Zoe’ A4 Reflection Post

NOSTALGIC TOUCH

Link to Group Website:

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/2022-media-bodies/category/zoe-filip-heidi/

‘Nostalgic Touch’ is the title of the short film that was created, directed and produced by myself, Heidi Iok Hei Lo, and Filip Kanzurovski. As a group we explored the theme of Nostalgia, and what it is to embody a nostalgic moment. Thinking and visualising a past memory is a mental experience, however a nostalgic moment is also a physical experience, the body is reacting to the mental process. We also came to a realisation that nostalgia is not always a sentimental and longing for feeling, as D.Waskul, P.Vannini and J.Wilson exclaim, ‘nostalgia today refers to a bittersweet emotion’ (2009,p.15). It can be unpleasant and undesirable to some, and it can be joyful and heartfelt to others. We looked into what can bring on nostalgic feelings and the way nostalgia can be felt by different people. Our research on nostalgia showed that this one topic has many interesting approaches. In a collaborative effort, we managed to create a short film that highlights three different nostalgic moments that have been brought upon by the same object, in the same place, and at the same time.

 

As a media student, I have always known that media works are used to make audiences feel a certain way. It could be to evoke feelings or deliver a message/idea, whatever it may be, media works are made to cause a reaction, and have purpose. Throughout this semester, learning about embodied experiences and feeling embodiment has grown my knowledge on how to produce work that captures the mind and body moving as one, as well as learning more about how audiences interpret emotions depicted in media. 

 

Although provided with many interesting and factual texts, I really benefited from watching and listening to different media examples. One that stayed with me is Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein’s grotesque short film ‘Balance’ (1989). I am not usually attracted to the dark and gothic aesthetic but the way that they were able to create a silent animated film that could showcase the emotions and motives of the characters was amazing. The pacing, the loud creaking sound effects, the colour scheme and the mystery made you feel on edge, which is precisely how the characters in the film were feeling.  This is what helped me in understanding audience interpretation of embodied experiences in media. Watching films like ‘Balance’ and then other more realistic clips showed how there are so many different ways you can produce work that captures an embodied experience.

 

I would like to continue to explore embodied experiences through media because I think that it can help to create meaningful and interesting content. It also allows people to gain knowledge and experiences through watching and listening. J.Allen highlights that ‘John M. Hull, in his diary on blindness, talks of sound as that which can illuminate a space.’(2019,p.64). John Hull is a man who gradually lost his sight at 45 years old and kept an audio diary of his experience with becoming blind. A film, ‘Notes on Blindness’(2016), was made based off of his journey and it included his real voice recordings. His in depth description and the way that visual and audio footage was used to depict what he could visualise from only being able to hear was marvellous. The techniques used were able to place viewers in his shoes and give insight into this unfortunate situation. Though the storyline played a major aspect in this film, the creation of the film from start to finish is what depicted Hull’s embodied experience. 

 

In exploring the many film techniques that there are, I hope to broaden my knowledge and skills of making mind-to-body works. As well the media world is continually growing and looking for new and unique ways of producing work.I need to remember Laura L. Ellingson’s idea that ‘Knowledge grounded in bodily experience encompasses uncertainty, ambiguity, and messiness in everyday life’ (2012, p.245). By reminding myself to produce media that has messy and uncertain storylines, I am bringing authenticity to “bodily experience”. I am also hopefully encompassing my own aesthetic within this ‘messiness’.

 

For our final work, I hope that we are able to communicate the relationship between memories and emotions, as well as the way the physical body reacts to the mental state. I want people to have a clear understanding of the embodiment that we are describing. I also want to know and understand their own experience. After visiting the NGV exhibition in week 8 of this semester, I gathered some ideas for our own exhibition. I noticed that I was more engaged with the works that had movement; a screen that displayed a moving image, something that hung and swung from the ceiling. I was also engaged with works that had bright colours and obscure patterns. What stood out to me the most was the works that involved audience participation. These artworks invited the audience to physically and mentally engage with it. For example, you would need to move around the room to see all of the shapes and dimensions that an assortment of wires could make. 

 

To include something interactive like this in our exhibition work, we decided to display the ball from ‘Nostalgic Touch’ in our exhibited piece. By doing this, we are inviting viewers to engage with the project and see if they share a nostalgic moment with the football just as the characters do in the short film. It is important to us that the audience feels involved and can find moments of relation to our work.

 

If ‘Nostalgic Touch’ was to screen on a larger scale or develop further in some way, the core things that I would want to focus on would be the storylines of the characters and the film aesthetic. I am proud of the work that we have made, and I do think that as a group we were able to create a piece that showed three diverse storylines. However, for our work to be taken to a higher popularity, it would be ideal to add more depth to all of the characters’ storylines. Furthermore, by having time to review the storylines side by side, a greater juxtaposition can be made, highlighting the difference and similarities between the characters to a greater extent. Viewing the short film multiple times, I do recognise that it is filmed at a university level. The aesthetic is leaning more on the basic side and I believe that with more time and high tech equipment, this piece could be more cinematic. Again, I am still proud of the work that myself and my group produced for our final assessment. 

 

Reflecting back on this semester and the collaboration that took place, there were definitely things that worked, and things that didn’t work. A highlight from collaborating with my A4 group members was the way we communicated with each other. I have had past experiences where people would just not show up and give no warning or reason for it. When our group first got together I made sure to voice to Filip and Heidi the importance of keeping in touch with each other via messenger group chat. I look through that group chat and am so happy with the detail that we communicated with. We were not bombarding each other with messages but we did inform each other of what work we had done, when we would do that work and how. 

I will say, when doing our collaborative work, I found that I had to make the big decisions and make sure that we stayed on track. I almost became in charge of coordinating the group, which part of me didn’t mind, however, it didn’t make the whole project feel like a group project, there was a lack of collaboration. I believe that this happened as a result of me wanting to stay super on top of the project with the time we had to do it. As well, studying part time allowed me to have a high focus on our exhibition work, whereas the others had multiple final assessments to work on. Moving forward, when working in group projects I need to take a step back and work on the same level as my group members so that I can learn to work the way others work. By doing this, I hope to broaden my skills and add to knowledge that I already have.

Links to Blog Posts:

Media Bodies Wk 9 – Pitch

Media Bodies Wk 10 – Texture

Media Bodies Wk 11 – Perspective

Media Bodies Wk 12 – Finishing Up

 

Bibliography:

• Allan, J. L. (2019). Foggy notion: Sound and weather, and the intermingled senses. SoundEffects – An Interdisciplinary Journal of Sound and Sound Experience, 8(1), 51–67.
• ‘Balance’ (1989) Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein. Material-Verlag [Short film] Place of distribution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PADVHR-_wOs 
• Ellingson, L. L. (2012). Embodied knowledge. In L. M. Given (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods (p. 245)
• ‘Notes on Blindness’, (2016) Peter Middleton and James Spinney. [Feature film]. [42:00-44:50] Place of distribution: https://rmit.kanopy.com/video/notes-blindness-0
• Waskul, D D, Vannini, P, & Wilson, J (2009) The Aroma of Recollection: Olfaction, Nostalgia, and the Shaping of the Sensuous Self, The Senses and Society, 4(1), 5-22. 

Media Bodies Wk 12 – Finishing Up

How did your group decide to set up their work on the exhibition and website? 

• My group decided to choose a screen to present our work that has a wall surrounding it. The reason for this is because we want to be able to present our poster, as well as three separate posters that represent the three emotions we are looking at. Displaying them on the wall next to the TV would be a good place.
• As well, we are going to use the football from our work as a live prop. Viewers can touch it themselves and think about their own personal experience with this object. This will also give them a stronger connection to the work and make them think about how they physically feel whilst experiencing a mental moment.

Why did you make these decisions? How did you hope this set up would complement or even enhance the themes you were exploring in your work?

• By displaying our posters next to the screen, we hope it can remind people of what our work is representing, the different experiences of emotions and nostalgia.
• Using the football in our presentation should influence the audience to feel included in the project and hopefully experience a nostalgic moment themselves.

What were some insights from the peer feedback session on your group’s work in progress in Thursday’s class?

• No need to include music, focus more on the atmospheric sounds. “It doesn’t feel like its missing music” – Kayla
• Make the cuts tighter between the character transitions.

Media Bodies Wk 11 – Perspective

Embed some or all of the sound and video footage from the week 11 exercise.

How did your group try to use perspective and/or depth of field in both the video footage and the sound footage?

• I was not able to complete this exercise myself, but by watching the footage taken by my group, I could still gather some new/interesting discoveries and ideas.
• Heidi and Filip chose to use a range of camera angles and recording distances to play on the depth and perspective that is presented.
• Something that stood out to me was the audio footage. Each of the recordings made me feel a different way, even though all of the recordings were of Filip speaking on the phone. The reason behind this is because of the way the sound was recorded. For example, one sound was recorded at a distance to the microphone, you could hear Filips conversation faintly, but could still hear what he was saying. I felt as though I was eavesdropping on his conversation. Whereas, another sound was recorded closer to the microphone, Filip’s voice was loud and clear. This felt like I was positioned as the microphone of the phone, as though I was meant to listen to what he was saying.

• What are the next steps for your group work following the consults in class on Thursday?

• In Thursday’s class we had a great consultation with Sophie. Our main concern after filming the interview section of our project was that it may not be exploring the characters’ embodied experience enough.
• Sophie provided us with advice on creating useful b-roll. These are the notes that I wrote down:
  
  Notes taken by Zoe Anderton 19/05/2002

• The next step for our group is to create a B-roll shot list for our filming on Sunday. To do this we all need to do at least a rough edit of our interview sections of the project then we will be able to feel the emotions of our characters and see what b-roll would be most fitting.

Media Bodies Wk 10 – Texture

What was some of the feedback or ideas from the other group on your group’s weekly exercise footage?

• Feedback that we received was that it was difficult to pair the video and audio works together. We recorded the video footage with the absence of touching the surfaces with our bodies, we recorded establishing shots more so. In future, when wanting to record particular sounds to add to a video shot, listen to the video audio first and see if there are more realistic sounds that can be enhanced.

How might your group make use of texture in either video or sound in the media work you are making for assignment 4?

• We are using a football in our project that has the purpose of bringing on childhood memories and experience. We are going to have close up shots on the football which will show the texture of the ball, inviting viewers to feel the texture of the ball themselves and think about how this object, the ball, makes them feel.

What was one idea from this week’s reading that you found interesting? How might this apply to the work your group is making?

Mol, A. and Law, J. (2004) ‘Embodied Action, Enacted Bodies: the Example of Hypoglycaemia’, Body & Society. Sage PublicationsLondon, 10(2–3), pp. 43–62

• At the end of the paper they talk about ‘jagged storylines’ (not smooth and singular) – this is how we should tell stories, go through the emotions of a character, show the obstacles they face and how they face them

What are your group’s next steps for making towards assignment 4?

• Our next step is to create a shot list document that we will fill out for our project, with the thought of texture in our minds

In Thursday’s class:

How did you document the texture in each medium?

• Brown Chair footage = moving close up shot with a hold at the end, capturing and zooming into the textured rips and tears of the chair.
• Curtain footage = tilted shot, hitting the light reflecting on the curtains which highlights the texture of the curtain. You can see when the light hits the curtain, it has

What do you notice about the textures in the footage?

• The texture of the brown chair could be soft, squishy and worn
• The texture of the curtain could be rough

What does the visual footage do with texture? 

• Tells that it has been there for a long time as it is worn 

• A lot of people have been sitting on, also shows that the chair is comfy 
• Through the use of lighting we can visually see the threading of the curtains and how the material would feel, light and zippy. 

What does sound footage do with texture? 

• Enhance the emotion and mood that the texture is representing as well as its history
• The audio work of the chair sounds aggressive which is totally different from the video work of it which shows the audience a chair that has been used by many people and that must mean it is welcoming and comfortable…not aggressive
• The audio work and video work of the curtain give the same emotions. It creates a rough feeling when we listen and watch the audio and video works of it

What about it does it capture? 

• It was hard to tell what the texture was from the audio work in relation to the brown chair, however, both audio works (for the brown chair) were able to give a textured sound, regardless of if it partnered with the chair.

What does it tell you about the environment and the body/ies within that environment? 

• Brown chair = A lot of people have sat on this chair and it has been at the university for longer than some of the other non ripped chairs. It could have possibly been a favoured chair when it was new.
• Curtain = The curtain has the appearance of a more modern curtain, as it has little to no tears or marks that it’d otherwise have if it were older.

What are the challenges and opportunities for documenting texture with each medium?

• Within audio, it becomes a challenge to properly depict the texture of a specific when the knowledge of what that object is will not be immediately available. However, when made apparent as to what it is (either through narration or prior knowledge), audio allows for a listener to be immersed in what the touch of the object may feel like. The sounds that an object makes characterises its surface and how it may feel, which in turn gives the listener an idea of what that texture may be like
• Within videos, sometimes a visual alone isn’t enough when attempting to display an object’s texture. Depending on aspects while filming such as the lighting or how the object is being touched, it may not capture the mood that one is going for while filming. However, one opportunity that a video gives you is that it allows you to display a multitude of interactions with the object, mainly in touching it in various ways. This allows for context in how each interaction individually simulates a different reaction from the object itself, allowing for a diverse array of characteristics.

Media Bodies Wk 9 – Pitch

What things need to be considered when working collaboratively? (Hint: refer to how your group approached the group collaborative agreement.)

• Communication is the absolute key. It is important that everyone is on the same page and is clear on what needs to be done moving through each part of the project.
• Time management is another very important factor when it comes to working in a group as well as individually. With consistent and clear communication, room for mistakes and duplication is narrowed greatly.
• A fair distribution of work.

How do you think your group might consolidate some of the feedback and suggestions from the pitch session? How might this help develop your group’s work?

• After our presentation we received immediate feedback. I made sure to note almost all of what we were told.
• One point that we really focused on was that we may be exploring too much in our work. We talked about exploring the positive and negative feelings of nostalgia, as well as what triggers those feelings and the reasons why. 
• The feedback in relation to this was that we could possibly do more collection works that can cover more areas of our theme ‘nostalgia’, or, we should focus on one or two ideas of nostalgia with less collection works.
• In order to consolidate this, we needed to weigh up whether it would be worth making more content in order to cover the topics that we discovered, or if it would be better to concentrate more on one or two of our topics.
• What helped us make this decision was by looking at our schedules and what time frames we would have to film. After doing this we realised that with the limited time we had, the best option would be to narrow our approach on the project. We can now try and film over one or two days for our whole project whilst exploring our theme in narrowed depth. We are also able to create a stronger piece that highlights the embodied experience of nostalgia.
• Our previous ideas and ways we wanted to conduct our project was going to be quite messy and lack specificity. With the approach that we will take, the project should develop into a creative and fascinating presentation.