more practice as it was not executed as well as I had hoped.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1k6lnrZNPyM54-G10B50BIdk_OrqGkvnz

ASSIGNMENT #1

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1J1QMYnK2HGIZ6tg-wlaM-c3Z5ZcZIUkj?usp=sharing

DEVELOPMENT : TOUCH, SMELL AND TASTE

When considering a sense of touch in relation to an everyday activity, almost immediately showering oneself came to mind. Taking a shower is a very potent sensory activity in which people most typically perform every day. As we clean, bathe, submerge and shower ourselves, we invite this element upon us, in our skin, our hair, our mouths and eyes. Water is unpredictable, changeable, it soothes, scolds, heals, and kills. This soft, fluid material can ferociously consume and smother a person however also quite simultaneously caress and embrace. The feeling of water droplets bubbling and cooling the surface of our skin is truly unlike any other. Sensations of the hot of water surging out of the showerhead, it pools in the palms of our hands which we then pour over ourselves. Within this piece, I have exhibited this intimate process to viewers in an artfully exposing way. 

Yet personally, of all the senses smell is the closest tied to memory. The mere act of smelling my significant other’s shirt places me in his arms. His hands, lips, cheeks and neck all have a smell, not a good smell like of warm cake or brewed coffee yet not a bad smell either, just his own individual, personalised scent. The smell of his abdomen make feel warm and secure hence laying entangled within his shirt helps me sleep. I have found myself in public hastily looking around in desperation, expecting to see him. However, he was nowhere in sight, I swore that I had smelled his shoulders, but I was wrong. Within this second visual piece, I had attempted to portray this. Merely holding an item of clothing that belongs to another person is a very consuming sensory experience, whereby a perceptual exchange of the body and a ‘thing’ is just left in your possession.

Sugar. The white stuff we know as ecstasy, well not quite, but close enough. The sensation of promptly dipping your pinky finger into a vanilla cake batter and placing it to your tongue can be euphoric. Gentle, lovable, pretty, soft, dulcet, smooth, fragrant, delightful, luscious and mouth-watering, sugar provides us with that instant gratification as we dip, swirl or bite. Sweetness is a reward, we conclude the evening with a dessert as we desperately clutch onto the last few moments of the night’s crescendo. The unparalleled joy of when your mother allows you to choose “only one” lolly from the supermarket, “we can get an ice cream if you behave”, celebrating another slice of life with a slice of cake. I wanted to compile various sounds associated with memories of sugar, as they tend to evoke a natural an innocent moment of pleasure.

REFLECTION

Upon the beginning stages of these three pieces, I was very much excited about the conceptualisation process as I was eager to push myself artistically. In retrospect, there are a significant amount of things that I would have executed differently, various factors such as lack of knowledge, understanding, a drought of artistic inspiration and time restraints impacted the three pieces conception. No artistic endeavour is a wasted experience, no matter the outcome, therefore, through the making of these pieces, I had learnt a great deal. A good idea always has a preliminary stage, yet will then transform into a great idea after close consideration and culling which will only occur in time. Ideas need to be nurtured, so when they come to fruition they are as successful in engaging and enlightening viewers as possible. These initial ideas most definitely went through a process of evolution from a loose concept to the three media works in which I ended up creating, however with more time and consideration, they could have been a lot more advanced. 

Film allows for an artistic execution in which other mediums are not able to accomplish in the same manner. However, differing mediums merely replace one illusion of reality with another. The utilisation of sound with the absence of visuals is quite foreign as the mere extracted audio is quite an untouched medium for me. I typically utilise film in correlation to audio as opposed to audio alone for my media creations thus the third piece was much more of a learning exercise. Perhaps the more implicit allusions may not have been as clear to listeners as if I were to portray them visually, this is an area that I would like to further improve my very limited knowledge and skills for future projects. Henceforth, I found myself struggling when attempting to heighten the different experiences of the senses with solely audio. I experimented with altering volumes whereby I purposefully selected some pieces of audio to be heightened, this ultimately caused some sounds to be more salient than others, in doing this, differing sensations can be better noticed due to how they are organised collectively. Referring to my visual exercises I discovered that to better evoke a stronger sensory experience I would utilise a variety of extreme close-up shots, I found that this elicits a sense of intimacy due to the atypical closeness viewers are to the subject. However, what I found didn’t work so well referring to my ‘sense of smell’ visual piece, alike its predecessor, the footage appears quite underexposed thus lacking visual texture. In addition, the inclusion of a more complex setting would have been richer compositionally and aesthetically, elements of mise en scene would have also added to this.

Through this process of exploration I have deepened my understanding of the sensuous self when considering the notion that the self is not bound as a “prisoner of language, the language game-player or crafty wordsmith”(Waskul, Vannini & Wilson, 2009, p.19), however, exists as “subject and object, individual and social, body-within-mind, and mind-within-flesh”(Waskul, Vannini & Wilson, 2009, p.7). We subsist as communication between a body and a “thing”, person and the world, ultimately as a mere perceptual exchange. Henceforth, our existence is grounded in our “bodily experience” (Ellingson, 2012, p.245). Making this body of work has allowed me to bring this notion of the enacted body to conception in an artful way, utilising said senses with the intention of triggering “reminiscences that point to other past sensory experiences or remind one of times, places or people that evoke special emotions”(Waskul, Vannini & Wilson, 2009, p.17). Furthermore revealing the extent of which the senses are entangled with history as the “sensuous self is thus sensing and sensed”(Waskul, Vannini & Wilson, 2009, p.7).

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Waskul, D D, Vannini, P, & Wilson, J (2009) The Aroma of Recollection: Olfaction, Nostalgia, and the Shaping of the Sensuous Self, The Senses and Society, 4 (1), 5-22.

Ellingson, L. L. (2012). Embodied knowledge. In L. M. Given (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods (p. 245).]

Seremetakis, CN (1994) ‘The Memory of the Senses, Part I: Marks of the Transitory’, The Senses Still: Perception and Memory as Material Culture in Modernity Routledge, London: 1-18

LINKS TO RECENT BLOG POSTS

TOUCH

SMELL

TASTE

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1J1QMYnK2HGIZ6tg-wlaM-c3Z5ZcZIUkj?usp=sharing

SENSE OF TASTE 

Sugar. The white stuff we know as ecstasy, well not quite, but close enough. The sensation of promptly dipping your pinky finger into a vanilla cake batter and placing it to your tongue can be euphoric. Gentle, lovable, pretty, soft, smooth, fragrant, delightful, luscious and mouth-watering, sugar provides us with that instant gratification as we dip, swirl or bite. Sweetness is a reward, we conclude the evening with a dessert as we desperately clutch onto the last few moments of the night’s crescendo. The unparalleled joy of when your mother allows you to choose “only one” lolly from the supermarket, “we can get an ice cream if you behave”, celebrating another slice of life with a slice of cake. I wanted to compile various sounds associated with memories of sugar, as they tend to evoke a natural an innocent moment of pleasure.

What you felt worked well and not so well about this piece?

I found that particular sounds may have been unidentifiable for some listeners as they are perhaps better recognised with visual accompaniment. I typically utilise film in correlation to audio as opposed to audio alone for my typical media creations thus the third piece was much more of a learning exercise for me.

What also perhaps worked not so well was the quality of my sounds, this is something that I would like to improve on further for future audio projects as my skill and knowledge of microphone setup is very limited. 

I feel as if heightening certain sounds as opposed to others worked very well, doing this created a more intense and immersive sensory experience for listeners. In addition, my audio really worked well in correlation to some copyright free sound effects. I began this experimentation process with the intention of utilising entirely my own sounds, however during post production, I found that my audio could be intensified with the accompaniment of others. 

 

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1J1QMYnK2HGIZ6tg-wlaM-c3Z5ZcZIUkj?usp=sharing

SENSE OF SMELL

Personally, of all the senses smell is the closest tied to memory. The mere act of smelling my significant others shirt places me in his arms. His hands, lips, cheeks and neck all have a smell, not a good smell like of warm cake or brewed coffee yet not a bad smell either, just his own individual, personalised scent. The smell of his abdomen make feel warm and secure hence laying entangled within his shirt helps me sleep. I have found myself in public hastily looking around in desperation, expecting to see him. However, he was nowhere in sight, I swore that I had smelled his chest, but I was wrong. Within this second visual piece I had attempted to portray this. Merely holding an item of clothing that belongs to another person is a very consuming sensory experience, whereby a perceptual exchange of the body and a ‘thing’ is just left in your possession.

What you felt worked well and not so well about this piece?

Like its predecessor, the footage appears quite underexposed, however, this somewhat adds to this dreamlike, imaginary state that was seeking to portray. The footage appears obscured, allusive and quite fragmented, alike the human psyche.

I also feel as if the shots in which include myself (most definitely was not ideal) as at this time I did not have anyone to help me portray this character. This limited filming capabilities as I had to hold the camera in front of my own face. I feel as if within the film this is quite obvious thus for future projects I must be more organised. 

I did encounter some problems during post-production when attempting to create a flashback type transition, so I was unable to execute that to the standard that I had intended. Yet I feel as if I quite well communicated that dreamlike appearance as my character smells an item of clothing in which belongs to some boy within her life and introduces said character through her imagination.  

How did you make use of exercise one feedback for exercise two?

Unfortunately, I was absent during this feedback class which I am quite unhappy about as this class I am sure would have been quite insightful and would have helped me to improve my skills as a media creator for future projects. 

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1J1QMYnK2HGIZ6tg-wlaM-c3Z5ZcZIUkj?usp=sharing

SENSE OF TOUCH

When considering a sense of touch in relation to a daily activity, almost immediately showering oneself came to mind. Taking a shower is a very potent sensory activity in which people most typically perform every day. As we clean, bathe, submerge and shower ourselves, we invite this element upon us, in our skin, our hair, our mouths and our eyes. Water is unpredictable, changeable, it soothes, scolds, heals, and kills. This soft, fluid material can ferociously consume and smother a person however also quite simultaneously caress and embrace. The feeling of water droplets bubbling and cooling the surface of our skin is truly unlike any other. The sensation of hot water surging from a shower head and pooling within the palms of our hands which we then pour over our bare bodies is quite special. Within this piece, I have exhibited this intimate process to viewers in an artfully exposing manner. 

 

What you felt worked well and not so well about this piece?

I feel as if the lighting could most definitely be improved upon, the footage appears quite underexposed. 

Perhaps the overall appearance of the film is too simple and requires a stronger narrative. 

I liked how the extreme close-ups appeared on screen, very pleased with the outcome. It truly adds to the intimate act of bathing oneself, evoking a sense of uncomfortable closeness. 

I also quite liked the monochromatic appearance of the piece, this lack of colouring allows for more attention to be drawn to details within the textures. 

These last three studies I feel as if I have really exhibited my advancement as a media creator. The creative process of these three assignments I believe was quite successful, I am very pleased by the outcome of all three studies, however, I do believe as always that there is further refinement/advancement that can be done.

Prior to this semester, I had never even heard of MAX, so having to continuously use this software caused many difficulties, however, because of this I had to learn a lot within quite a small period of time. Previously, I tended to stay within the bounds of comfort and because of that I was able to actually execute what I had envisioned, however those creations were very ‘basic’ and limited. Yet within these studies, I really pushed myself as there were many new elements that I wanted to explore further. It was difficult during the creative process as I would conceptualise various potential studies yet I would realistically not be able to construct them on MAX, I tried my best through external research and what I had learnt within class to construct an engaging piece of interactive art. With these last few studies, I found that my creative process (apart from the technical difficulties upon conception) had become even more so refined than I had stated in my previous reflections.

Techniques of interactive art making that I have learnt this semester include on a basic level what truly shapes user interactivity, being sensory elements such as sound, tangibility, sight etc that can all be utilised within interactive art. Also I had found that the concept of giving the audience agency upon the outcome of an artwork very interesting as most usually the artist holds primary agency. As there can be various users of interactive art, this provides a certain diversity in which would have not existed if there was only one sole creator (being the artist).  

What I would consider successful about my work so far would be quite a lot in comparison to where I began at the beginning of the semester, but most notably is the appearance of the completed studies, they include both informative and decorative elements such as instructive text, photos or colouring. I have previously received a lot of criticism from peers referring to my lack of care for the look of my studies, so for these, I gave extra attention to making the finished patch appear polished. Yet ultimately, in all studies I had created what I had envisioned, with some compromises, of course, my studies have all been successful to a certain extent (of course being realistic of what can be achieved under time restraints and minimal knowledge of MAX). Going into this semester my ultimate objective was to create art which can adequately interact with a user for either a short or sustained period of time, which I believe I have achieved throughout all of my studies. Most importantly I feel as if my personal improvement as an interactive artist is most evident when comparing these three studies to my first. Not only are my creations much more technically advanced yet also the appearances of these pieces are much more refined. In comparison to where I had begun with my practically non-existent understanding of MAX and limited knowledge of interactive art in general, I feel as if I have come a long way, and I am very much pleased.

As I progressed throughout the semester with each study I had created, I feel as if I was constantly improving as an interactive artist, this incline of skill is very much evident from my first creation to my most recent. This form of art intrinsically relies on the participation of a user in order to determine the outcome of the piece, which is the ultimate objective of user interactive art and is what I believe that I have successfully achieved within all of my studies. Overall I am quite content with where I am skilfully yet always eager to continue to learn and advance my works. 

How I believe I can improve my work is as I have stated numerous times, ultimately become more proficient with MAX, being more aware of different controls within MAX (as I have mentioned previously) will allow myself to be able to actually bring my ideas to conception. At the begging of this semester using this form of technology in order to achieve numerous different effects was very much new to me, I still have moments of confusion or frustration as I don’t think I will ever confidently say that I have a complete understanding of MAX, yet with everything I have made so far I have been exploring/ improving with the software more and more. Ultimately, I am very pleased with all I have created this semester, I have learnt a lot about interactivity and what encompasses audience agency.

For my eighth and final study, I had decided to recreate a piece from the first assignment of the semester. Sentimental, I know, however it acts more as a display or exhibition of both my technical and conceptual advancement throughout the semester. Predominantly throughout all of my studies I have explored the correlation of audio and visuals, I had begun the semester with creating a ‘visual synthesiser’ the primary focus of that piece was purely surface level. So I also wanted to create another piece with the same objective, meaningless fun. However, I did need to advance some elements, such as rather than the inclusion of a keyboard, I felt that utilising a song would have a much more engaging and interesting effect upon the visuals presented. This patch was definitely one of the most difficult of everything that I had attempted this semester and thus required help from external sources. After thorough research, this creation ultimately exhibited many elements that I was unfamiliar with yet they created very interesting effects. Conceptually, I simply wanted to create something playful and frivolous, I believe that it is actually quite engaging for a sustained period of time as the colour patterns are beautiful to look at and after some time the piece actually becomes quite immersive. Like the other studies within this assignment, I put a lot of effort into the appearance such as including instructive text just to make it look much more inviting and polished. I truly wanted to challenge myself technically in a way that I have not previously, overall I am very pleased with the outcome and I believe that I have concluded this semester in success.

For my seventh study, I decided to rework my ‘sound artwork’ piece which I had created for my major project. I really admired this creation yet I found that it was lacking technical skill, I have attempted to both advance and refine this very simple concept. I really like the idea of being able to create something visual from sound, yet rather than merely asking the viewer to sit and clap their hands (or make any form of abrupt sound) they were prompted to select a song and watch as the shapes and colours move in correlation with the sounds, thus ‘watching’ their favourite song. Both having the user select their favourite song and the sporadic movement of shapes both tend to evoke longer engagement. In addition, like my major project this piece was quite decorative, the way the lines and shapes interact with one another reminded me of a cubist painting yet how these shapes also move with the music is very satisfying to watch. In terms of technical skill, this piece was not too difficult to execute as I simply combined two of my previous works and was quite familiar with all of the elements utilised, however in the future I would like to look into something more complex. I find that I am able to actually create what I have envisioned when I stay within my knowledge of max, but there are many things that I would like to explore further.

This study was a reimagination of Yating Shi’s major project who created a piece where the user clicks on an image and try to locate a hidden square within it. This reminded me of a ‘Where’s Wally’ type game and found that it had so much more potential than simply prompting the user to click around the screen sporadically until they luckily land upon the hidden square. In fact when I had selected Yating to base my peer review upon I had a lot of critiques to provide, probably the most I have ever given a fellow student, just because I saw so much potential within this piece as it was a simple yet very engaging concept. So, for my piece, I prompted the user to attempt to find the small dogs amongst various toys/objects when successful they will hear a little dog bark, and then they may proceed to the next level, there are five levels and they gradually increase in difficulty. This was simply designed to be a fun game testing the audience’s ability to focus upon an image. However, now to the most difficult aspect of this assignment, sustained interaction. I gave this my best attempt and I think that this piece most definitely has the potential to sustain interaction for perhaps five minutes but it really depends on how quickly the user progresses through the levels. I actually began with only one image, but I found that only having one level would not be engaging enough over a long period of time, that is when I decided to construct five levels overall, hoping to prolong audience interactivity.
On a technical level, it was quite simple to construct as a had a base (Yating’s piece) to work from, all I needed to do was remove some elements and add some of my own. In addition, within this assignment, I made sure to provide instructive/interpretive text for the user, which is something that I had previously overlooked and stated that I must improve upon for my following assignments.