So today we were presenting our second project – “From Here to There”, everyone had really amazing and original ideas, all stemming from different concepts we found in our readings.
My video received mainly positive feedback, however I was able to gain some ways to improve the video or many other ways I could have approached it.
One thing that I could have done was to make the sound/noise more raw and less altered, it seemed that at times the two elements of video and sound did not go together.
I enjoyed many of the different locations that everyone else provided, abandoned warehouses, bridges and even a bathroom!!
For this assignment we were encouraged to deter from our usual areas and to explore places and space that are distant and unfamiliar to us. While “From Here to There” suggested we focus on “notions of journey, transformation, departure, arrival and everything in between.” I wanted to contrast those ideas and suggestions and instead focus on the ‘here’ and ‘not here” thereby exploring the topic of ‘anti-space’. In my video, I cut different scenes from a full day of footage at a park, slicing between the habited and inhabited, depicting the arrival and departure without the simple progression of people walking in and out. Instead, I attempted to use sound as a method to create a more time fluid environment, one that does not progress in a straight line.
I established my concept through the idea that “Place and non-place are rather like opposite polarities: the first is never completely erased and the second never completed” (Marc Auge, 1995). My video provides examples of both space; “a ‘frequented place'” compared to a “more abstract” definition of it. By contrasting the park with both people/animals and desolation I am able to “allude to a sort of negative quality of place, an absence of the place from itself”, and although I have scenes where no humans are present, I still include the sound of footsteps and birds as to symbolise life being present in the image. However, in complete reverse, I also included some scenes (that eventually flash to a long pause) of dead silence and a completely abandoned area, signifying the “anti-space” as the place is no long what it was or what it was used for.
It was also important for me not to only create large details, but small “observations” too. Whilst my foreground contained most of the movements and people, I wanted to “make a distinction” (Mason, 2002) between the background and foreground. By allowing small movements within my background I was able to “distinguish some ‘thing’ from it’s surroundings”. At certain times there were other people playing or acting in the background as well as the noise of birds to fill in the empty space as well, and because the eye was constantly pulled towards the swing and sign at the front, viewers are expected to go pass “ordinary-noticing” and instead perceive a little deeper into the footage. On the other side, I also provided footage where there was nothing to delve into, and instead viewers are baffled by silence and a empty slot of footage, where the park has no one and no sound, a distinction from the remaining of the video.
The filming of this video took a whole day to complete, I spent a day at the park recording a few of my friends in different spots around the park and in the swing. However the most difficult part was collect a good variation of sounds that I could play with and use to create the effect I desired. All the sounds I found were either in the area naturally, or I created by banging certain objects (kicking the side of the slide), and then edited in Garageband. For me the texture of noise would be crucial to how the final video came out. As previously stated; my video was to give a sense of time fluidity, where time would seem to flow in back and forth phases rather than consecutively.
Overall, the concept of my piece was to explore both space and anti-space in a way that depicts the contrast between the two. It was an interesting topic and I liked the fact that I chose a more experimental manner of doing so, rather than just completing it within my own comfort zones and what formulas I usually set.
References
Auge, M, 1995. Non-Places:Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. The Near and Elsewhere, 1, 1-120.
Mason, J, 2002. Researching your own Practice: The Discipline of Noticing. Forms of Noticing, 1, 21-884.
