An interesting start to the semester!

Already 4 weeks in and I have learnt more words in Max 7 than I did in year 7 French Class. Even though there was a lot to cover, Max 7, when used correctly, gives us the opportunity to physically put our ideas into action. The start of the interactive was a good chance for us to understand and learn a thing or two about the world of interactive media. Personally I have had little to none knowledge of interactive art.

During the first two weeks of the subject we were sent off to research on a particular interactive artist. Considering that I had no idea on who to choose, I quickly dived into Google and searched on the top ten interactive artists. This is what I have found:

I had a brief look at most of them and they were all interesting in their respective ways. Most of these artists were able to send some kind of statement to their audience through their works which ranged from politics to human behaviour. One artist that really intrigued me was Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, who I eventually chose to study and present his works to the class for the first assignment. Observing his incredible instalments which included “Pan Anthem”  and “Tape Recorder” really caught my attentions and drew me towards the world of interactive art. His instalments were very simple but sent out a strong message to his audience.  And this inspired me to create my own art in this manner as I feel as though this is reflective of my own personality and artistic tastes. Another source of inspiration was Yoko Ono’s work called “A Box of Smile” which was discussed in class. Like many of Lozano-Hemmer’s work Ono’s idea was so simple but was able to effectively interact with her audience. As the user opens the box and sees their own reflection, they can not help but smile. The idea is very witty and fun, and it would be nice, for myself, to be able to send a positive message to my audience as they experience my piece of interactive art.

After researching into Lozano-Hemmer’s work as well as other interactive artists, I began to have a better understanding of what interactive is designed to do. How I interpret the purpose behind interactive art is the ability to communicate a message by having the audience engaging with the work in order to bring it to life. The interaction of the audience and their response is the art piece itself. I think that interactive art is a powerful way of sending a message because the audience is able to experience a feeling by being apart of the art. It allows for the artist to send a message that is packaged in away for an individual to understand and gain perspective on a particular matter.

Once the class had a better understanding of interactive art, we were able to develop ideas for 3 different interactive pieces. Once we had developed a few ideas we had to integrate them into Max 7 in order to bring the ideas to life.  My first idea was a word generator that produced a series of random words that derived from different categories of words. The audience would then construct a sentence using the random words provided by the generator, which is then written in a dedicated space. No one person will construct the same sentence and it will be interesting to see the variety of sentences constructed by each unique individual. The second study was based off controversial issues relating to politics and humanities. The study was designed to record the initial reaction of the user, which was immediately played after in a loop once they have seen the controversial image for a few seconds. This study was designed to observe the impact between people and controversial imagery. Considering that everyone has a different set of morals and beliefs, not everyone will react a certain way. What may be controversial to a lot of people can be normal to one person. The third study was more superficial in terms of its purpose in comparison to the first two studies. This study was a distorted live self portrait video of the user, which can be manipulated by the loudness of the user. This study was more concerned with aesthetics than being thought provoking. It was just a fun idea and a good learning exercise in understanding the language used in Max 7.

Overall it was a good start to the semester. I look forward to learning more interesting set ups used in Max 7 so I could produce different type of interactive art. Right now I am limited to basic distortion of live feeds and recording sounds.

Audio Visual Manipulator:

This piece of work was not designed to be thought provoking as the first two studies. However one could argue that the way the user interacts with the art can say a lot of things about themselves. The purpose of this study was to have the user be able to manipulate their live self portrait image using sound and generated data. The user can manipulate the live video with the loudness of their voice which will create big distortions of the image. The image is also automatically distorted by the sliders. This can be changed by the creator but for now the user can only distort the image through the loudness of their voice. When I have more time, I guess the next step from audio distortion would be distortion by the position of the subject moving. Another possibility could be distortion by the placement of the mouse. There are plenty of ways a user could manipulate their self-portraits by either moving them selves or a different object and even talking in a different way.

Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jVWMRDBTfEzY8KOr3Sq06u6umRHHFErm

Controversy

In our brain storming session our group of young minds conceptualised an art piece that would combine visuals and controversial topics. The main idea was to see how the user would self reflect after observing their initial reaction on a particular image that contained controversial content. The patch itself contained an image with three toggles that reveal 3 different controversial images that relate to politics, race and animal cruelty. When the user toggles for an image, an image will appear for a few seconds. This toggle automatically turns on the webcam and starts to record the reaction of the user. After a few seconds the image goes back to a blank frame and will see a playback loop of the few seconds that was recorded. Having the user spend a brief moment of time looking at their reaction is designed to provoke some kind of thought. There is no obvious answer on how the user will respond to the looped reaction footage, but hopefully it will trigger thought provoking ideas on the issue and their own morals and beliefs. The initial reaction is a very natural and candid response, which will be interesting to see how users will respond.

Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aNeXOj8sIVNKhAhEj-li1yKTmIx0CVCc

Word Generator:

I had a tough time building my word generator together. The concept was a lot more advanced in the language of Max 7. Since I failed to have the program working, I shall attempt to explain my thought process on how it would work. Influenced by interactive artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, I conceptualised the idea of generating a set of random words from each category of word (nouns, pronoun, verbs etc). This idea was inspired by Rafael because his art works have used logistics to understand human nature. The words will be selected from a database embedded in the patch which comes from all the words in the dictionary which are categorised in their respective grammatical classifications by a click a button. Once the user clicks the button, a series of words for each category are randomly generated. Here the user interacts with the art and is free to construct the desired sentence using the words provided by the generator. The written sentence will in a space where other users will write their own sentences as well. From the types of sentences constructed by the users, we can interpret the information in a variety of ways. We can grab a slight sense of mood the user was to the level of their literacy ability.

link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aFNTlAHPZqapUTXtQjF_hOwiSwMtTU4L

Here is a link to my presentation on interactive artist: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Rafael in many ways is a creative genius who, through his works, touch on politics and the sate of surveillance.

Link:

https://docs.google.com/a/student.rmit.edu.au/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vT1Y4i55D7M86iKM9lPcwjYLMM2KNtg-uS42SrNqGPfDn-wtsrFcftNOlMPmWVXe4y0hc7AP5WIhJai/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

Blog Post 1:

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/jeremy-nguyen/2018/05/27/blog-post-1-recap-of-the-semester/

Blog Post 2:

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/jeremy-nguyen/2018/05/27/blog-post-2-putting-it-into-practice/

Blog Post 3:

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/jeremy-nguyen/2018/05/27/blog-post-3-old-and-new/

Blog Post 4:

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/jeremy-nguyen/2018/05/27/blog-post-4-the-last-exercise/

Group Project Links:

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/michael-firus/2018/05/20/group-submission-of-practical-project-1/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/michael-firus/2018/05/19/group-submission-of-practical-project-2/

It was nice not to be shooting in empty parking lot, late at night outside in the freezing cold weather. In our last scene for our group project we shot in the day time inside a nice, warm and cozy house. Michael’s Grandma’s house to be exact. Despite having the available natural light, we felt that it would be nice to add in some extra lighting to fill the scene and highlight some diamonds – this was a lighting exercise as the end of the day. We were also up against the unpredictable and typical Melbourne weather as the lighting would fluctuate between sunny and overcast. In our second and final scene we set at out to try something different but also re-visit some of the lighting aspects in the first scene.

For this shoot we opted for a spray to provide some haze to the scene. This made a more subtle haze as it was thinner than the smoke from the smoke machine of the first shoot. This haze made it seem like it was meant to be there rather than the audience question whether there was a fire on set. The spray haze ultimately did a better job at texturising the light without getting in the way of the scene. However it did make the shots a little flatter

In terms of lighting the inside, we used one Michael’s LEDs and bounced it on the ceiling. The bounce was bright enough to have an exposure on Michael’s face but not enough to overpower the sun light from the window behind Michael. I felt that Michael’s front side being lit darker gave him the mysterious look that was portrayed by his character.

We were not so stuck for time this round so despite the weather being inconsistent, we were able to wait for the sunny day type of lighting when it became cloudy. Overall the lighting was very diffused and we were able to achieve very soft and warm lighting.

I absolutely love soft lighting. By default, in any lighting situation, I would diffuse any light source as much as I can, up until you start losing quality in the image due to lack of light. I also prefer to light a scene based on how it should be as it reflects on real life, rather than always opt for a traditional 3-point lighting set up that, without fail, makes subjects look flattering. Most subjects in classic Hollywood films are lit as though there was the heavenly light shone upon them, and virtually no shadows on their faces. The background is well lit to give it clarity and separation from the subjects, but none of it feels natural. Hard lighting was also predominantly used in this classic era over soft lighting. However the case for hard lighting was due to limitations in camera technology rather than being a preference over soft lighting. Compared to cinematography today, we see a transition from the classic Hollywood 3-point lighting; where everything is well lit and glamorous, to a much more practical use of lighting; where darkness is embraced much more than ever before.  Taking scenes from “The Philadelphia Story”, a classic Hollywood film from 1940, and “Eyes Wide Shut”, a relatively more progressive film that was made in 1999.

“The Philadelphia Story” contained a consistent lighting set up that was very representative of the time. This, of course, was the three-point lighting set up. The actors in the scene were beautifully lit with extra lights used to light up sparkly parts of a costume if necessary. Despite the actors looking fantastic, the lighting itself did not feel natural. The reason for this was because the lighting did not match up with what was in the scene. There are no real visible light sources to justify the faces of actors being lit.  If we observe this scene in the film which is inside a room, everything is well lit with no visible shadows. Is it not strange that two characters who are facing toward each other, still manage to be well lit? The reason could be that this was the default lighting set up because low light capabilities of cameras were shocking at the time; and therefore everything just to be lit in order to achieve an exposure?

In stark contrast we observe a different kind of lighting set up in “Eye’s wide shut”. The way the scene is lit in this jazz club scene, feels as though this is how we would actually see it in real life. Here the lighting is softer, and the intensities of light in the different areas of the scene are appropriately lit in correspondence to the light source.

We still use the classic 3-point lighting set up till this day, and there is nothing wrong with it. This technique that was widely use amongst many classic Hollywood films paved the way for the new era of lighting, which is practical lighting. I find myself gear towards practical lighting in my own film making, but I am not shy to opt for a three-point set up if I feel like it would be appropriate for an occasion.

A few weeks back my friend, a very talented singer and musician, asked me to shoot a simple music video for her cover of Jhene Aiko’s music. I felt that this was a great opportunity to practice what I have learnt so far outside of university. The song covered by my friend was called the “The Worst” which, to put it simple, is about a rough break up. The whole feel to the song was sad and loneliness, and I wanted to portray that through the lighting in the music video. In terms of scene, it had two subjects: my friend who was singer and my other friend who was on the keyboards. The subjects are set up in a way as if they were recording a take of the song.

The Lighting set up was very simple. I hired two LED lights from AV Loans that had a tungsten filter on it with a temperature of 3100 K. In terms of the quality of the light, I wanted the light to be very soft. I bounced one of the LED’s on the roof from the left side which acted as the fill. The second light was shone towards the subjects from the right side, which acted as the key light. The key light was very diffused as I placed it outside, in which it was shining through a window and white thin curtains.

I placed the singer right next to the curtain, as she will receive a stronger highlight than the keyboardist. In terms of their position in the room, I placed the subjects in front of the corner to achieve some depth in the shot. I was also able to sperate the subjects nicely when it came to the side profile shots.

Overall the lighting was very warm and soft, which is what I was what I wanted to achieve. I was able to get some nice shadows which were a few stops darker than the highlights. Overall this kind of lighting gave the scene a ‘moody’ look so that it would complement the song itself.

Here are some of the shots I took for the video:

There may have been some things I missed, but I am certain I have learnt a thing or two about lighting as we approach the end of the semester. I think the biggest idea that we should all take home after a few months’ worth of lighting is how we should think about lighting and from there we can figure how to approach it in a practical sense. Lighting is not primarily focused on being the most aesthetic part of a visual, but first and foremost an aid to the visual narrative. Lighting really shines, no pun intended, when it seamlessly rides along the narrative. It is something we don’t take too much notice, until it is done horribly. Aside from the theoretical aspect of lighting, I have learnt plenty of practical things along the way. At the end of the day, it is all good to think a lot about lighting and all, but we could never make real sense of it if we do not apply it into practical scenarios.

I am going to list a few things that I felt were really interesting ideas that we learnt and practiced.

• A light source can be bounced against a white wall to create fill light. Utilising this technique will result in a softer light source that will spread amongst the whole room.
• When imitating light should always think about the intensity of the light; the direction in which the original source would actually come from; and the quality of the light. If we were trying to replicate an overcast day, then the light would be less directional and scattered every where. The light will be soft because the clouds act as a natural diffuser. The temperature of the lighting would be dependent on time of day (midday overcast would generally be around 6000k)
• We should always try to achieve depth in our visuals in order to avoid flat looking footage. For example, when placing a subject in a room, we can avoid a plain looking image by place the subject further away from the wall. Placing the subject in front of the corner of the wall is good way of achieving depth. Another way of obtaining depth is placing objects in the foreground. However the choice must be appropriate for the scene, and we should not be placing things in the back or front for the sake of achieving depth.
• Sometimes it is just better to use the available light. Not every scene requires lighting equipment, and we should always think about the light that is available to us in a natural setting.

I felt that some of these points that I have addressed would always be revisited in every shoot that I partake in. These points are just some simple fundamental tips, but are so essential to think about in order to properly light and construct a scene. One of our last lighting practicals was one of my most favourite lighting exercises I have experienced. Here are a few snap shots of the set up where we used white and black boards to bounce and take away spill light: