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:
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.