Video Link: https://youtu.be/DieVbu1yULc
This week, I have taken what I learnt about “staying with the trouble”, to emphasise the disturbances in our environment in order to ensure genuine change for the future, into my media practice. Haraway’s statement that “Our task is to make trouble, to stir up potent response to devastating events” outlines the need for media makers to produce work that disturbs viewers into action that simultaneously reflects the trouble in the environment.
As I visited the rocks near Tamarama Beach again, I focused on the ways in which I could highlight not only the natural erosion of the rocks from the ocean waves, but the human wear of them. I took several scenic shots of the sandstone and contrasted them with unusual subject matter such as the helicopter in the sky, symbolising a cry for help, and close-ups of the sandstone holes. Additionally, I edited the footage in an alternating way, just as Hannah Brasier did in her film, Surface Levels. With rapid cuts, I hope to stir up feelings of uneasiness in viewers. Lastly, I layered sound effects on top of the raw audio from the waves crashing on the rocks to resemble the overpowering sounds made by humans, such as electronic buzzing, carving and creaking ship floorboards, almost as if the vessel is sinking.
For works in a similar vein, I would like to use distorted camera techniques to frame the shots in an even more unsettling manner. To truly facilitate the message of human erosion, I would also like to take videos of the rocks being grinded away somehow, or perhaps even close-ups of the sand particles drifting through the water.
References:
Brasier, H. (2023). Surface Levels [Film].
Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the Trouble : Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rmit/detail.action?docID=4649739.
Media Resources:
All in U-Tubers. (2022). Wood Carving Sound Effects No Copyright Claims | All in U-Tubers [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/TgoeiAX8jH8?si=-6qrGOdNwBTegeK3
BridgeSound. (2021). Flickering Light Sound Effect – Creative Commons Sound [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/TOueemiIVYU?si=QSuC2gmQmge-C-Kr
Friendly Free Sounds. (2023). Creaking Wood Sound Effects (Ship / Floor) No Copyright [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/XgETd7c4YxE?si=JwbjLgSbdDuh-raI