Editing is an aspect of human experience that can be extended beyond our creative projects. Throughout the time humans have occupied this planet, editing has become inextricably linked to the material objects we can see, hear and feel. External entities such as poetry, storytelling and painting have become sacred virtues of humankind. These material things are created around what is important. Editing is the omission of things that are not in line with what we want something to be. The eventual outcome of a project of any kind is linked to the importance of an object belonging to the process. A sentence is discarded because it isn’t relevant to the overall structure of an essay. The colour purple is sacrificed for blue because it doesn’t match with our expectations of a sky. The rhythmic beat of a snare is replaced in a composition because it distracts the listener from the overall song. Our main aim when creating pieces of work, whether it be in art, politics or general society is the pursuit of a polished outcome that reflects a subtle sense of beauty.

The greatest pieces of art have received accolades for representing the natural features that define something as wholesome and complete. Take one of the most famous artworks ever created, the Mona Lisa. This painting was applauded for its use of subtle colour tones to depict a woman that is beautiful and enriching to the eye. Viewers are mesmerised by the piercing stare of the woman’s eyes. As a viewer, we are captured by our own wonderment, a perfection that can only be achieved through the artifice of this painting. This visual masterpiece is constructed on the omission of things, a process that relates to an overall ‘finished’ piece. A sense of importance is given to realising the realistic beauty of the woman, rather than documenting the inevitable flaws that are hidden behind her still facade. The use of dark colours is a subtle decision that reflects the realism da Vinci was trying to achieve. What comes out of this process da Vinci employs, is the goal of capturing a realistic portrayal of a person. All pieces of work, whether it is an art piece or a functional object, are substantiated by a goal that emerges through the editing process an author employs. This sense of a goal plays an important part of allowing us to understand the editing process that exists around us every day.

To bring an object to life, there is a sense of importance that is placed on the eventual function the object is going to serve. Whether the object is functional or simply existing as a beautiful artifice, we, as humans, have an internal editing process by which all these creations are made. It is easy to see how editing becomes an important part of our everyday lives when we attempt to create our own object. Upon trying to create an individual object, we are met with a barrage of incoming messages about how to edit the object and bring it into our lives with some sense of importance. When I am creating a piece of media work,  whether it is a film or a photograph, the editing process is always present even if I am not aware of it myself. The choices I make are inbuilt within my subconscious. One of the important things I am trying to explore here is the way that editing can extend beyond the materiality of objects that exist around us. It is this point about the subconscious parts of the human mind that leads into the idea of editing that exists to create importance within our inner self.

All humans use editing to filters parts of our own existence, aiming to create representations of ourselves to the outside world. There is an editing process that lies behind the mind of every person living on this planet. Each person holds different ideas and goals that carry varying degrees of importance. This creates an internal editing process which people use to reach the desired result. The result is often hidden by the material outcome that we hope to see, however, it is important to delve into the mind of our own psyche to understand how editing can be a useful word to describe our own experiences in life. Editing an object is similar to the way we edit ourselves. We omit information about ourselves we perceive as unimportant. Our internal experiences are governed by the way our thoughts and memories shape the way we perceive the world and react to it. Our thoughts edit out the parts of ourselves we want to remain hidden. There is an entire array of internal representations that exist within us each day. An internal monologue exists 24/7, even if we are mostly unaware of it. This monologue is the editing process by which we craft ourselves in life. With little investigation into this monologue, we accept this editing process as a part of our being and who we are in life. There is a strange dichotomy between the lies and truths that exist internally within our mind without us realising the implications they have on our actions. It is important to identify the chaos and complexity of our minds. Acknowledging this internal turmoil gives us greater context to how we behave in situations and the way in which we interact with the world around us.

The reason I am discussing this process is because it relates to the way our media projects can be created within the framework of this class. In this class, we are attempting to give new value to story, a tool that has become the accustomed way of explaining the world. We hold onto editing like we do a story, blindly accepting it as the only way of creating pieces of work and understanding ourselves. When looking into an editing process it is easy to see how bewildering this process actually is. Once finishing a project and an object has been created, we often forget about the editing process that got us to this conclusion in the first place. The editing process is made up of a bunch of different material related to the object that never makes the final cut. We discard the messiness and embrace the perfection that comes from the external outcome that everyone can see. A common analogy for this process is the way the tip of an iceberg represents a fraction of what we actually see. A finished product only represents 20% of what has occurred during the process of creating the final piece. Like our minds, we forget that our actions are occupied by an array of thoughts and emotions we don’t actually acknowledge.

In the media pieces we are trying to create, we are attempting to look into the complexity of objects and the messy space they occupy. This messy space is at the forefront of understanding the hidden beauty of an object and the way in which humans come to conclusions about things in the world. Perhaps creating media works that are unfinished and less polished, could capture the confusing process that all objects exist in. A polished piece of work does a good job of making something look refined. However, an unpolished piece of work could allow the audience to draw greater meaning from the complexity of an object. By taking editing out of the equation, we allow the natural muddiness of objects to emerge. If editing is a natural part of our human experience, wouldn’t it be necessary to focus on the editing process rather than the outcome in order to create a deeper appreciation of a work? Why not make the editing process the actual piece? Why not show how we got to the final outcome in the first place? Allowing the editing process to take shape in a film or a photograph could reflect that way we naturally edit our entire existence. I think there is something alluring about using editing as a tool to bring the vague nature of our existence into the forefront of our media works. A sense of natural completion arises from the disorganised chaos of an edit.