Month: April 2022
Media Bodies Wk 7 – Smell
What sense did this week’s video and written text (Perfume) give you of what it might be like to be a body in the environment shown/described?
- Extremely descriptive language = heightened awareness of the embodied environment
- Being in the environment shown would be sickening and claustrophobic. The smell is depicted to be overpowering and lingering everywhere, making it feel as though there is no escape.
How did they do this? (What techniques did they use?)
- Video Clip = Descriptive narration, disturbing and gory imagery, unpleasant spot sounds of fish heads being slammed off as well as the sound of diseased insects crawling around on food being sold.
- Written text: Repetitive and descriptive writing
What are some of your ideas about the affordances of the different media modes? (What do the different types of media allow you to do with/for an audience, or for/with the story?)
- Video affordances = Able to visually depict the smell meaning that a descriptive narration isn’t always needed
- Written affordances = Able to describe the smellscape without distractions of visual movement
What is one idea or concept from the reading this week that interests you? Why does it interest you?
- ‘Many of the participants in this study equally remark on memory as a connotative and performative activity that significantly intersects with ritual sensations of unique “smellscapes” (cf. Porteous 2006: 91)’
- I find this really interesting, especially in relation to having an embodied experience. Certain smells cause people to feel nostalgic, and that feeling is thought of mentally but felt physically within the body. Trying to depict this through the media could be an indulging task.
Zoe’s A2 Reflection
DEVELOPMENT
Assignment 2 consists of 3 media works that focus on the embodied experiences of nostalgia, highlighting the comforts of having it and the discomforts of having it disrupted. I was attracted to this theme because it can be explored in many different ways. Some of the approaches could focus on how nostalgia influences our emotions, what senses ignite the feeling of nostalgia, is nostalgia a good feeling or a bad feeling? The three works, in presentation order, are titled ‘Tasteful Memories’ (week 5), ‘Coming Home’ (week 4) and ‘Being Home’ (week 6). All of the works focus on nostalgia however it is shown in different ways.
The order of the collection is important for a few reasons. The audio work that starts the collection gives the audience a good overview of what the feeling of nostalgia is.The auto piece follows Emma, the main character in each media work, through her life. It reflects how in many different situations, the special flavours, smells and feelings of a significant dish her mother makes offers her peace of mind and joy. ‘Tasteful Memories’ aims to highlight the physical embodied experience of nostalgia through food and flavours. The reason this dish also sets off a feeling of nostalgia is not because it tastes good and smells good, it is because the flavours and smells are significant to her childhood, a simpler, happier time in life.
In the next two media works, they were made to be played as a two part video, one after the other. ‘Coming Home’ focuses on the feeling of displacement in response to a change in physical nostalgia. Emma comes back to her family home after being away for a few years. She shows excitement to be back home, but once she is inside and notices the changes that have been made by renovations, she can’t help but feel lost and loss. ‘Being Home’ then plays and it aims to show how powerful the feeling of nostalgia can be through physical touch. Emma is reunited with her childhood teddy bear and she shares an intermittent moment of connection and comfort. After once feeling lost, the physical and mental connection to her childhood is regained, she is ready to be home and be present.
REFLECTION
On reflection, my assignment 1 works did not have a consistent or deliberate theme. Assignment 2 has been a more challenging yet exciting task. The challenge came from having to create a brand new theme to explore in a short period of time. The feeling of excitement came from having the opportunity to start fresh and allow my brain to be more direct and creative. Something that I did take away from my assignment 1 works was the power of contrast. Feedback from my peers indicated that by including a second or even third mood within my piece really helped to enhance the other moods. I noted this feedback and made sure that all of my pieces had a contrast of character moods. For example, in ‘Coming Home’, Emma is overjoyed to be back home, but once she realises that the nostalgic feel of her family home has changed due to renovations, her mood and emotions turn low. Emma’s low mood is heightened by the contrasting emotion of joy that was felt prior. This is a simple technique but a very effective one that worked well in all of my pieces.
Something in all of my works that didn’t meet my expectations was quality. By ‘quality’, I am referring to editing skills and equipment. I hope that I can further improve and develop my editing skills to the point where my content excludes unwanted background noise and flickering exposure. This does also come with learning to use higher quality equipment, camera and microphones. After watching Bertil Nilsson’s short film series ‘figures’ (2019), the most significant technique that I noted was the use of clear and precise audio. In all of his films, sound designer Angel Pérez Grandi creates a professional layering of audio work that heightens the senses of the body. For example, in ‘Figure 1 – Mario Español’, all of the movement that is made on the dirt surface is recorded with the absence of wind and animal noises. What we hear is just the noises made on the surface, representing the dancer’s concentration and peaceful mind, clear of distraction. We as viewers and listeners are influenced to understand the feeling that dance offers Mario as the sounds he can produce through his movement hold satisfaction. Nilsson’s works hold inspiration to the quality of work that I would like to produce.
An idea that stood out to me after reading Elizabeth R. Straughan’s article was how touch and space can bring calmness, even when you are not consciously touching something. The article is titled ‘Touched by the water – The body in scuba diving’ and it ‘explores embodied experience…in concert with textual qualities in water’ (Straughan, 2012, p25). Though in my work ‘Being Home’ I did not have my character emerge in water which then caused her to be calm, I did still use touch to influence that feeling and embodiment. When she feels the “textual quality” of her teddy’s fur and the weight of her bean filled feet, she enters a calm and peaceful state. This peaceful state reflects her feelings of nostalgia from a different time in her life.
Through the use of different kinds of media, audio and visual/video, I noticed that the audio work in the collection draws a different approach of time and place. It takes listeners on a time jump journey and allows them to indulge in the significance of the dish that Emma’s mum makes. Through the use of audio effects such as pitch adjustments, amplification and mastering, I was able to create a piece that could transform listeners from one body to another. It is more of an abstract piece rather than a typically standard, realistic video work. If this audio work was to be transformed into a visual piece, it would require a higher level of production and time, considering it explores different moments in Emma’s life, from the age of a toddler, to the age of marriage.
Despite the difference with time and place, I found a way to make all of my pieces work as one collection. Not only do they all explore the theme of nostalgia, but they also all include the same character, Emma. By using the same character in all of the pieces, I hope that the audience finds a connection with her and they are able to embody her experience of nostalgia through that connection. It was after reading Stephen Saville’s text ‘Playing with fear: Parkour and the mobility of emotions’ that I realised how difficult it can be to produce media work that places you in a state of embodiment. The reading made me remember a period of time where I was obsessed with watching parkour youtube videos. From that, the reader made me further reflect on how I felt as a viewer of these videos. I didn’t feel fearful and I didn’t have a crazy adrenaline rush, basically I wasn’t experiencing the same feelings as the freerunners, rather I felt envious that they had the skills and strength to perform the highly physical activity. Coming back to my initial point, it is important to know what media techniques invite audiences to feel a sense of embodiment, and then what techniques are used to distant them, it is a very fine line.
In relation, after reading ‘Food Making as a Thoughtful Practice’ by Lisa M. Heldke, I highlighted the idea that in order to cook well it is more important to have embodied knowledge than theoretical knowledge (1992). This is another idea that has a fine point of difference but draws a significant impact on how to represent an embodied experience through media.This idea reminded me that in my audio work, I must make sure to include sounds like sniffing and mouth tasting as well as the food being made, e.g sizzling, mixing and boiling. The reason behind this is because the audience should recognise that the dish being made is special and important to Emma because the only one who can make it is her mum. Her mum is definitely not making this dish and looking at a recipe, she is making it with her heart. I want the viewers to feel a sense of embodied knowledge, not just like they are listening to food being made.
I have really enjoyed the exploration of nostalgia and how it feels to embody that sentimental feeling. The state of experiencing nostalgia is not something that we have explored in class and I have found it interesting during my assignment two works. If I can, by making further works in a group setting, I would like to continue to grow my knowledge on how to represent the inner feeling of nostalgia through media.
WEEKLY BLOG POST LINKS:
- Media Bodies Wk 4 – Running and Proprioception
- Media Bodies Wk 5 – Taste and Cooking
- Media Bodies Wk 6 – Stillness and Touch
REFERENCE LIST:
Heldke, L. M. 1992. ‘Foodmaking as a Thoughtful Practice’. In Curtin. D. W. and Heldke. L. M. (eds) Cooking, eating, thinking: transformative philosophies of food. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 203-229.
‘Figure 1 – Mario Español’ (2019) Bertil Nilsson [Video] Place distributed: https://vimeo.com/316555200
Saville, S. J. 2008. Playing with fear: Parkour and the mobility of emotion. Social and Cultural Geography, 9(8). 891-914.
Straughan, E. R. 2012. Touched by water: The body in scuba diving. Emotion, Space and Society, 5(1), 19-26
Media Bodies Wk 6 – Stillness and Touch
A synopsis on ‘Being Home’
- The video work ‘Being Home’ is a second part to the video work ‘Coming Home’. ‘Being Home’ captures a moment between Emma (main character), her mum and her childhood teddy.
- When Emma holds her teddy for the first time, she transitions into a peaceful state which is shown through her gentle touches and connection with her teddy.
- Whilst Emma has her intimate moment with the teddy, the footage is recorded on a dated video camera. This is done to highlight the age of the connection between Emma and her teddy, influencing the importance of nostalgic feelings.
A few notes about what you felt worked well and not so well about this piece
- What I liked about this week’s work was that I was able to easily make a second part to my first video piece in week 4. I struggled in assignment one to make a connection between my three works, but now for assignment two I have more confidence and have more pride in my work.
- Something that could be improved with this work however are some of the camera angles. Although I purpose all of my shots, in post production I have noticed that a couple of shots look like they have accidentally cut the top off heads. Next time, if I don’t want the focus on faces, then I should totally cut them out, rather than half doing it.
Re-watch/listen to one of the media examples from class – Do we get a sense of what it’s like to be in the body that’s depicted?
Jan Švankmajer (1983) ‘Descendo Até o Porão (Down to the Cellar)’ [Short film: 15min] Place of distribution:
- In Jan Švankmajer’s short film ‘Down to the Cellar’, a sense of embodiment is felt through the character of the little girl.
- Usually when I watch creepy films, my heart will beat faster and I will feel uneasy. As I watched ‘Down to the Cellar’, I found that I wasn’t so scared, and could watch without squinting.
- The reason for this is because the little girl was not showing signs of being extremely afraid. Her movement was steady, but somewhat confident. Švankmajer heightened the sense of being in the body of the little girl but using close up shots and spot sounds.
- Some close up shots were of her foot movement, and the spot sounds of her contact with the ground influenced the confidence feeling that I mentioned earlier. Her steps were not scattered, they were steady and regular.
Shot list:
Key :
VC = taken on video camera
- outside, close up of Emma’s face, mum blurred in bg
- *Emma turns head
- mid close up on mum with teddy
- close up on Emma’s lips, she smiles
- mid shot of mum and Emma sitting down
- closeup of the passover
- VD (if i can) follow shot of Emma lifting teddy from lap to nose, she smells teddy
- VD Close up of teddy feet on Emmas lap
- Mid shot (left) *Emma is hugging teddy*
- LAST SHOT Mid shot (right) *focus on Emma’s face*
What’s one idea from the reading that you found useful or interesting? How did it influence the work you made this week?
- An idea that stood out to me after reading Elizabeth R. Straughan’s article was how touch and space can bring calmness, even when you are not consciously touch something.
- Although in my work for this week I did not have my character emerge in water which then caused her to be calm, I did still use touch to influence that feeling.
- When she feels the fur of her teddy and the weight of her bean filled feet, she enters a calm and peaceful state.
Media Bodies Wk 5 – Taste and Cooking
A synopsis on Tasteful Memories
- This audio work is titled ‘Tasteful Memories’ and it focuses on the relationship that Emma (main character) has with a dish that her mother has always prepared for her.
- The auto piece follows Emma through her life and reflects how in many different situations, the special flavours, smells and feelings of the dish bring her peace of mind and joy.
- ‘Tasteful Memories’ aims to highlight the physical embodied experience of nostalgia through food and flavours.
What worked well and what didn’t work quite so well
- What hasn’t been working so well with this piece is the fact that I don’t find it as engaging as other works I have made. I reflect on this before and after submission/final edit:
- Before: too repetitive, cooking sound effects don’t have a great rhythm, the whole piece is too long, more layering could be done but I am worried that I will complicate things, I want to add more edits to the V/Os but I am not familiar enough with Audition yet.
- After: I was able to get some feedback on my audio piece which was very helpful. I was told that the music I included in the piece was not needed at all and to tighten the transition sounds in the piece. This feedback was great, immediately after adjusting my work, it felt more engaging. As well, this weeks reading assisted in thinking further of sounds to include in my work that would create more of embodied experience for the audience.
What did using only audio allow you to do with the narrative that you may not have been able to do in the same way with a video work?
- The audio work allowed me to create more of an abstract piece, rather than a typically standard, realistic video work, like my Week 4 video.
- I am satisfied with my video work and like most of the elements of the piece, however I was relieved that this week’s audio exercise allowed me to practice other areas of skill.
What was one idea from the reading (either your own or something mentioned by someone else) that you found interesting? How might you make use of that idea in either this week’s media making exercise, or in future work?
- The reading, ‘Food Making as a Thoughtful Practice’(Heldke L.M, 1992), highlighted the idea that in order to cook well, it is more important to have embodied knowledge than theoretical knowledge (Heldke, 1992).
- The reason this idea stood out to me is because I have memories of watching my grandmother bake the most delicious cakes and never once look at a recipe. If I was ever to ask, ‘is it ready yet?’, she would simply say, ‘does it look ready?’, which of course as a young child, I would have no idea. Her embodied knowledge of how something looks, smells and tastes once finished has been built up over years of cooking.
- This idea reminded me that in my audio work for this week, I must make sure to include sounds like sniffing and mouth tasting as well as the food being made, e.g sizzling, mixing and boiling.
- I want the viewers to feel a sense of embodiment, not just like they are listening to food being made, but actually experiencing the process.