In making this sketch for the observational mode of exploration, I took on ideas from George Perec’s fourth chapter in An attempt at exhausting a place in Paris (2010), Barbara Bolt’s The Magic is in the Handling (2010), as well as the class discussion surrounding these readings.
The sound of a departing tram, trams passing by, or a flock of birds is reoccurring throughout my sketch, just as Perec’s use of buses and bus numbers throughout the chapter, which create a sense of rhythm amongst the chaos. Every passer-by at the lawn outside of State Library is different, but the trams and the pigeons are almost routine. The methodology of his writing is circular, which is an idea I considered when piecing the shots together, by capturing the public place from different angles but beginning with the building in the frame and returning to the architecture towards the end. Perec creates a sense of natural flow through a lack of punctuation, suggesting that life goes on and people keep existing despite a change in observation, which is what I wanted to achieve by capturing how life interacts with architecture in a public place as people and birds move in and out of the space, even if done roughly so.
The Bolt reading on Hockney’s five-steps of practice-led research can be applied to media-making, as something unknown is informed by practice, and what you do is informed by prior experience. As discussed in class, going into a partnership comes with some level of previous experience and so in filming public places and having prior knowledge, we can put this knowledge into practice through simple experimentation. The concept of ‘fly on the wall’ documentary through Friedrich Wiseman’s In Jackson Heights is something I also drew inspiration from when piecing the shots together, as little editing is done in post-production, but audio carrying into the next shot was an editing decision I followed at times to create a more whole piece and sense of place.
Bibliography
Bolt B, ‘The Magic is in the Handling’, 2010, London, I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited, pp 27 – 34
Perec, George, ‘An attempt at exhausting a place in Paris’, 2010, Lowenthal, Marc.Cambridge, MassWakefield Press, pp 22 – 27
Wiseman F (director), 2015, ‘In Jackson Heights’, USA