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:

 

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

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