Today we met up as a class in a uni computer lab, and I continued to edit my sequence. I was feeling quite drained after yesterdays long editing session and did not have a particular motivation to continue. Luckily, I spent some time during the class helping my classmates with various editing technicalities, this gave me time to refocus and get much needed social interaction. For example, I was asked how to change a specific colour so that it no longer looked like blood. I suggested using the “Change Colour” effect in Premiere.

Before the class ended I started to place the venetian blind graphics into my composition and it started to look interesting. This added a much needed motivational spark as i started to see the piece come together.

Today I met with Simone Lau (a 2nd Year Media Student) to film the required components for my signal presentation. My basic idea consists of using silhouettes that interact with the screens, making them look like windows (because at signal, they actually are windows).

I filmed the silhouettes on a green screen with a front facing monitor so that we could position ourselves in relation to our imaginary blinds. I was then able to edit the footage in after effects and construct the whole scene. For example here is the original hug sequence on green screen:

Here it is with the characters in position on the template:

after talking to Simone and being in the space myself I decided that the sequence of events would go as follows:

1. Man drawing blinds

2. Woman drawing blinds

3. Both drawing blinds

4. They embrace

Simone suggested that for a hug it is important that one person be comforted and one be comforting. This is something which up until this point I had not considered. However made sense and I ended up deciding the man would be comforted, meaning he would remain in focus at his window in the final scene.

To enhance the illusion of depth I also added a blurred silhouette of the characters profile to the window perpendicular to them, as they progress to the corner of the building this shadow becomes more and more clear.

Because the footage was shot without time cues, I had to match a lot of the timing in post, using after effects i slowed down and sped up different parts of the footage so that the side profiles and characters all moved in sync. This is a process called ‘time remapping’

This week is the last meeting at signal before our drafts are due, therefore we took the time do go over the technical aspects of the project. Due to my being on the Tech Team I was asked to run through the process of how to use the Signal Projector Screen Template in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Robbie is still away, which meant I had to discuss details with the signal staff myself. Im really glad that I had to engage with them because up until today I had not yet properly talked to them. I found that they were extremely helpful and quickly helped us with anything we needed. We were able to get a projector and a screen up an running to show the class the tutorial for Premiere pro. Upon the completion of the meeting I realised that it would probably need to post a video or at least a text summary of the tutorial as it was a lot of content in a short time. Other than that, the meeting was quite a success, with everybody learning a lot and having a good time.

This week Robbie is away and the class has to coordinate its own meetings. Fortunately we have all been given an education and were able to plan a meeting all by ourselves:

During the meeting we mainly discussed how our individual work was progressing, most of us were surprised that the draft was only a week away.

I personally find this quite disturbing as i have not planned out my idea fully, however I have a good visual picture. My current plan is to film on Tuesday and have the draft ready for Wednesday.

Today we had our first full class meeting at Signal arts center which as previously mentioned is the location for our final project. The main idea was to just brainstorm today about how we could make a specific to site contribution to the project. Robbie suggested that each class member have a 8 second time to present something, this would allow everybody equal exposure, especially when considering the short attention spans of a passing audience.

Here are a few ideas which intrigued me:

– Using the projection screens as windows into a house and having somebody’s silhouette draw curtains or peep outside the window. This would effectively activate the interior of the site as a place.

– Giving the signal box eyes and a personality in which it interacts with surroundings.

– Showing the history of the land, making it look like theres a reflection of the surroundings in the glass, buildings being built along the Yarra.

– Using the screens to have an object viewed from two angles, the persons profile on one screen and on the perpendicular having their face.

The goal for next week is to finalize personal brainstorming and bring our ideas forward to the class.

Today in class we presented our Project brief 3 videos. It was interesting in the case of my group, because neither Marissa nor I had seen the video until the official screening in class. When we did see it it was very nice to see that there was actually a coherent core of information drawn from the broad range of interview questions with which we originally presented Marcus.

The feedback that we received from the class was overall positive, however a point was made that we had not included enough footage of Marcus’ actual work. Joseph from testing grounds attended the class and informed us that we could have approached him, as he has lots of archival footage. With this in mind we decided to contact Joseph, get footage, and improve upon our video.

The idea behind project brief three was to expand on our exploration of the Testing Ground site. This was achieved by allowing us to engage with artists that had at some point or another utilized the space for various projects. My group was assigned to the artist Marcus Cook of Shotgun Services, who specialises in sensor based art. Marcus works across the road from testing grounds and was able to watch it being developed, he explained that this sparked his interest in the space and eventually led to him using it. After interviewing him and discussing his project we then went ahead to create a short video documentary about his work. Our group consisted of three members and was essentially a collaborative process, the efficiency of which would determine the project’s success. Overall I believe the project was successful as it greatly developed our own personal creative processes. Firstly, before evaluating our group efforts I would like to go into a bit of depth about Marcus Project. What he did was set up an array of sensors, scattered throughout the Testing Ground space, which depending on the movements and sounds of the spectators would manipulate an algorithm which controlled video feedback, the video was then projected onto a large wall. When we interviewed Marcus one of the first things he mentioned was that the reliance on an audience interacting with the piece meant that as an artist he needed to be detached from his own expectations. Often the spectators would interact with ‘the machine’ in ways that he had not planned for or expected, this unpredictable factor coupled with the interesting layout of Testing Grounds meant that he was constantly learning. He would modify the machine occasionally to interact most efficiently with the predicted behaviour of the audience. This is something which I would assume occurs in all forms of interactive art, thus I did some research into the field. Sure enough Ryszard W Kluzszynski, PhD head of The Department of Media and AudioVisual Culture at Lodz University in a paper titled “Strategies of Interactive Art” states that: “Regardless of what shape the final product of an artist’s activity takes on, an interactive piece of art finds its real, final formation only as a result of participative behavior of the audience. Kluzsynski goes onto explain that an interactive art installation should be designed free from “…space arrangements, or esthetic and semantic parameters of dispositives or apparatuses created or used by artists.” This idea of flexibility and the willingness to adapt is one that I believe is essential to every artistic endeavor and has clearly been a part of my group’s own creative process. Marcus Cook is an artist that does not have much information about his projects online, this meant that prior to actually meeting him our understanding of his work was quite vague. As a result of this we were unable to storyboard or plan any form of documentary, therefore we just needed to interview him and hope for the best. When the day to interview arrived we booked the RMIT TV studio for use of their lighting equipment, however, at the last minute it turned out that they were double booked. Fortunately for us the RMITV Crew who were using the space helped us find a new location in the school of Media Coms. radio theatre and provided us with a lighting kit. Neither Marissa or I, who were present at the interview had previous experience with redheads; meaning we had to learn on the job, which luckily for us did not prove difficult. We succeeded in setting up lights and before we knew it Marcus Cook had arrived and was being interviewed. He is a pleasant man and there was no issues communicating to him what we needed, we simply explained to him that the focus of the project was his use of Testing Grounds, we then pressed record on the equipment and started talking. The interview questions themselves had to be improvised, as much like Marcus’ Machine they needed to constantly adapt to suit the feedback we were receiving. Throughout this back-and-forth process we got a good idea of Marcus work and were able to explore areas in varying levels of depth depending on where his answers would draw focus. Thus the gathering of data ended up being a very organic process, only confirming the need of having a flexible vision. Due to technical difficulties with our software, I personally have not yet seen the final result of the project. However, this is in itself still proving the point, Siobhan would have when she did the final edit of the material, decided on the end vision of the piece. Since she was not present at the interview, this vision will be based on her objective perspective of the interview content. This could mean that the final video is taken in a direction totally independant of what either Marissa or I had mentally started to construct as Marcus spoke. In conclusion, the project has taught us a great deal about the creative process, and the importance of flexibility. Whether or not the flexibility led to a better final final product will have to be determined upon screening of the video.

References:
Kluszczynski, R. (2010). Strategies of interactive art. Journal of AESTHETICS &
CULTURE, 2(0).
Cook, M. (2015). Shogun Lodge Services. [online] Facebook.com. Available at:
https://www.facebook.com/shogunlodge [Accessed 20 Aug. 2015].

This week is the RMIT holiday, however, we have arranged to meet with our artist Marcus Cook. We have been assigned to make a short documentary/interview with Marcus for project brief 3. After emailing back and forth we managed to arrange a time in the evening where we could meet and film and interview. Unfortunately Marcus himself does not have a studio, this means that we had to meet him on RMIT Campus and we wouldn’t be able to capture him in his natural environment.

In order to create a space for the interview we booked the TV studio in building 5, this was in order to use their lighting system. It was all set up and would make the process much easier. However, on the night it turned out that RMITV was using the studio spaces for training. We told them that we could find another space, they were happy to help us do this and showed us to the Radio Theatre in building 9. The problem here was lighting, since we could not get into he control box we had to use another setup. Luckily our new friends over at RMIT gave us a Redhead kit, the only problem was that we had never used Redheads before. I didn’t realize how quickly they got hot and i placed once on the carpet while it was on… and lets say I left my mark on the carpet… Luckily after that little incident we learnt quickly and were able to set up quite a nice three point lighting setup.

Here is a still photo from the interview

The actual interview went well, as Marcus is a pleasant person and talks easily in front of a camera. The questions we asked him were improvised based on what he was saying and what we found to be interesting. Before hand we explained to him what the project was, this allowed total transparency and enabled him to focus his answers. In the end we got 30minutes of great material from him. The footage will now be given to Siobhan to edit.

For our final Specific to Site project we have been given the task of creating a presentation for Signal. Signal is a youth recreation and arts center located on the north bank of the Yarra River. The most significant feature are the e-glass projection screens on three faces of the building, and the 40 speaker sound walk. Since it is in a public space it has the potential to impact many people and will be quite a powerful space to work in.

Today a few of us met at signal to survey the site and get a basic idea of how it could be utilised. We spoke with the sites artistic director and she gave us a lot of the specs of the site. These ranged from technical details to the past projects which have been exhibited.

As a group exploring site, our challenge is going to be using the space to its full potential and location; not just another projector screen. For example, im thinking we could place sensors and have the work respond to the adjacent train tracks or river. However, before we draw conclusions we will gather the full group at the location.

Here is the official signal website:
http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/Signal/Pages/Signal.aspx

This evening our class met up at “Testing Grounds”, which is an open air artistic space in the heart of Melbourne. Located just behind the arts center the humble plot of land is disposable to any artist bold enough to utilize it.

Currently the Artist in residence/curator of the facility is a man who I only know by his codename “Joseph”. Joseph himself is currently developing a number of concepts based around projection, one of which is the Projector Pack™. Basically they are handheld projector and speaker systems which connect to iPods to create portable presentation devices.  Our group was quite excited at the idea of being able to try these devices ourselves an taking them for a test run around the city, so that is what we did. Prior to the meeting at testing grounds we collected digital material which we desired to project, it was then loaded onto the iPods.

I personally opted to project an extended version of the silhouette video I had used in “Bush Funk” . My vision was based on the principle that black does not project, therefore it would look like the person was either empty or the only thing being projected. Hopefully this would create the illusion that it is interacting with the surface onto which it is being projected. This concept was only partially successful, for it to have worked the actual video should have been designed for it. However, it had been created as a dance clip, which made the shots too short and erratic to actually place properly, although it worked as a proof of concept.

For the evening I was on the documentary team, therefore I took video and still photos of the event, i have attached a small selection of the photos below.