Our final media sculpture for the memory screen studio titled ‘Fiat Lux’ (let there be light) is a prism object entrapping a hologram projection of a video poem. The sculpture confronts users to speculate their role as consumers in digital spaces by retreating to a method of old-timey spectacle known as a ‘Peppers Ghost’ illusion. This confrontation and medium ties into a key concern of this semesters studio that asks how we can create new and exciting media outcomes that are backed with historical knowledge. Our original concept was much larger in scale and centred around a dual interactive experience mimicking the relationship between a content consumer and content creator. In the production process our concept warped and evolved into a much more condensed object that was not interactive but instead cultivated an audio-visual experience. ‘Fiat Lux’ became much more concerned with interrogating a broader consumer audience about their obligation to see content rather than to look at content through purposeful and performative viewing. Seeing the world, images and messages we compile of it is not simply about how we look but what we make of what we see (Mirzoeff 2015). The visual poem beamed by hologram into the objects liminal interior was a combination of pop cultural and abstracted media material superimposed with a poem about seeing versus looking. The written poem aspect is brutalised by intermittent phrases of gibberish, mimicking content lovingly deemed by 21st century internauts as ‘brain rot’. Through uses of novelty and spectacle the sculpture entrances observers. The object feels almost magical and mysterious, much like how early processed visual outputs compelled early media theorists to ponder such extensions of the human capacity to see (Jay 1983). The prism shell exterior takes a form of its own, equally as intriguing as the interior media aspect. Inspired by religious structures, the pointed object invites you to peek inside. A religious tonality was heavily inspired by artist Nam June Paik particularly his 1976 artwork ‘TV Buddha’ of which we referenced throughout our project’s timeline. Paiks artwork also falls on pillars of questioning to do with self awareness and digital consumerism. Our sculpture too inhibits a sense of self awareness upon the observer, an awareness to an act of seeing rather than looking. The object, at waist height demands the viewer to bend and peek inside. The act of peeking culminates a vouyeristic feeling, forcibly fetishising the act of looking making one rather self aware of what they’re actually seeing. It is in a way a meditation, and objectively aims to change how observers of the object consider their consumption of digital media in the wastelands of the internet and social media. Even if this consideration is briefly lived.
The singular most successful aspect of this project was its achieved element of curiosity. The dark space caressing a ghostly video, matched with ethereal and meditative audio produced by Ji Na proved to provide a thoughtful, unique and engaging user-experience. The singular most problematic element, I believe was poor structural execution. Group members Val and Keras worked incredibly hard to construct the object after various failed material explorations and prospects. The final object still worked well to house the media aspects of the project but given more time would have benefitted from refinement and better craftsmanship. If I were to continue working on the project, firstly I would achieve a much sounder theoretical base for the sculpture with wider and deeper research into the history of moving image and societies of spectacle. I think this would improve the artworks audience reach and open up clearer means of representing ideas. I think our project been would have benefitted from this too, as potentially we would have resided in a final form sooner, leaving much more time for refinement rather than a constant changing of plans. Adding to this, and with a budget handy, I would upscale the sculpture to house a monitor screen or television laid flat rather than an iPad. I think visually and as a part of a gallery or exhibition space this would be much more exciting and emotionally gripping. Potentially with this upgrade, the sound scale could be scaled up to surround a room space instead of being absorbed through headphones.
One key thing I’ve learnt from this studio is how to begin to abstract my thinking in my creative media practise. Learning about many influential artists and thinkers beyond a typical commercial film background has really inspired me to imbed my future film projects with more meaningful philosophies and lines of questioning. I’m excited to continue to expand my habits in weird and out-of-the-box thinking that I’ve garnered from this studio, and to keep making artworks about cinema and other media forms. My key takeaway about collaborating is that it is a process of not only about streamlining motivations and modes of communicating but to be able to compromise as an individual in order to create amazing things that everyone feels a part of.
Jay, M (1993), ‘Downcast Eyes : The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French Thought’, University of California Press, Berkeley. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [25 October 2024].
Paik N.J (1976) TV Buddha [sculpture], Art Gallery of N.S.W. Sydney, New South Wales
Mirzoeff, N (2015), ‘How We Think About Seeing’, in How to See the World, Pelican Books, Great Britain