Putting it generally, ontography is the collection, correlation and recording of beings and things, as well as their nature and essence. When we apply this idea to list, we can see it as “a group of items loosely joined by not by logic or power or use”, but on the basis of purely existing (Bogost 2012, pg. 38). Almost like a gathering of sorts, collecting and connecting things based on them just, being, not requiring any sort of description or clarification (Bogost 2012, pg 38). So I won’t!

Okay, so maybe I will clarify and describe my work!

The prompt for this piece was “things that I find/found myself thinking about when I space out trying to concentrate”.  Ironically, I found it difficult to think of the things I thought about when spacing out, without spacing out into something that wasn’t applicable, so I decided to just jot down any memorable images, things, moods or places that came to mind when I was concentrating on other things, which led to the ideas in this video.

When it came to constructing the flow and order of these scenes, I was inspired by Hannah Brasier’s ‘Sometimes I See Palm Trees‘. All the images and videos in that piece are linked through commonalities, such as colour or prompts. I decided to have my scenes flow in a similar way, but without the branching choice aspect, they are just loosely connected, without any real clarification or description. I would love to know how you think the scene flow,s and know if you feel like there’s any rhyme or reason to it.,

Both Jack and Joeseph’s feedback from last week helped in the creation of this experiment, as they suggested using cutting to black alongside purposeful audio, as well as shot length experimentation and build-up, both of which I feel more comfortable playing around with thanks to their suggestions.

Reflection References

Bogost, I., 2012. ‘Ontography’ in Alien Phenomenology. Or What It’s Like to be a Thing. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. pp. 35-50.

Brasier, H., 2018, Sometimes I See Palm Trees,

Video References

Banana Ripening Time Lapse (Free to Use HD Stock Video Footage), Untitled Artist, Attribution 3.0 CC, https://archive.org/details/BananaRipening/Banana+Master+H264.mp4

BBC Sound Effect Library – Autumn, Atmosphere: Quiet birds, insects, light breeze, V2 Rocket launching – 1975 (500B)

Beachfront B-roll: Fall Leaves (Free to Use HD Stock Video Footage), Beachfront B-Roll: Free Stock Footage, YouTube CC, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCuBFNMgjfc&ab_channel=BeachfrontB-Roll%3AFreeStockFootage

Bright Sky and Clouds, Jeffery Beach (Beachouse Productions), Attribution 3.0 CC, https://archive.org/details/BrightSkyAndClouds

Cat On His Way To The Morning Hunt (Wide Screen 16:9), Untitled Artist, Attribution 3.0 CC, https://archive.org/details/CEP441

Kalidescope Clouds, Ivan Bridgewater, Attribution 3.0 CC, https://archive.org/details/IMB_SF_R42_C2

Scuba diving Strytan in Iceland, Marc Herbrechter, YouTube CC, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az_6Ua0ioK8&ab_channel=MarcHerbrechter

Seagull Flying Wide Shot, Jeffery Beach (Beachouse Productions), Attribution 3.0 CC, https://archive.org/details/SeagullFlyingWideShot/SeagullsWideMaster_h264.mp4

Space – Free HD Stock Footage (No Copyright), Free HD Stock Footage, YouTube CC, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_stpyQo3H2A

The Spiral Lamp, Marcio T, Youtube CC, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK_ANFy0Ls4&ab_channel=MarcioT

In this week’s reading by Frankham, it is suggested that the poetic approach focuses on the openness of listing, in which the author can create brief moments of pause and contemplation (2013, pg. 137). It also allows both the creator and the audience to transform the “raw artefacts” portrayed on screen to create a sense of meaning (Frankham 2013, pg. 145). I found these ideas both freeing and difficult when it came down to starting to make my poetic list, but I really tried to focus on not having to make everything so obvious, and let myself and others find meaning in what I made.

This is super different from anything I’ve made before, and I’m not entirely sure if I’m happy with it, but this experiment has been super insightful in a creative sense. To me, this piece is about anxiety, and the process of feeling calm, then anxious, then calm, in a relatively linear way. It lists the various stages of being anxious, and I play around with speed and buildup and reversing to portray that. This idea was built in tandem with some helpful feedback I got for my personal list experiment, which suggested I play around with repetition and speed.

Originally I intended to make all the shots before the payoff of the green saturated nature the ‘impassive suspense’ of the piece. And while I can still see that to some degree, I feel like I borrow a lot more from the associational poetic techniques, having my images connect on an “emotional” and “impact[ful]” level (Frankham 2013, pg. 139).

I am personally going to continue to play around with this piece and add sound, as I felt like it dictated a big part of how I created it, such as spacing out black screen with the timing of heartbeats, and I feel like abrupt sounds could also bolster the sensation of anxiety.

Reading References

Frankham, B.L., 2013. ‘Complexity, flux and webs of connection,’ in: A Poetic Approach to Documentary: Discomfort of Form, Rhetorical Strategies and Aesthetic Experience. University of Technology Sydney, Sydney. pp. 137-176

Video References

Alien -Phantom From Space, Untitled Artist (Dir. W. Lee Wilder), Public Domain CC, https://archive.org/details/CEP534

Fireplace Close Up – Slow Motion, Jeffrey Beach (Beachfront Productions), Attribution 3.0 CC, https://archive.org/details/FireCUPhotoJPEG

Ocean Waves Slow Motion, Videov, Royalty-Free, https://www.videvo.net/video/ocean-waves-slow-motion/3577/

Stock Footage – collection 2 (Snow), Untitled Artist (uploaded by inu77), Attribution 3.0 CC, https://archive.org/details/FreeStockFootage/Snow.mov

Waves Crashing Wide,  Jeffrey Beach (Beachfront Productions), Attribution 3.0 CC, https://archive.org/details/WavesCrashingWide/WavesCrashingWideH264.mp4

At first, I found it hard to build from and apply the feedback I received from my practical list to creating this personal list, not because the notes were bad, but because vision and audio seemed so different. However,  after some careful thinking and pondering with classmates, I was able to think about “more variants in shot types” and come away with a project with a varied timeline of sounds and “incorporating more things within the space” helped me not being afraid to have sound overlap in my experiment. Through all that helpful and constructive feedback, my audio was born!

The idea for my personal list came from Sei Shonnagon’s ‘Pillow Talk’ piece, specifically in the phrasing. I think the way in which she words her list titles are simultaneously beautiful and funny, such as “Things That Are Distant Though Near” or “Cats” (Perkovic, 2013). I ended up titling my list “Things That Make Me Uncomfortable/Wince”, which I thought would be really interesting, but I didn’t really put together how uncomfortable I was really going to be whilst making it. I truly worked against myself comfort-wise here!

I felt a lot more confident working on this experiment over the first one because I feel like a practical list had to obey more logic than a personal one. This is a personal list to me, meaning that the piece could have as much logic and rhythm as I wanted it to, which was freeing creatively. It allowed me to play around with overlapping sounds, and sequencing them in a way that felt natural yet thought out. We as a class talked about how personal lists have a sense of identity within them, and the relevance of their purpose is determined by the individual, and I honestly felt that with this task. I think, because of this, I am going to like poetic lists!

Reference List

Perkovic, J., 2013. Sei Shonagon’s Lists [WWW Document]. Guerrilla Semiotics

BBC Sound File LIst

Cellar wine bar – crowded at lunchtime.

Billiards, chalking cue. (Close perspective recording.)

The practical list video I made for Experiment 1 of Assignment 1 changed pretty drastically over the week. I don’t usually make practical lists intentionally, but I decided to convert my house cleaning schedule into a list. I came into class on Wednesday and originally intended on featuring close up shallow focused shots of the surfaces I clean, as well as the tools I use to clean them.

However, my ideas were changed after some thought and feedback in class. Jack and I both spoke about our ideas. I told him that I was feeling like my project seemed a little narrow, and he suggested that I should consider pairing the cleaning objects within the surfaces, going for wider shots. Furthermore, I found the example images we looked at on Wednesday of the American suburbian streets really interesting. I liked how they were almost like those picture books like “Eye Spy”, in which you were searching for certain things within a space.

I decided to try and recreate that on a smaller scale, using wide-angle shots with a greater depth of field, and have audiences search for the objects in the frame. I didn’t make them hard to find though. especially liked how the bathroom frames turned out, their small spaces allowed for the most controlled depth, and they had the most items listed to clean within the space, allowing me to get creative with the placement.

Whilst editing this video, it made me think back to this weeks reading, in how practical lists become poetic lists over time, and to new audiences. It made me wonder if uninitiated people would consider this a poetic or practical list? If 100 years from now, would they be able to notice that these items are used for cleaning the spaces, or if they would interpret it a different way. Interesting thoughts!