Signal’s umbrella idea involved the word OBSESSION, an object, theme or story we desperately wanted to tell to the public. For my theme, I played on an idea derived from Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) in his book “Alice in Wonderland”, I was fascinated by the idea of world inside a world, or in this case a small universe inside the walls of the Signal building. This connected with reoccurring motif of Alice growing and shrinking, pushing up against walls and trying to escape from tiny spaces. I combined this idea with the thought of loneliness and confinement from reality, being hidden away inside of a fantasy world where nothing is as it seemed to the viewer.

Carroll’s book has always been associated with “Memory, language, and consciousness” (D.Robson, 2015), many of it’s themes and stories being directly linked to the idea of madness and insanity. I discovered that back in 1955 a psychiatrist, Jason Todd, found that many of his patients reported a feeling that was similar to Alice’s growing conundrum, a condition dubbed Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. Most common in little children, they reported seeing the room upside down, people who were standing next to them could be seen across the room and the feeling of their bodies expanding or contracting (micropsia (objects appear too small) and macropsia (objects appear too large)). I wanted to pinpoint that exact feeling of pressure and exposure, becoming trapped inside the four walls of a building, a feeling that was ultimately psychological – “They were almost too embarrassed. People want to be told that they’re not crazy.” (H. Stapinski, 2014). While I originally wanted to incorporate a singular model interacting with a glass screen into my shot and play that on micropsia, I soon discovered that it would be too difficult to create that fourth wall I wanted with the glass screen. I wasn’t able to find a sheet of glass large enough to give the effect I intend it to, so I changed my idea and decided to position three different models throughout the four different shots I wanted. Also, instead of having a full body shot, I switched to portrait but still kept the element of interaction.

However with the introduction of multiple models came the idea of isolation. When an individual is a singular display on the screen it is the primary target of audience members, but if you bring multiple model into the image then viewers will expect them to somehow interact in one way or another. I decided that for my models, they will all be separated by the borders of the Signal windows, each window has a dark border and thus will provide a wall between each person.

Isolation itself is both a physically and mentally harrowing experience for individuals, once again playing on the idea of psychological illusion and madness, isolation caused “hallucinations… bizarre scenes, such as squirrels marching with sacks over their shoulders or processions of eyeglasses filing down a street. They had no control over what they saw” (M. Bond, 2014). It seemed only logical to mix both Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” with the theme of isolation, both conformed on the idea of mental instability and the unreliability of our memories and senses themselves.

For my soundscape I looked into augmented 4ths in music, also know as the Devil’s Interval. Not specifically associated with Satan himself, the triad causes a dissonance between the two notes and gave an ugly sound, gaining it’s name from the Church when music was primarily used for Hymns and songs referring to God. Used only “by composers when they want to create an atmosphere of evil or dread” (G. Veith, 2011) I believed that it was only fitting to use such a morbid and organic tone to accompany my visuals (although not related). The only real issue I had with the sound was the form, have a three channel system did complicate my soundscape and I would have preferred to have something a little more precise and delicate, hopefully in the future I’ll dedicate some more time to sound editing.

Despite the long processors I’ve gone through, I am happy with my final and finished shots and sounds. The idea behind “Alice in Wonderland” still interests me greatly and I know that there are still many different themes and motifs I have not explored behind the book and it’s hidden meanings. Overall it’s been amazing showcasing my work in a space like Signal and I wish to continue expanding behind my ideas in the future, not only for class but also as a personal experiment.

References

D. Robson, 2015. Five things Alice in Wonderland reveals about the brain. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150225-secrets-of-alice-in-wonderland.

J. Veith, 2011. The Devil’s interval. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2011/07/the-devils-interval/.

Liua, Liua, Liu, Liu, 2014. “Alice in Wonderland” Syndrome: Presenting and Follow-Up Characteristics. Pediatric Neurology, Volume 51, Issue 3, Pages 317–320.

During the final weeks of our semester in Specific to Site we were given the opportunity to collaborate with Signal which included an opening night for our work! This was a pretty huge deal for most of us because it was a public event and Robbie made it clear that it was all hands on deck for this project with set up, making posters and invites. The class was divided in technical, PR, documentation and Exhibition for the exhibition. Nicolette and Siobhan became the production managers which I feel helped all the groups communicate easier. I was placed in the PR team, who dealt with the Facebook group, press kit, invites, posters, booklet and general promotion of the event itself.

My initial role in the team was to design and sort the posters for the event, I was planning on waiting for the blog to be completed before starting anything, however in a moment of miscommunication Rose created a poster instead. So I busied myself by trying to help others and seeing if anything needed to be followed up during the first few weeks, but obviously this wasn’t enough and everyone else had their roles they needed to complete. I was a little disappointed with myself that I didn’t help more with the PR during the beginning and I did notice that I needed to communicate more with the group and keep myself updated with what everyone was saying in Facebook chat.

However in the end I was told to start the booklet, which I drafted and passed onto Rose who posted in the bio photos and made some edits with the design of the booklet. The designing and drafting of the booklet was not the most difficult part, obviously not all of the bio photos were taken – which I was guilty of, it was being able to print and create the booklets themselves that gave everyone trouble. I wasn’t able to make it to the printing day, nor was Rose and therefore the pages ended up being printed incorrectly which only gave us until the day of the opening to get it printed, cut and all stapled together. What could have be better was to have the overall design of the booklet thought out before the printing, we all had different ideas on how the booklets would look and even when we were cutting them we still had to stop and discuss the manner in which we stapled them.

So a few of us assembled around an hour before the opening time, Nicolette had printed out the booklets (around 40 of them) and just began cutting like no tomorrow with the slicing machine. I helped organise and staple and with two people cutting and the rest of us stapling and organising we were all done before the cut-off time!

Overall I believe that my team all communicate really well and worked sufficiently together, everyone tried to make themselves available whenever they could be and fulfilled roles with great gusto and enthusiasm. Rose, of course had a huge role with the theme and design of posters, invites, and helping with the booklet. Elaine created out Facebook event and did a large portion of writing. Marissa completed the press kit and Gianna did an amazing job on finishing the website. Of course since many of us, including me, did have jobs outside of this event, I was disheartened when I wouldn’t be able to make a meeting or go to help with the printing of booklets. However I tried to make the best of a bad situation and wanted to help out as much as I could, and attempted to make myself helpful whenever anyone needed something.

The opening night was a success, with everyone being able to complete their videos and sound, as well as all the posters, invites and booklet being complete on time. If there was anything I had learnt from this experience was that it’s important to keep communication lines open, especially when working with such a large group of people. I made the mistake of thinking that someone would always follow up with me on what to do rather then informing the group that I had no job or that the booklet was ready to be printed. I did feel like I could have made a larger contribution to the team and I struggled to find time out of my personal and working life to give more effort into the exhibition and postering. I think in the future I’ve definitely better understood the dynamics of working together in a large group, and that communication between each of my team members was the most crucial part to the success of Signal.

With the exhibition on Thursday, I wasn’t a large part of the set up as most of the work was delegated to the Exhibition/Installation team, who all did a wonderful job of presenting and setting up the space.

In the end, my second semester was probably one of my favourite within the past two years, we not only create quality content, we were also allowed to publicly showcase our work. And the best lesson I’ve learnt from all of this is communication and being able to work together and plan ahead with your team members on what you want to create. My class and teacher, Robbie, have all been really supportive and great to work with, I hope that I could continue creating content and working together with other people next year!

Finally, FINALLY, had our opening night at Signal tonight, it took a lot of rushing around but finally the booklets were printed correctly and some of us gathered a little earlier in the Signal building and began cutting and stapling our heads off to get them ready by the opening time!

Just a quick picture to help remind me (stolen off FB)

Jordan just had a quick tutorial for us whilst Robbie was away!!

^^ Template given to us!! Forever grateful!!!!